Help:Namespaces

A namespace is a way of separating types of content on 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, "Talk:Pagename" is a page in the "talk" namespace, and is used to describe a page called pagename. If there is no prefix (or the prefix does not match an existing namespace) the page belongs to the "Main" or "article" namespace of that wiki.

Custom namespaces can be created on a wiki if the standard ones do not meet the needs of that community's 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 communities have?

By default, every wiki has 18 namespaces, and 2 special namespaces. Custom namespaces can also be created.

Namespace Code	Namespace Name	Notes
{{ns:-2}}	Media
{{ns:-1}}	Special	See Help:Special pages
{{ns:0}}	Main	Main namespace for regular wiki articles
{{ns:1}}	Talk	Discussion pages for regular wiki articles
{{ns:2}}	User
{{ns:3}}	User talk
{{ns:4}}	Project ("Community Central")	Uses the wiki's sitename
{{ns:5}}	Project talk ("Community Central talk")
{{ns:6}}	File
{{ns:7}}	File talk
{{ns:8}}	MediaWiki
{{ns:9}}	MediaWiki talk
{{ns:10}}	Template
{{ns:11}}	Template talk
{{ns:12}}	Help
{{ns:13}}	Help talk
{{ns:14}}	Category
{{ns:15}}	Category talk
{{ns:110}}	Forum	Not available on wikis created after November 2016. See Help:Forum
{{ns:111}}	Forum talk

An API query can be used to list all namespaces on a community, including custom namespaces. To do so, replace 'NAME' in the following URL with your community's:

• https://NAME.fandom.com/api.php?action=query&meta=siteinfo&siprop=namespaces|namespacealiases

For example, Community Central's list.

Namespaces added by default extensions

Namespace Code	Namespace Name	Notes
{{ns:420}}	GeoJson	See Help:Maps Extension
{{ns:421}}	GeoJson talk
{{ns:500}}	User blog	See Help:Blogs
{{ns:501}}	User blog comments
{{ns:502}}	Blog
{{ns:503}}	Blog talk
{{ns:828}}	Module	See Help:Lua
{{ns:829}}	Module talk
{{ns:1200}}	Message Wall	See Help:Message Wall
{{ns:1201}}	Thread	Used by both Message Wall and Forums
{{ns:1202}}	Message Wall Greeting	See Help:Message Wall
{{ns:2000}}	Board	See Help:Forum
{{ns:2001}}	Board Thread	See Help:Forum
{{ns:2002}}	Topic	See Help:Forum

What are the basic namespaces?

You can see a list of all the namespaces on your wiki by going to Special:AllPages and clicking the dropdown menu next to "Namespace"

The Main or article namespace ({{ns:0}}) is the informational content of the wiki. In Wikipedia, this would be an 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's prefix is the title of your wiki (the same title displayed in the {{SITENAME}} variable). On some wikis, this namespace is used for policies and guidelines, deletion discussions, requests for administratorship, and other behind-the-scenes details; other wikis use it for other purposes, or don't use it at all. If you don't know the name of the wiki (or just don't want to bother to type it,) you can use the shortcut, "Project:" as a substitute. This will be converted automatically to the real name of the wiki. For example, on the Community Central wiki, Project:Admins will link to the same page that Community Central:Admins 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 sub-pages. 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.

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 behind-the-scenes code and messages such as link labels and color schemes. These are only editable by a wiki's administrators. An automatically generated list of all interface messages can be found at Special:Allmessages. See Help:System messages for more.

The Template namespace can be used for small standard texts which need to be inserted on a number of pages. Templates can be things like infoboxes or items in a list. They can be inserted with {{Template name}}; see Help:Templates for a more in-depth description.

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 Fandom Help 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. These are normally conversations and questions for the entire wiki to contribute in. See Help:Wiki-style forums. Note: It is suggested to now use the Forum tool or Discussions instead.

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.

See also

• mw:Help:Namespace - The base MediaWiki documentation on namespaces.
• Help:Custom namespaces - Information on how to add an additional namespace to your wiki.
• Help:WikiActivity tag - on how to show recent activity using specific namespaces.

Further help and feedback

• Browse and search other help pages at Help:Contents
• Check Fandom Community Central for sources of further help and support
• Check Contacting Fandom for how to report any errors or unclear steps in this article