Hi,
I'd like to see a means by which Mediawiki can communicate with other wikis, Mediawiki or otherwise, and for that matter blogs and discussion forums, with a type of linkback (pingback, trackback and/or refback) system (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linkback for overview) for sharing page or category information. The system might be open/blacklist (good luck with the spam) or white-list based.
Given the more transient yet abiding nature of wikis, it might be helpful to propose/implement an extension to the pingback/trackback specifications which allows for the "undoing" of a link, but otherwise I think the specifications ought to be sufficient (not to mention interoperable with existing blogs, etc.): http://www.hixie.ch/specs/pingback/pingback or http://www.movabletype.org/documentation/trackback/specification.html .
USE CASES (RECEIVING)
- A simple enhancement to "What links here" backlink pages, allowing the external sites to be accessible in this more subtle (but potentially more exhaustive and extensible) fashion.
(The remaining cases may be even more requiring of whitelist approaches where a finite number of sites are envisioned, though with a possibility for different sites to perhaps be put in a request queue, where they request to be added as an allowable site.)
- Topic-sensitive Web Ring where wiki article pages can link to the same article on another wiki, blog, or discussion forum.
- A category aggregator wiki whose category pages can be allowed to include automated links to category pages from different wikis, blogs, or discussion forums, with orange-colored links or omissions in place of correspondingly non-existent categories: a) Extra automated information on the page: "Visit this Foo category at the ABC wiki", "Visit this Foo category at the QQQ blog", "Visit this Foo category at the JKL discussion forum" b) Embedded subcategories: "Foo subcategory1 (ABC wiki)", "Foo subcategory2 (XYZ wiki)", etc. c) Embedded article: "Bar article1 (ABC wiki)", "Bar article2 (XYZ wiki)", etc.
USE CASES (SENDING)
- Ability for external URLs to be added to wikis which facilitate formal pingbacks/trackbacks at the targeted site, allowing them to link back to the wiki in a manner more trustworthy than refbacks.
Thanks!
Version: unspecified
Severity: enhancement