Help:Namespaces

A namespace is a virtual "space" in the wiki in which similar pages are grouped together. Namespaces are used to keep certain types of pages separate from each other.

Contents 1 Namespaces on UMassWiki 2 Main 3 User 4 Class 5 Why should you care? 5.1 UMassWiki is primarily a UMass encyclopedia 5.2 Dumping stuff into Main screws up search 5.3 Dumping stuff into Main screws up Recent Changes 5.4 Dumping stuff into Main causes name collisions 6 How do you put a page into a namespace? 6.1 Main 6.2 User 6.3 Class 7 Fixing misplaced pages 7.1 Remake the page where it should be 7.2 Use the built-in move button 8 What?

Namespaces on UMassWiki

UMassWiki has a bunch of namespaces, but there are only three that most users will ever care about.

Main Contains articles relevant to the general UMass community. Example page: W.E.B. DuBois Library Nothing else is allowed Subpages are not allowed Discussion pages linked to the Talk namespace.

User Contains personal pages of registered users. Example page: User:GMorehou Can contain a user's personal materials for UMassWiki classes (such as personal essays) Allows subpages Discussion pages linked to the User talk namespace.

Class Contains pages relevant to UMassWiki Classes. Example page: Class:Section 71 - ENG 112 - Spring 2007 Allows subpages Reduced advertising Discussion pages linked to the Class talk namespace.

Why should you care?

The main reason you should care is because if you put a page in the wrong namespace, it will eventually be moved or deleted, and that's probably not what you intended.

However, there are other good reasons.

UMassWiki is primarily a UMass encyclopedia

Many of you have used Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia about everything. UMassWiki is a free encyclopedia about UMass. Since our primary mission is to provide information relevant to the UMass community in an organized form, that's the only thing that's allowed in the Main namespace. Other stuff just doesn't belong there.

Dumping stuff into Main screws up search

MediaWiki, the software that UMassWiki and Wikipedia both run on, is good at a lot of things. It's not so good at search. If everything is dumped into Main, regular visitors to the site who try to search on a term like "Wings" looking for a popular chicken-wing delivery service might instead find essays from freshmen about airplanes. This makes the wiki not as useful.

Dumping stuff into Main screws up Recent Changes

Those of us who take care of the wiki can filter out edits made in the User and Class namespaces (which we don't care about watching) and focus on edits made to the Main namespace (which must be checked for accuracy, spelling, grammar, and so on)... if a class of 30 students comes and does all their editing in Main, Special:Recentchanges is spammed to the point that it becomes useless.

Dumping stuff into Main causes name collisions

Let's say there are two Johns in a class, and the teacher assigns an essay on the social implications of the meatball. If both Johns try to create a page called John's Meatball Essay there will be problems. If they try to create the pages at the same time, there could be worse problems -- the dreaded Edit Conflict. If the Johns aren't familiar with the wiki, they could lose stuff they typed due to an edit conflict. This is bad. But if both Johns create their essay as subpages of their user pages, there's no problem. This is good!

How do you put a page into a namespace?

The namespaces each behave a little differently, for good reasons. Some of this involves discussion about subpages.

Main

To put an article in Main, you don't do anything special. Let's say you wanted to create an article about Pabst Blue Ribbon (the only acceptable swill). You'd make a wikilink to it like this:

[[Pabst Blue Ribbon]]

Then you're good to go. Edit the article, etc.

User

The User namespace is a bit different from Main. The only primary pages which exist there are created when a user registers an account. You could create others, but they'd be meaningless. Therefore, the only pages you will create in the User space will be subpages.

Let's say we have a user named SwillAficionado who wants to create a subpage about Pabst Blue Ribbon on his user page. From his user page he would make a wikilink to it like this:

[[/Pabst Blue Ribbon]] (note there are NO SPACES between the brackets and the link text)

That would create a page called User:SwillAficionado/Pabst Blue Ribbon. This is a subpage of User:SwillAficionado. If SwillAficionado wants to link to that page from any other page besides User:SwillAficionado, he must use the full link, like this:

[[User:SwillAficionado/Pabst Blue Ribbon]]

Class

The Class namespace is, again, a bit different. Anybody can create pages anywhere, but to keep things organized, all pages related to a certain class must be subpages of that class. Otherwise there would soon be name collisions (see above).

Let's say a student in Brewing 101 has been assigned an essay on Pabst Blue Ribbon. His teacher has told him to post his essay on the class's main page at Class:Brewing 101. From that page, he would make a wikilink to it link this:

[[/Pabst Blue Ribbon]] (note there are NO SPACES between the brackets and the link text)

That would create a page called Class:Brewing 101/Pabst Blue Ribbon. This is a subpage of Class:Brewing 101. If the student wants to link to that page from any other page besides Class:Brewing 101, he must use the full link, like this:

[[Class:Brewing 101/Pabst Blue Ribbon]]

Fixing misplaced pages

So you put a page in the wrong namespace. It's not the end of the world. Likely you will notice that somebody added {{MisplacedPage}} to it. Don't delete that. It's there so we can keep track of misplaced pages and fix them more quickly.

What you should do is figure out where the page belongs and move it there yourself. There are a couple ways to do this.

Remake the page where it should be

This method isn't as good, but it's not as easy to screw up.

1. Create a new blank copy of the page where it should go.
2. Edit the old page and copy the text of it, then paste that text into the new page.
3. Paste this: {{SpeedyDelete}} into the old page. Don't forget to do this. It categorizes the old blank page so we know to delete it later.

Use the built-in move button

This is the preferred method, but it's a little easier to screw up if you get the new link wrong.

1. Figure out the exact link where the new page should go. If you're worried that you'll screw this step up, you should probably use the above method.
   • If you're trying to move a page to be a subpage of your user page, then for example
     Pabst Blue Ribbon
     would become
     User:YourUserName/Pabst Blue Ribbon (note there are NO EXTRA SPACES)
   • If you're trying to move a page to be a subpage of any other page (including other subpages), then for example
     Pabst Blue Ribbon
     would become (for example if moving into Brewing 101)
     Class:Brewing 101/some subpage/maybe another/Pabst Blue Ribbon (note, again NO EXTRA SPACES)
2. Go to the misplaced page and click the "move" tab at the top of the page, on the same bar where you find "edit."
3. In the new title field, put the exact new title that you figured out in step 1.

Doing it this way will generate a redirect from the old, incorrect page title to the new one. This means links pointing to the old page will still work. However, you still should change them! Redirects like this may be periodically deleted.

What?

Still confused? Ask me (GMorehou) for help on my talk page or by looking at my user page for other contact information.

If you're in a class, try asking your geekier classmates for help, or your teacher.

Also, try finding somebody who did it right and then look at their code and copy what they did. (Make sure they actually got things right before you copy code, though!)