Admin Forum:New namespaces

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Are there any problems associated with adding some new namespaces such as these to an existing wiki:


 * 1) I'm think of adding a Portal namespace to contain intro pages to the various topic areas of the wiki.
 * 2) I currently have a bunch of tables located in the template space that are content, but few users edit and were separated out of the articles so they are now transcluded into to remove the easily broken table code form the article page & to allow them to be protected without locking the whole article. As they are actually content rather than code the 'missing ones' clutter up the wanted templates list.
 * 3) Pages for individual vehicles that are named via their registration number. As these numbers have several formats and can cause confusion with some short words and model numbers would there be any down side (or upside) to placing them in a separate namespace ? (obviously they would then need to be pre-fixed with say "Reg-no:" in every link within the article to use them).

Comments please on the pros and/or cons of the ideas.

- 01:50, February 28, 2012 (UTC)


 * The first one is very common. In fact, I have no idea why the portal namespace is not active on wikis to begin with. The other two Im not sure about. While it would be easy to throw them in another namespace. It may not be best. You could probably make do with just prefixed pages.--


 * If you want to create a namespace, then you can request for one using Special:Contact/general &mdash; [/wiki/User:Sam_Wang S a m ] [/wiki/Message_Wall:Sam_Wang W a n g ] 02:31, February 28, 2012 (UTC)


 * @Godisme - Yes I thought Portal was a std one and only realised it was not when updating some imported templates & documentation that had namespace detection in, as i then looked up the list of wikia namspaces. Hence looking at adding it and others at the same time as a way of better managing some of the material on the wiki. I've had several goes a creating templates to add the tables and think having it in a separated namespace may make it easier to do, as I could move the Doc template as a wrapper for it with some pre loaded pages to suit the vehicle type variations. (I hope)


 * Thanks Sam but "How to Add a new namespace" was not the question ! Help:Namespaces has info on that. The question I was asking the community was are there ANY Problems I should be aware of if I added (requested) these new namespace(s) for the Wiki, as it sometimes better to research thing first rather than try to fix the problem later.


 * - 18:31, February 28, 2012 (UTC)


 * Looks like this was already answered.
 * Content does not have to be in the Template: namespace to be transcluded. For example, many user put their signature in a subpage of their user page like User:Fandyllic/sig and transclude it with  (note the leading colon). Otherwise, a transcluded non-template works the same way where you can pass parameters. What I do is make the transcluded table page a subpage of a related topic usually, but you can also use   to make only a table or some portion transcludable on a regular main namespace page.
 * The only common drawback with making custom namespaces is that most new users don't understand the concept of namespaces and don't realize there is a difference between Newnamespace:Pagename and Newnamespace:_Pagename which can require future cleanup. Also, you have to train users to use new namespaces when you create them, otherwise you'll end up renaming a bunch of pages.
 * -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 29 Feb 2012 1:00 PM Pacific


 * Thanks Fandyllic
 * 1 -


 * 2 Yes i've done that with some other pages, created them just as subpages & used them in 2 articles then that they relate to.


 * 2 As few users edit them and nobody else has created any new ones that i can think of the idea was to have the standard 'blank' article for the topic have a template placed in it like "documentation" works on  template pages to add it when required.
 * 3 Valid point but moving a few pages is not too bad (fixing the links is a more tedious task if there are several) - But you are right about Training Users, This is a big issue in general as Wikia's 'improved' version of Mediawiki and the "brilliant" RTE and other interface changes hide even the most basic features from new users.


 * - 00:58, March 1, 2012 (UTC)