Help:Namespaces

Many articles in the Spesoft-GameEx Wiki are grouped into collections called "namespaces", which differentiate between the general purpose and/or topic of these 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.

A page whose name is not specifically prefixed by a namespace lies in the "Main:" namespace although the title does not explicitly indicate that. Note, however, that it is possible for colons and prefixes can appear in page titles without necessarily existing in a pre-defined namespace. For example the page Foo:Namespaces is a page located in the "Main:" namespace because the namespace "Foo" does not exist. In other words, adding an arbitrary namespace title to a page title will not create a new namespace. This is typically considered bad from fro the purposes of this Wiki.

Before creating articles on the Spesoft-GameEx wiki please familiarize your self with the namespaces that have been defined for this wiki. If you are unsure how to apply a namespace or what namespace applies to an article you are creating please simply use the main namespace (i.e. do not add a prefix to the name of your article). This situation would be a good opportunity to utilize the Talk Page for your article to discuss what namespace should be applied.

Spesoft-GameEx Wiki Namespaces

The Spesoft-GameEx wiki utilizes the following namespaces for the categorization of articles. Please familiarize yourself with these namespaces before creating articles on this wiki. If you are unsure how to use namespaces or what namespace applies to an article you are creating, it is fine to utilize the Main namespace.

(Main)

The "Main" namespace is the default namespace for articles created on the wiki. This namespace has no prefix separated by a colon. It is commonly called the "main namespace" or "mainspace".

Talk

The "Talk" namespace is the discussion namespace attached pages in the Main namespace. If you enter comments on (or create) the Discussion page attached to a page in the Main namespace that Discussion page exists in the Talk namespace.

User

Each user has a corresponding page in the User namespace, which is linked to from page edit histories, watchlists, recent changes, or wherever an individual user is uniquely identified by name. This page, and subpages of it, can be used by users to record information about themselves or to test and draft new content.

User talk

This namespace is the talkspace associated with the User namespace. Pages in this namespace are mainly used to leave messages for particular users or to inform them of discussions that may be of interest to them. For instance in the event that the User Talk:CoolDude page is edited, the user "CoolDude" will see notice displayed at the top of the page informing them of the edit:

You have a new message from another user (last change).

This notice continues to appear until the user loads their user talk page to read the message.

File

The File namespace is used to store metadata for images, videos, sound files and other media accessed via the Media namespace. Each file has a corresponding page in the File namespace. Linking directly to a page in this namespace instead includes the media file within the content of the page: [[File:GameEx Evo Logo.png|right]] produces the image to the right. See Help:Images for more details of this link syntax.

To create an internal link directly to the file page, you need to add a colon to the front of the namespace: [[:File:GameEx Evo Logo.png|right]] produces right.

For linking media files directly, bypassing the description page, see Media namespace.

File talk

This is a talk namespace that is normally used for discussions related to the associated media files.

MediaWiki

The MediaWiki namespace is used to hold system messages and other important content. For instance, the page MediaWiki:Edit (or MediaWiki:Vector-view-edit in the default "Vector" skin) contains the word "Edit" that populates the tab at the top of every page. So if the MediaWiki:Edit page exists and contains text other than the word "Edit", that alternate text will override the default text. Similarly, MediaWiki:Common.css is the system message that holds the CSS code that is loaded for all users on each page. It has the special property that the entire namespace is fully protected and can only be edited by administrators.

MediaWiki talk

This is a talk namespace that is normally used for discussions related to the associated system messages.

Template

The Template namespace is used to hold template pages which contain text or wikicode intended to be transcluded in one or several other pages. In a nutshell "transclusion" is a fancy word that means to include the exact content of one page on another page in such a way that changes to the "parent" affects the child page(s). This namespace has the special property that it is the default namespace for transclusions. For example the wikicode {{My_Cool_Template}} is equivalent to {{Template:My_Cool_Template}}.

Template talk

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

Help

The Help namespace is used to hold help articles, instructions, and "how-to" guides specifically related to the wiki itself.

Help talk

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

Category talk

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