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UseModWiki

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Original synthesis to sit alongside the encyclopedia article below. Not part of Wikipedia; verify facts on Wikipedia when precision matters.

UseModWiki is an open-source wiki engine developed by Clifford Adams using the Perl programming language. It evolved from earlier wiki projects including CVWiki and AtisWiki, and is distinguished by storing all page content directly on the server's filesystem without requiring a dedicated database management system. It served as the standard wiki platform for all language versions of Wikipedia during the project's early growth period before being succeeded by MediaWiki.

Key moments

  • 2000-01-22Initial public release, version 0.7
  • 2000-06-18Version 0.8 released
  • 2000-07-15Version 0.82 released
  • 2000-08-26Version 0.86 released
  • 2000-10-12Version 0.88 released
  • 2000-12-24Version 0.90 released
  • 2001-02-16Version 0.91 released
  • 2001-04-21Version 0.92 released
  • 2003-09-12Version 1.0 released
  • 2007-07-09Version 1.01 released
  • 2007-08-26Version 1.02 released
  • 2007-09-12Version 1.03 released
  • 2007-12-01Version 1.04 released
  • 2009-08-28Final stable version 1.05 released

Historical Role in Wikipedia's Development

UseModWiki was a foundational tool for Wikipedia's early years, powering all its language editions before the Wikimedia Foundation built MediaWiki to meet the project's growing scaling needs. Its lightweight, low-resource design made it accessible for early volunteer contributors to run wiki sites on diverse server environments, supporting the rapid early expansion of the global Wikipedia network.

Core Technical Characteristics

A key hallmark of UseModWiki is its absence of database dependencies, with every wiki page stored as an individual file on the host server. It supports automatic CamelCase linking, requires no extra Perl modules to operate, and supports multi-language displays via simple configuration tables. Its single-file deployment structure also makes it quick and easy to set up for small-scale wiki projects.

Current Legacy

No major updates have been released for UseModWiki since the 2009 launch of version 1.0.5, and it has been largely superseded by more modern wiki platforms like MediaWiki. However, it remains an important historical example of early, accessible wiki software that helped demonstrate the potential of collaborative online content creation.

UseModWiki is a wiki software written in Perl and licensed under the GNU General Public License. Pages in UseModWiki are stored in ordinary files, not in a relational database.[3] Wikipedia projects in English and many other languages were powered by UseModWiki until switching to MediaWiki.

History

In the 1990s, Clifford Adams initiated the Usenet Moderation project that would allow users to share rating, editing, and eventually summary/change information about Usenet postings.[4] It was replaced by the concept of wikis in 1999, and the development of UseModWiki started on October 11 as a simplified fork of the WikiWikiWeb clone AtisWiki. From version 0.4 ("WikiFour") in November 1999, more functions and improvements were introduced to UseModWiki.[5] In 2000, the second UseModWiki website MeatballWiki was launched and hosted in usemod.com, along with the official website of UseModWiki.

In 2001, as Adams was both of the UseModWiki developer and a Wikipedian, he brought many improvements for the usages of an encyclopedia to v0.91 and v0.92, especially "free links" that uses double square-brackets (e.g., ) as an option for linking to another page, supplementing the older functionality of using camel case.[6][2] In September 2003, after two years of development from the previous version, the release of version 1.0 introduced many new features including CSS, RSS, file uploads, UTF-8.[7]

The development was then halted, and a cross-site scripting vulnerability (CVE-2004-1397) was discovered in December 2004.[8][9] It was patched in July 2007 when Markus Lude took over the project of UseModWiki from Clifford Adams, with the release of version 1.0.1. Only bug fixing versions were released since that.[5] The official domain was moved to usemod.org in late September 2023, and a minor update for that change was released later in November.[10]

Use by Wikipedia

The wiki software for the English Wikipedia was UseModWiki (phase I, retroactively) since the establishment on January 15, 2001, and as of January 2002, Wikipedias in 22 languages were powered by UseModWiki.[11] The English edition switched to "the PHP script" (phase II) on January 25, 2002, a new wiki software based on UseModWiki but rewritten in PHP. On July 20, "the PHP script" was then replaced by its own rewritten wiki software (phase III), currently known as MediaWiki, for better performance and functionality.

Other language editions gradually switched to MediaWiki afterwards, and as of late 2003, only a few active editions including Catalan Wikipedia were still powered by UseModWiki.[12] In 2004, the last-remaining UseModWiki editions switched to MediaWiki.[13]

See also

External links

References

  1. Shlomi Fish. Which Open Source Wiki Works For You? ONLamp.com, O'Reilly Media, 2004-11-04^
  2. Sumana Harihareswara, Guillaume Paumier. The Architecture of Open Source Applications retrieved 2024-11-24^
  3. Keith R. Fieldhouse. Introducing UseModWiki Linux.com, 2005-04-04, retrieved 2024-11-24^
  4. WhyUseMod UseModWiki, retrieved 8 November 2023^
  5. UseModWiki/History UseModWiki, retrieved 8 November 2023^
  6. UseModWiki/OldVersions UseModWiki, retrieved 8 November 2023^
  7. NewFeatures UseModWiki, retrieved 8 November 2023^
  8. CVE-2004-1397 CVE, 2005-02-12, retrieved 28 March 2023^
  9. Wikipedia: HomePage Jimmy Wales, retrieved 28 March 2023^
  10. UseMod Wiki: UseModWiki UseModWiki, retrieved 8 November 2023^
  11. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia Bomis, 24 January 2002, retrieved 25 June 2021^
  12. Wikipedia: HomePage Catalan Wikipedia, 13 November 2003, retrieved 2 April 2023^
  13. Wikipedia software upgrade status^