Help:Namespaces

Pages on a MediaWiki wiki are grouped into collections called “namespaces” which differentiate between the purpose of the pages at a high level. Pages in certain namespaces can also have special properties or behave differently when they interact with other pages.

Namespaces are indicated in page titles by prefixing the page name with <namespace>:, so the prefix Help: in this page's title (Help:Namespaces) indicates that this page is in the Help namespace. Each namespace has a unique name (and number). Some namespaces can also have one or more aliases.

A page whose name is not prefixed by a namespace lies in the mainspace. Note, however, that colons and prefixes can also appear in page titles without indicating a namespace: a page titled Workshop: Legal Scholarship would be located in the mainspace because the namespace “Workshop” does not exist. Similarly the page Help:Workshop:Namespaces would be in the “Help” namespace.

The standard namespaces are organized in pairs, with each pair containing a “subject namespace” and a “talk namespace” (for discussions about that subject). Some of Wiki Law School's namespaces are discussed below.

Main

Articles with no colon (:) in their name are in the main namespace, or “mainspace.” This namespace is for the bulk of the substantive articles and actual content on Wiki Law School; documents that aren't directly related to legal topics may go in other namespaces.

Talk

Each page in the main namespace has a corresponding discussion page. These pages can be used for feedback/comments about that page, or other local notes that another group may want to associate with the page, without modifying the document directly, or for any other additional information to associate with the document. See Help:Talk pages for more information.

User

Each user owns their own page in the “talk” namespace. User pages can be edited only by each user.

User pages can be used for personal notes or to record information about themselves or to test and draft new content. Users can also create subpages by making a page with a forward slash / after their username, followed by one or more additional characters. See Help:User page for more information.

User_talk

The discussion page for each user can be used for leaving messages or to inform the user of discussions that may be of interest to them. If this page is edited, the next time that user logs in they will see a box notifying them that they have new messages.

Template

This namespace is used for content that is to be copied and transcluded into multiple other pages, such as an infobox that appears at the top of an article. To facilitate this purpose, it has the special property that it is the default namespace for transclusions: the wikicode {{Infobox Law School}} is equivalent to {{Template:Infobox Law School}}. See Help:Templates for more information.

Template talk

This is a talk namespace that is normally used for discussions related to the associated template pages.

Category

The Category namespace contains categories, dynamic lists of other pages. To facilitate this, linking directly to a category page does not output an inline link, but instead includes the page containing the category link into the associated category page. So, the code [[Category:Help]] causes the page to be in that category and makes a category link appear at the bottom of the page. Clicking on that link takes you to the category page, where all pages in the category are listed.

To create an inline link to a category page, you need to add a colon to the front of the namespace: [[:Category :Help]] produces Category:Help (but doesn't enter the page into that category). See Help:Categories for more information.

Category talk

This is a talk namespace that is normally used for discussions related to the associated category pages.

Image

For descriptions of uploaded files. You shouldn't create these pages directly; they are created when you click the Upload file link in the toolbox.

Help

The Help namespace includes documentation about working with the wiki software. It includes help files, instructions, and how-to guides.

Help talk

This is a talk namespace that is normally used for discussions related to the associated help pages.

Project

Information about Wiki Law School; for examples policies that apply here. This namespace also has an alias, which is Wiki Law School. This namespace is normally used for meta-discussions related to the operation and development of Wiki Law School. This namespace automatically redirects the user to its alias; for example: [[Project:About]] → [[Wiki Law School:About]].

Project talk

This is a talk namespace that is normally used for discussions related to the associated project pages.

Media

Use this namespace to link to uploaded files directly, rather than through the description pages.

Special

This namespace is used to group special pages, including reports and interfaces that are generated “on demand” by the software and that are not directly editable. It is not possible to create pages in this namespace.