Help:Namespaces

Shortcut H:NAME

Pages on Bulbapedia are grouped into collections called “namespaces” which differentiate between the purpose of the pages at a high level. Pages in certain namespaces can also have special properties or behave differently when they interact with other 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. Each namespace is identified by a number and a name, which can also have some aliases.

A page whose name is not prefixed by a namespace lies in the mainspace. Note, however, that colons and prefixes can also appear in page titles without indicating a namespace: the page Foo:Namespaces is a page located in the mainspace because the namespace “Foo” does not exist. Similarly the page Help:Foo:Namespaces is in the “Help” namespace.

Namespaces

The Bulbapedia has 20 namespaces that can contain user-generated content; there are also two special namespaces that contain pages created “on the fly” by the MediaWiki software. The standard namespaces are organized in pairs, with each pair containing a “subject namespace” and a “discussion namespace.” The namespaces are numbered from zero such that all subject namespaces have even indices and all talk namespaces have odd indices.

Special

This namespace is used to group special pages, reports and interfaces that are generated “on demand” by MediaWiki and that are not directly editable. It is not possible to create pages in this namespace.

(Main)

The namespace that has no prefix separated by a colon; for example, a page in this namespace would be titled as "Pokémon" rather than "Main:Pokémon". Commonly called the “main namespace” or “mainspace”. This namespace contains the bulk of the content pages on Bulbapedia. Bulbapedians are encouraged to edit the mainspace productively to improve the content and quality of our encyclopedia. This namespace generally has no special properties.

Talk

The “Talk” namespace is the discussion namespace attached to the mainspace. The discussions on these pages are not intended for chat, speculation, or opinions about the subject, and must comply with Bulbapedia's talk page policy. For casual, non-article related discussion, make use of the Bulbagarden Forums. Every single page, regardless of namespace, has a talk page attached to it. The talk page may or may not have already been created; if not then a red link will appear on the top menu bar. You are welcome to create the page if you have an issue about the page to discuss. This namespace generally has no special properties.

User

Each user has a corresponding page in the “User” namespace (also known as the “userspace”), which is linked to from edit histories, watchlists, recent changes, etc.; wherever an individual user is uniquely identified.

This page and subpages of it can be used by users to record information about themselves or to test and draft new content. All edits to the userspace must comply with the userspace policy.

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 inform them of discussions that may be of interest to them. To facilitate this, when a page User talk:UserName is edited, whenever the user UserName loads a page, a notice is displayed at the top of the page informing them of the edit:

You have new messages (last change).

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

Bulbapedia

This namespace is used for meta-discussions related to the operation and development of the wiki. The alias “Project” automatically redirects the user to a namespace labeled after the wiki's name, example:

[[Project:Licenses]] → [[Bulbapedia:Licenses]].

Bulbapedia talk

This is a talk namespace that is normally used for discussions related to the associated project pages. It has no special properties.

File

The “File” namespace is used to store metadata for images, videos, sound files and other media. Each file has a corresponding page in the “File” namespace, which is often used to hold licensing data. Linking directly to a page in this namespace instead includes the media file inline in the page. See Help:Images for more details of this link syntax.

To create an internal link to the file page, you need to add a colon to the front of the namespace: [[:File:Bulbapedia logo.png|right]] produces File:Bulbapedia logo.png. However, as images are stored on Bulbagarden Archives, rather than on Bulbapedia, it is almost always better to link to the file's page on the Archives instead.

Bulbapedia also has the alias “Image” for the “File” namespace, eg [[Image:Bulbapedia logo.png]].

File talk

This is a talk namespace that is normally used for discussions related to the associated media files. It has no special properties.

Media

This namespace is used for direct linking to media files: the link [[Media:Bulbapedia logo.png]] links to just the image rather than the image description page, which would be [[:File:Bulbapedia logo.png]].

MediaWiki

The “MediaWiki” namespace is used to hold system messages and other important content. For instance, the page MediaWiki:Edit contains the text that fills the “Edit” tab at the top of every page. It has the special property that the entire namespace 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. It has no special properties.

Template

The “Template” namespace is used to hold templates, blocks of text or wikicode that are intended to be transcluded into several other pages. To facilitate this it has the special property that it is the default namespace for transclusions: the wikicode {{Foo}} is equivalent to {{Template:Foo}}.

Template talk

This is a talk namespace that is normally used for discussions related to the associated template pages. It has no special properties.

Help

The “Help” namespace is usually used to hold help files, instructions and “how-to” guides. It has no special properties. See Help namespace content.

Help talk

This is a talk namespace that is normally used for discussions related to the associated help pages. It has no special properties.

Category

The “Category” namespace contains categories, dynamic lists of other pages. To facilitate this, linking directly to a category page does not output an inline link, but instead includes the page into the associated category page. So the code [[Category:Help]] causes a category link to appear at the bottom of the page (at the bottom in the box marked “Category:”). Clicking on that link takes you to the category page, where this page is visible in the category list.

To create an inline link to a category page, you need to add a colon to the front of the namespace: [[:Category:Help]]produces Category:Help. See Help:Categories for more details on category link syntax.

Categorization occurs in tree-like structures. Every category is categorized into another category; every page in the mainspace (except the Main Page) must be categorized.

Unlike other namespaces, pages in the category namespace cannot be moved or redirected, and must instead be deleted and recreated if the name is wished to be changed.

Category talk

This is a talk namespace that is normally used for discussions related to the associated category pages. It has no special properties.

Appendix

The “Appendix” namespace contains game walkthroughs and other articles that don't strictly match the requirements for an encyclopaedia article but have been judged as worthy of inclusion on Bulbapedia. This namespace is not commonly used.

Appendix talk

This is a talk namespace that is normally used for discussions related to the associated appendix pages. It has no special properties.

Widget

Similarly to the “MediaWiki” namespace, the “Widget” namespace holds system messages used to customise Bulbapedia. This namespace can only be edited by Administrators.

Widget talk

This is a talk namespace that is normally used for discussions related to the associated widget pages. It has no special properties.

Defunct namespaces

Bulbapedia also has other namespaces that are no longer used:

• Browse
• Browse talk
• Shipping
• Shipping talk
• Learnset
• Learnset talk
• Gadget
• Gadget talk
• Gadget definition
• Gadget definition talk

Identifying namespaces

The magic word {{NAMESPACE}} returns the value of the namespace the page is in.

To refer to another namespace, use {{ns:<name>}} (e.g. {{ns:Project}}), or {{SUBJECTSPACE}} / {{TALKSPACE}} to refer to the namespace paired with the current one.

See also

• mw:Help:Namespaces

Help