Help:Namespace

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, "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 in a wiki if the standard ones do not meet the needs of that wiki.

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 does our wiki have?

 * Special
 * Media
 * (Main)
 * Talk
 * User
 * User talk
 * Project/PikminFanon
 * Project talk/PikminFanon talk
 * File
 * File talk
 * MediaWiki
 * MediaWiki talk
 * Template
 * Template talk
 * Help
 * Help talk
 * Category
 * Category talk
 * Forum
 * Forum talk
 * Topic
 * Topic talk
 * Sticky topic
 * Sticky topic talk

What are the basic namespaces?
The Main or article namespace (     ) 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 (unless the magic word  __INDEX__  is inserted.)

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. Clicking on the avatar (profile picture) 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 Project, or PikminFanon, namespace is used for policies and guidelines, requests for administratorship, and other behind-the-scenes details. If you don't want to bother to type "PikminFanon:" in a link, you can use the shortcut, "Project:" as a substitute. This will be link automatically to "PikminFanon:".

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:MediaWiki namespace 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  ; see Help:Templates for a more in-depth description.

The Help namespace is for help pages. These pages are intended to be useful for beginner and veteran users alike in editing on Pikmin Fanon.

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 Forum namespace is used for threads that categorize topics. See Help:Forums.

The Topic namespace is be used for individual forum topics. These are normally conversations and questions for the entire wiki to contribute in.

The Sticky topic namespace is used to sticky a topic so it always shows up on the top of a thread.

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.