Help:Namespaces

A namespace is a way of separating types of content in a wiki; groups of pages with similar purposes can be grouped together, and can be searched and listed separately from each other. Each page belongs to exactly one namespace.

The namespace of a page is indicated by the word preceding the colon in the page title. For example, "User talk:Pagename" is a page in the "User talk" namespace. If there is no prefix (or the prefix does not match an existing namespace) the page belongs to the "Main" namespace of that wiki.

Custom namespaces can be created in a wiki if the standard ones do not meet the needs of that Wikia project.

Namespaces are used for the following reasons:


 * allow separation of wiki content from help and policy pages about the creation of content;
 * allow separation of different kinds of unrelated content;
 * allow control of which content is indexed by search engines;
 * provide some special features related to the namespace's intended purpose;
 * provide facilities to limit searches to a particular area;
 * allow easy exporting.

What namespaces do all wikis have?
By default, every wiki has 18 namespaces, and 2 special namespaces. Custom namespaces can also be created.

What are the basic namespaces?
The Main namespace or article namespace (i.e., ns:0) is the informational content of the wiki. In Wikipedia, this would be the encyclopedia article. It is the default namespace and does not use a prefix. Only the Main namespace is indexed by public search engines such as Google or Bing.

The Project namespace has the prefix of the title of your wiki (the same title displayed in the variable). On some wikis, this namespace is used for policies and guidelines, deletion discussions, requests for adminship, and other behind-the-scenes details; other wikis use it for other purposes, or don't use it at all. You can use the prefix "Project:" if you do not know the real prefix to use. This will be converted automatically. For example, on the Help wiki, will link to the same page that Wikia Help:Administrators does.

The User namespace has the prefix User: and is used for information about users of the wiki. A user has a main user page and possibly some subpages. The main user page is linked from page histories and from recent changes. A user page has links to a user's talk page and contributions. Clicking on the avatar/user icon at the top will show a link which allows you to e-mail the user if they have checked "Enable e-mail from other users" in their preferences.

The File namespace is prefixed with File:. Pages in this namespace are also called image description pages. They are used for information about images or other files. Every image uploaded will show the information given in the upload summary on the image description page. (note: the previous prefix Image: will continue to work)

The MediaWiki namespace (prefix MediaWiki:) contains interface texts such as link labels and messages. These are only editable by admins. An automatically generated list of all interface messages is at Special:Allmessages. See Help:MediaWiki namespace.

The Template namespace can be used for small standard texts which need to be inserted on a number of pages; see Help:Templates.

The Category namespace contains categories of pages, with each displaying a list of pages in that category and optional additional text; see Help:Category.

The Help namespace is for help pages. The Shared Help system automatically provides pages from Help Wikia to each individual wiki, but projects can add their own notes about local practices above the shared text, and add new help pages that are unique to their projects in this namespace.

The Forum namespace can be used for threaded forum messages; see Help:Forums

What are the talk namespaces?
Except for special pages, each namespace has an associated talk namespace. The talk namespaces are designated by adding talk: to the normal prefix. For example, the talk namespace associated with the unprefixed main article namespace has the prefix Talk:, while the talk namespace associated with the User: namespace has the prefix User talk:. Most of the pages in the talk namespaces are used to discuss changes to the corresponding page in the associated namespace.

Pages in the user talk namespace are useful for leaving messages for a particular user, since they will get automatic notification of any messages left there; see Help:User page.

What are virtual namespaces?
There are two virtual namespaces that do not relate to pages stored in the database.

Special pages, or the special namespace, are automatically generated and uneditable pages, such as Special:RecentChanges or Special:UserLogin. They're vital to the MediaWiki software.

The Media prefix can be used to link directly to an image or sound clip, in the form [[Media:Image.jpg]] or [[Media:Sound.ogg]], rather than linking to the image description page.