MATHCAPTCHA PLUGIN FOR MEDIAWIKI

1. Overview
2. Requirements
3. Installing the plugin
4. Customising captcha behaviour
5. Change log
6. Feedback
7. References

== 1. Overview ==

The MathCaptcha plugin is an alternative captcha[1] mechanism which can
be used in conjunction with the ConfirmEdit extension[2] to provide a
more convenient means of blocking or throttling automated editing.

The method used to generate the captcha images, and the formatting of
said images, means that the captchas will not, at this time, defeat a
tool which is designed to break them; however, casual mass-registration
or mass-spamming attempts will be dissuaded.

== 2. Requirements ==

The plugin requires

* Working support for TeX within MediaWiki (using the standard TexVC
  software)[3]
* ConfirmEdit extension

== 3. Installing the plugin ==

Check the plugin out from Subversion[4] (and check out the ConfirmEdit
extension, if you don't have it installed) and place the files in your
extensions/ directory, within your wiki root.

Edit LocalSettings.php and add the following lines near the bottom of the
file, above the closing ?> tag:

	require_once( 'extensions/ConfirmEdit.php' );
	require_once( 'extensions/MathCaptcha.php' );
	$wgCaptchaClass = 'MathCaptcha';
	
This installs ConfirmEdit and instructs it to use the MathCaptcha plugin.
The default settings for ConfirmEdit are used. At this point, no further
action is required to have the plugin work for user registration or edits
which add new external links to a page.

== 4. Customising captcha behaviour ==

A number of settings relating to the ConfirmEdit extension can be used to alter
the attitude of the captcha, including those actions for which it appears,
users who do not have to pass a captcha, etc. See the ConfirmEdit.php file for
information on this.

As an example, to throw a captcha for all edits, add the following line to
LocalSettings.php:

	$wgCaptchaTriggers['edit'] = true;

== 5. Change log ==

12/06/2006
1.0
	Initial release

== 6. Feedback ==

Feedback on the MathCaptcha plugin is welcomed at <robchur@gmail.com>. To report bugs
with the ConfirmEdit extension, please use http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org.

== 7. References ==

i. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha
ii. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/ConfirmEdit
iii. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Enable_TeX
iv. http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Subversion