Wikipedia:Namespace

With the new Wikipedia software (installed in January 2002), the concept of namespaces was introduced. (For you programmers, this works in a fashion similar to that of C++ or Java.) If the normal page is created with a [[link]], an alternative page in a different namespace is created with a [[namespace:link]].

The namespaces for wikipedia are as follows:

• Main namespace: the encyclopedia proper.

• Wikipedia-namespace: info about Wikipedia: how to use it, etc.; an example is this page. (See: Wikipedia:List of articles in the Wikipedia namespace)

• User-namespace: pages for Wikipedia users' personal presentations and auxiliary pages for personal use, for example containing bookmarks to favorite pages. If you see in the RecentChanges list that the user named "Jimbo" has updated some pages, this user name is a link not to Jimbo but to user:Jimbo.

• Image-namespace: "image description pages", i.e. info about images and sound clips, one page for each, with a link to the image or sound clip itself.
  • There are three versions of links to images and sound files:
    • [[Image:Foobar.jpg]] will insert the image directly into the page (not for sound files)
    • [[Media:Foobar.jpg]] will make a text link to the image or sound clip
    • [[:Image:Foobar.jpg]] will make a text link to the image description page

• Talk-namespaces: each of the four namespaces has its own talk namespace associated with it. A 'Talk', 'Wikipedia talk' and 'Image talk' page is for discussions about the corresponding page in one of the other namespaces, a 'User talk' page is also for discussions with a user that are not specifically about one particular article. The talk page of the article "Foo" has the name "Talk:Foo"; formerly it was "Foo/Talk", a subpage; see also the discussion about getting rid of subpages. [1] (http://meta.wikipedia.com/wiki.phtml?title=Get+rid+of+subpages+entirely)

• Pages that are created by the software on demand (for example, Special:Recentchanges) are sometimes said to form the Special namespace. They can be linked as usual, like [[Special:Recentchanges]], except when they have parameters, then the full URL has to be given, like an external link, for example /w/wiki.phtml?title=Special:Recentchanges&days=3&limit=10 (last 10 changes)

The "pipe trick" works on namespace links: Automatically hide namespace: [[Wikipedia:Village Pump|]].