MediaWiki
How to Use This Wiki
Creating a New Page
The simplest way to create a page is via the URL:
- Go to your browser's address bar
- Type:
https://wiki.gi7b.org/index.php/Your_Page_Name - MediaWiki will show "this page does not exist"
- Click the Create tab at the top
- Write your content and click Save page
Use underscores for spaces in page names. The title displays with spaces automatically.
Subpages
To create a page that belongs to a section, use a slash in the name:
https://wiki.gi7b.org/index.php/Open_Source/My_New_Guide
This creates My_New_Guide as a subpage of Open_Source. MediaWiki automatically adds a breadcrumb link back to the parent page.
Linking to Pages
Inside any wiki page, link to another page using double brackets:
[[Page Name]][[Page Name|Display Text]]
External links:
[https://example.com Display Text]
Formatting Reference
| Markup | Result |
|---|---|
== Heading == |
Level 2 heading |
=== Subheading === |
Level 3 heading |
'''bold''' |
Bold text |
''italic'' |
Italic text |
# item |
Numbered list item |
* item |
Bullet list item |
[[Page]] |
Internal link |
[https://url Text] |
External link |
<code>text</code> |
Inline code |
<pre>block</pre> |
Preformatted code block |
<s>text</s> |
Strikethrough |
Embedding Media
Images and GIFs
Upload files first via Special:Upload. Then embed using the [[File:...]] syntax.
| Markup | Effect |
|---|---|
[[File:photo.png]] |
Full-size image, inline |
[[File:photo.png|thumb|Caption here]] |
Thumbnail with caption, floats right |
[[File:photo.png|300px]] |
Fixed width |
[[File:photo.png|center|500px|Caption]] |
Centred, fixed width, with caption |
[[File:animation.gif|thumb|My gif]] |
Animated GIF — plays automatically, same syntax as images |
Supported upload formats: PNG, JPG, GIF, SVG, WebP (depending on server config). GIFs animate in place with no extra steps.
Tip: To link to the file's description page without embedding it, use a colon prefix: [[:File:photo.png|link text]]
Diagrams
There is no diagram extension installed on this wiki. The current options are:
- Upload as an image
- Create your diagram in any tool (draw.io, Excalidraw, LibreOffice Draw, Inkscape), export as PNG or SVG, and upload via Special:Upload. SVG scales cleanly at any size.
- ASCII diagram in a code block
- For simple flow diagrams, use a
<syntaxhighlight lang="text">block:
[Input] --> [Process] --> [Output]
|
v
[Error handler]
- Install an extension (admin)
- The Mermaid extension adds code-block-based diagram syntax for flowcharts, sequence diagrams, Gantt charts, and more. Once installed, diagrams are written in fenced blocks and rendered automatically.
YouTube Videos
The EmbedVideo extension is not currently installed on this wiki. Without it, YouTube links display as plain clickable links only:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID Watch the video]
To enable YouTube embedding (admin action): Install the EmbedVideo extension. Once installed, embed a video with:
{{#ev:youtube|VIDEO_ID}}
Or with custom dimensions:
{{#ev:youtube|VIDEO_ID|640x360}}
The video ID is the part after ?v= in the YouTube URL. For example, in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK2z_UimUls the ID is QK2z_UimUls.
Admin: Special Pages
Special Pages are system-generated pages for administration and maintenance. Access them at Special:SpecialPages or via the sidebar.
Account Management
| Page | What it does |
|---|---|
| Special:CreateAccount | Create a new user account manually |
| Special:UserRights | Assign or remove user groups (e.g. promote a user to sysop/admin) |
| Special:ListUsers | Browse all registered accounts and their groups |
| Special:Block | Block a user or IP address from editing |
| Special:Unblock | Reverse a block |
| Special:ChangeCredentials | Change your own password or credentials |
| Special:PasswordReset | Send a password reset to a user's email |
Content & Files
| Page | What it does |
|---|---|
| Special:Upload | Upload images, GIFs, and other files |
| Special:ListFiles | Browse all uploaded files |
| Special:AllPages | Browse every page on the wiki |
| Special:RecentChanges | See all recent edits across the wiki |
| Special:Nuke | Mass-delete pages by a user (useful after spam) |
Maintenance
| Page | What it does |
|---|---|
| Special:Statistics | Page count, edit count, user count |
| Special:Version | MediaWiki version and installed extensions |
| Special:Interwiki | Manage interwiki link prefixes |
| Special:Log | Unified log of all admin actions (blocks, deletions, rights changes) |
To access admin-only special pages your account must be in the sysop group. Assign this via Special:UserRights.
Naming Conventions on This Wiki
Pages on this wiki follow a Topic-YYMMDD naming convention where the date identifies when the page was created or the work was done. Example: Claude_Code_Isolation_and_Burner_Workflow_260211.
Section index pages (this page, Open_Source, Repositories, etc.) are the exception — they have short, stable names with no date.
Further Reading
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