...and I really think you're way, way too hung up on the idea of writing a newspaper interface from scratch. I am 95% convinced that the Wikilog extension and a little bit of Wiki-fu will do everything we want on that front.
It still requires people to learn the wiki syntax and fiddle around with templates that break your entire page if you forget one } anywhere. That is the problem. I'm sure that technically you can coerce MediaWiki into doing what we need, but it will never be beautiful nor easy to use.
BM really could use some parts that are 21st century. Visual appeal is what draws people in. The newspapers could be something really cool to make new players interested. If you implement something from scratch, you can do magic like this:
Try out these demos and then tell me you wouldn't take those any day over fiddling with
{{Usr|Tom}}}}|author = {{Usr|Indirik}}}}{{TattleLeft|date = May 21, 2010|title = Server Status.
You and I are coders, Tim. We don't mind the wiki syntax, but you'll have to agree that with complex templating, it is sometimes a bit confusing even to us. Now imagine the 95% of players who are NOT coders.
I am trying to get the barrier-to-entry down, so more people can participate in newspapers, that's all. People desire the local forums, mostly because they are EASY places to exchange stuff. But they are OOC as hell. A newspaper could be made an in-game item. And yes, they would be propaganda rags. That would be the whole beauty: If your enemy publishes one, you can't reply (not a forum) - but you can start your own.
