About the Askmonty.org Knowledgebase
Contents
The AskMonty Knowledgebase is a repository for all MariaDB related information as well as information about MySQL®.
Anyone can start contributing right away by either registering for a new account by logging in with an existing OpenID. Once you are logged in you can ask questions, edit pages, or create new pages. See the How it Works section (below) to get started.
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, edit pages, and contribute new articles. 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 add comments to articles. As with asking questions, you will have to be logged in with an account to do so.
The knowledgebase is not an appropriate place to ask about purchasing support for MariaDB. Instead, please use the Monty Program Ab contact page.
How to contribute articles to the Knowledgebase
Creating articles is similar to asking questions. First, navigate to the category where you feel the article should be. Once there, double check that an article doesn't already exist that would work. It is usually better to improve an existing article (if possible) than to create a new one.
If you determine that a new article is needed, click on the "Create Article" button. If you are logged in and you don't see that button, you are probably viewing an article, not a category. In which case, you need to use the breadcrumbs near the top of the page to navigate up to the parent category.
If you decide to just edit an existing article, click on the "Edit" button.
Articles are formatted in the Creole markup language. The Editing Help page has information on the various supported tags and macros. If you are familiar with mediawiki or other wikis, you should have no trouble getting up to speed with Creole.
When you are finished editing an article, please add a revision comment, this will help our editors as they review edits.
When editing an article, or creating a new one, you can select whether to subscribe to it. When you are subscribed to an article you will receive an email every time the page is updated. To unsubscribe from a page, click on the Edit button, uncheck the subscribe box and click Save.
How to Translate Knowledgebase Articles
We're currently working on adding multiple language support to the Knowledgebase. For now, if you want to translate any articles, please join the maria-docs group on Launchpad and send them to the maria-docs email list.
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.
Implementation
The KB is written in Django with a MariaDB backend. The KB code is planned to be released as GPL as soon as it's stabilizes.
