Help:Namespace
From RationalWiki
A Namespace is a division in the wiki which defines and separates content. Except for "main", articles in them are distinguished by having the namespace and a colon before the title, like Essay:Gender and Sysops.
There are thirteen such divisions within RationalWiki:
- Main
- This is where "mission" articles go. Referred to as "Mainspace".
- User
- An editor's own space to treat or ignore as they wish. (obscenities/racial/homophobic/nasty entries/redlinks may be censored/amended)
- RationalWiki
- This is info at a "meta" level about the running of the wiki.
- File (formerly "Image")
- This is where pretty pictures or any non-text files are stored.
- MediaWiki
- Technical stuff that relates to the running of the software behind RationalWiki. Things such as the notices which automatically display are held in this space. Generally too esoteric for the common editor, leave well alone unless you know what you're doing.
- Template
- This is a "storage area" for things that are likely to be used on more than one page. See: Help:Templates
- Category
- Any article or page can & should be classified into at least one category, this enables searching & identifying subjects much easier.
- Conservapedia
- Anything about Conservapedia goes in here. It has it's own namespace to keep it from accidentally spilling over into the rest of RationalWiki.
- Essay
- A place for individual and original contributions which allow personal Point Of View or more specialised subjects to be edited by specified editor(s) without interference. However, we do request that essays have some tact as these essays will still be associated with RW.
- Debate
- For some reason this namespace is not very well used. The function is largely usurped by talk pages. However, sometimes talk pages or something from the saloon bar will outgrow its place and someone will start a debate.
- Fun
- Totally off mission and amusing or entertaining? Then it goes here. Don't expect the humour to be too high brow.
- Recipe
- RationalWiki's concession to weirdness. Mostly defunct.
- Help
- Here we are.
Every page in all of these namespaces has an associated Talk page. Talk pages are not the property of any editor and entries should not be deleted except to archive. In particular it should be noted that an editor's "Talk Page" is not the property of that editor and he or she has no exceptional rights over the contents.
All the above namespace pages can be viewed and edited by anyone, excepting User and Essay.
When you use the "search" box on the left of the page, it will first search only in "main", (unless you have changed the criteria in "your preferences") but will then give you the option to check off boxes for any other namespaces (or their talk spaces) to run the search again.
Likewise, if you go to "special pages" and click on "all files", the mainspace is the default, but you can pick any of the other namespaces from a drop down menu to see what is in them.
