About the Askmonty.org Knowledgebase

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The AskMonty Knowledgebase is a repository for all MariaDB related information as well as information about MySQL®.

Currently only specific individuals can create and edit articles, but in the near future it will be opened up to wider community participation. However, any user can ask a question that we will attempt to answer.

Purpose

The AskMonty Knowledgebase exists to document and answer frequently asked questions (FAQs) about MariaDB and MySQL.

The Knowledgebase serves as the primary documentation for the open source database MariaDB. Where possible, all content is dual-licensed under the Creative Commons By Attribution Share Alike clause, and the GFDL. Some content (e.g. the content from the MariaDB source code and man pages) is used and licensed under the terms of the GPLv2. [1]

It is laid out in a tree structure. When a user has a question, they are encouraged to navigate the Knowledgebase tree to where they think the answer should be. If the answer is not there, the user can ask a question from that page. If the answer exists somewhere else in the Knowledgebase, the answer to the question is linked to the page the user went to. If the answer doesn't exist, members of the MariaDB community answer it. The answer to the user's question will then be in a good (and hopefully logical) location ready for the next time a user visits the Knowledgebase with the same question.

The goal is for the Knowledgebase to be a replacement for Forums, Email lists (when asking for help), a Bug system, FAQ, and the MySQL / MariaDB manual.

How it works

As a deterrent against anonymous trolling, an account is required to be able to post questions. You can either create one here at the AskMonty Knowledgebase, or login using any OpenID provider you have an account with (e.g. launchpad.net, myOpenID, and others...).

How to ask a question

Once logged in, go to any category and look to your right to see the big Ask a question here option. Ask a question and you will get an answer usually within 48-hours.

You can also read an article and add a comment. As with asking questions, you will have to be logged in with an account to do so.

How to contribute articles to the Knowledgebase

Currently only specific individuals can create and edit articles. When we are ready to open this up, we will make a note of it here.

Basically, to edit and create articles you need editing privileges and there is no easy way to enable this at present. It is part of our development plans, but has not been implemented yet. For now, if you need editing privileges, send an email to kb-admin [at] askmonty (dot) org.

Some style notes

English (US) is the preferred variant of the English to use when writing articles for the Knowledgebase.

This does not mean that we believe the content should only be available in English. We are working on a translation infrastructure for the Knowledgebase, and would like the content to be available in as many languages as possible. However, so that we can verify the accuracy of a new article, it first needs to be written in English.

Back story

Why is it called the AskMonty Knowledgebase? Quite simply this is because the creator of the MySQL database is Michael Widenius, and his nickname for the longest time has been Monty. So the Knowledgebase is a way to ask Monty questions and get answers. Monty spends most of his time on MariaDB development, but he takes time out from his busy schedule to answer questions and write articles here. Other Monty Program developers also contribute to the Knowledgebase on a regular basis.

Notes

  1. Learn more about how licensing in the knowledgebase works.

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