Namespaces
are the types of pages that you can find on Wikipedia. These help separate the guidelines from the help documents, for example.
The most common namespace on Wikipedia is the
main namespace. All pages that do not have any
prefixes
before their name will be part of this namespace.
Most of these pages are
articles
, but some of them are
disambiguation pages
or
redirects
.
Examples of pages in this namespace are the
Main Page
and
Music
.
The
Talk Namespace
is used for
discussion
about a page. A talk page is made for every page that is made.
They are always
prefixed
with
Talk:
.
Examples of pages in this namespace are
Talk:Main Page
and
Talk:Music
.
The
User namespace
contains pages for each
user
on
Wikipedia
. It is usually bad to change a user's page if that user isn't you. You can change your user page to say anything you want.
They are always
prefixed
with
User:
.
Examples of pages in this namespace are
User:Jordanhatch
and
User:Archer7
.
The
User talk namespace
contains talk pages for each
user
.
They are always
prefixed
with
User talk:
.
Examples of pages in this namespace are
User talk:Jordanhatch
and
User talk:Archer7
.
The
Wikipedia namespace
contains pages that are related to
Wikipedia
. These are often
guidelines
,
project
pages or
community
pages.
They are always
prefixed
with
Wikipedia:
.
Examples of pages in this namespace are the
Wikipedia:Community Portal
and
Wikipedia:Vandalism
.
The
Wikipedia talk namespace
contains pages for discussing pages in the
Wikipedia namespace
.
They are always
prefixed
with
Wikipedia talk:
Examples of pages in this namespace are
Wikipedia talk:Twinkle
and
Wikipedia talk:Bots
.
The
MediaWiki namespace
contains interface texts, such as the links and messages that appear on automatically generated pages and JavaScript gadgets. Pages in this namespace are permanently full-protected and may only be edited by
administrators
. For a list of these messages, see
Special:AllMessages
.
The
MediaWiki talk namespace
contains pages for discussing pages in the
MediaWiki namespace
.
They are always
prefixed
with
MediaWiki:
The
Help namespace
contains help pages for members of
Wikipedia
.
They are always
prefixed
with
Help:
. A list of all help pages can be found at
Help:Contents
.
Examples of pages in this namespace are
Help:Minor change
and
Help:How to change pages
.
The
Help talk namespace
contains pages for discussing pages in the
Help namespace
.
They are always
prefixed
with
Help talk:
Examples of pages in this namespace are
Help talk:Minor change
and
Help talk:How to change pages
.
The
Special namespace
contains scripts of the encyclopedia.
They are always
prefixed
with
Special:
.
All special pages are non-changeable, and it is impossible to create a special page. The most common page in this namespace is
Special:UserLogin
.
Pages with the prefixes
Gadget:
,
Gadget talk:
,
Gadget definition:
, and
Gadget definition talk:
are known as gadgets. Gadgets are currently unused and there are no pages in any of the given namespaces. You also cannot create pages in any of the given namespaces.
Key MediaWiki interface messages
|
---|
Edit window instructions
| |
---|
Signup/login page
| |
---|
Search-related
| |
---|
Article related
| |
---|
Edit notices
| |
---|
"Can't edit" notices
| |
---|
Admin action messages
| |
---|
Email-related
| |
---|
Preferences
| |
---|
Community notification
| |
---|
|
MediaWiki interface files
|
---|
Global CSS skin files
| |
---|
Global JS skin files
| |
---|
Usergroup CSS files
| |
---|
Usergroup JS files
| |
---|
Other CSS files
| |
---|
Other JS files
| |
---|
Personal CSS skin files
| |
---|
Personal JS skin files
| |
---|
The 18 namespaces in Wikipedia are numbered for programming purposes:
The 18 namespaces in Wikipedia are numbered for programming purposes:
Namespace variable
|
Result (namespace name)
|
Namespace variable
|
Result (namespace name)
|
{{ns:-2}}
|
Media
|
{{ns:-1}}
|
Special
|
{{ns:0}}
|
(main namespace, returns empty string)
|
{{ns:1}}
|
Talk
|
{{ns:2}}
|
User
|
{{ns:3}}
|
User talk
|
Namespace variable
|
Result (namespace name)
|
Namespace variable
|
Result (namespace name)
|
{{ns:-2}}
|
Media
|
{{ns:-1}}
|
Special
|
{{ns:0}}
|
(main namespace, returns empty string)
|
{{ns:1}}
|
Talk
|
{{ns:2}}
|
User
|
{{ns:3}}
|
User talk
|
{{ns:4}}
|
Wikipedia
|
{{ns:5}}
|
Wikipedia 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:4}}
Wikipedia
{{ns:5}}
Wikipedia 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