OpenJournal:Helping out: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 10:28, 11 September 2026

Contributing and helping

OpenJournal is ran by volunteers. It is mostly self sustained and thankfully requires minimal interference.

That said, there are a few ways you can help out:

Mirror the website

Mirroring the website on a separate host is one of the best things you can do. It decentralises OpenJournal, reduces our server loads and makes everyone's writings available in more places

Take a copy of the website

Taking a snapshot of the website at a point in time is helpful for data archiving purposes. The database dump is refreshed daily.

Spread the word

The more people that are aware of and use OpenJournal the better. This will hopefully encourage more mirrors, backups and good will gestures.

Download the database

If you'd like to host this website elsewhere or just keep a copy for your own records, you can do so here:

Download the database dump

You can read more on the inner workings at Wikipedia's database download page

How to import it

If you are running your own instance of MediaWiki, you can load it via the interface:

through the browser, at Special:Import -- or
from the command line: php maintenance/run.php importDump openjournal-latest.xml.gz

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-openjournal is nothing but MediaWiki, wikitext and Apache configuration -- every
+== Contributing and helping ==
-article on this site can leave with you.
+OpenJournal is ran by volunteers. It is mostly self sustained and thankfully requires minimal interference.
+That said, there are a few ways you can help out:
+===  Mirror the website ===
+Mirroring the website on a separate host is one of the best things you can do. It decentralises OpenJournal, reduces our server loads and makes everyone's writings available in more places
+=== Take a copy of the website ===
+Taking a snapshot of the website at a point in time is helpful for data archiving purposes. The database dump is refreshed daily.
+=== Spread the word ===
+The more people that are aware of and use OpenJournal the better. This will hopefully encourage more mirrors, backups and good will gestures.
 == Download the database ==
+If you'd like to host this website elsewhere or just keep a copy for your own records, you can do so here:
 <div class="oj-download">
@@ Line 8: / Line 25: @@
 </div>
-That is a standard '''MediaWiki XML export''' -- the same format
+You can read more on the inner workings at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database%20download Wikipedia's database download page]
-[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_download Wikipedia's own public
-dumps] use. It carries every article and every revision, attributed by username.
-It does '''not''' carry passwords, email addresses, or anything else about accounts
--- that is the whole reason this format exists, separately from a raw database
-backup, and it is why it is safe to download and pass around.
-It is a snapshot, refreshed by hand rather than live, so it can lag behind the
-site by a while. If you want the current moment instead of the last snapshot, the
-[[OpenJournal:API|API]] reads straight from the live wiki.
-== What to do with it ==
+== How to import it ==
-Anyone running their own MediaWiki can load the file directly:
+If you are running your own instance of MediaWiki, you can load it via the interface:
 * through the browser, at '''Special:Import''' -- or
 * from the command line: <code>php maintenance/run.php importDump openjournal-latest.xml.gz</code>
-Either way you end up with your own copy of every article here, on your own wiki,
-under your own control. Nothing about openjournal is required to read it further
-than that.
-== Anything else ==
-This page exists because someone asked for exactly this: a way to take the data
-and go. If there is a different kind of help that would actually be useful --
-writing, fixing something, saying what is missing -- '''Discussion''' on this page
-reaches whoever maintains the site.