how to set the main page on a Mediawiki wiki

In default Mediawiki installations, the main page has a very ugly heading at the top that reads:

Main page

Surely, you would prefer to have a slightly more relevant title introducing your wiki to the world. Fortunately, the solution is easy.

what's happening

You need to understand, before continuing, that the page on your wiki called "Main page" is not special. It is just an ordinary page on your wiki that behaves like any other normal page. In addition to having a stupid name, it just happens to also be the first page your wiki goes to. In other words, your Mediawiki configuration simply thinks that your wiki's main landing page is a page called "Main page".

how to change it

What you need to do is re-educate your wiki by telling it where your real main page is. This parameter is kept in a special Mediawiki configuration page called "Mediawiki:Mainpage".

All we have to do is edit this special page and change the setting.

1. Go to your wiki's current (lame) main page, which is called "Main Page".
2. Use the Move tab to change your main page's name to the name you prefer.
3. When the page refreshes, you'll see a parenthetical "Redirected from" message below the page's title. Click on the Main Page link to visit the redirection page.
4. Click on the "Edit" link.
5. Locate the title parameter in the URL.
6. Replace this with "Mediawiki:Mainpage". Confirm that the new URL should look something like this:

   http://sharkysoft.com/wiki/index.php?title=Mediawiki:Mainpage&action=edit

7. Load new URL. You should see an editor for the special page, with no contents other than the name of your current main page.
8. Replace the content with the title of your improved main page.
9. Press Save page.

That's it! You're done. If you want to keep your wiki tidy, you should also go back to your old "Main Page" article and delete it. If you've already added content to your old main page, you may also want to