Help:MediaWiki namespace

The MediaWiki namespace is a namespace containing interface texts such as link labels and messages. This allows administrators to translate and customize the interface.

An automatically generated list of all interface messages is at Special:AllMessages. This includes links to each editable message. Messages that have been changed are highlighted, and the default and current texts are shown side by side.

Some messages are shared messages and only editable on the Central Wikia.

Note that users who have set their preferred language in their preferences to something other than the default of the wiki will see an alternative interface. For example, if the wiki's default language is German, the tagline seen by English users will be stored at MediaWiki:Tagline/en, not MediaWiki:Tagline.

By default, all messages are protected. This is necessary for a number of reasons:


 * Many messages are in plain HTML, hence users could insert malicious scripts,
 * Vandalism of some messages would be extremely disruptive, for example changes to the text of the links in the sidebar would immediately be visible to all users,
 * A few messages can cause the software to stop working if they are changed.