Help:Namespaces

Articles without a ':' in their name are in the main namespace. This main namespace is for articles with actual content related to the wiki's scope; documents that aren't directly related to this may go in other namespaces. When articles are in another namespace, they are specified as namespace:article; i.e. this page is Help:Namespaces.

Help

Documentation about working with the wiki software. This could be mirrored from outside sites, or locally written.

Image

For descriptions of uploaded files. You shouldn't be able to create these directly; they are created when you click the Upload file link in the toolbox.

Media

Use this namespace to link to uploaded files directly, rather than through the description pages.

MediaWiki

Use this namespace to change the default system messages, See Help:System message on meta. This namespace can only be edited by sysops.

Project

Information about this wiki; i.e. policies that apply here. This namespace also has an alias, which is the name of the wiki installation.

Talk

Each page has a corresponding discussion page. This can be used for feedback/comments about that page, or other local notes that another group may want to associate with the page, without modifying the document directly, or for any other additional information to associate with the document.

Template

This is used for meta-information that is to be transcluded into multiple documents, such as tags to mark the status of a document. Any page can be transcluded, but Templates are pages mainly designed to do so.

User

For personal notes. Each User has a corresponding user page for their own information. Users can also create subpages, by using a / after their name. A subpage with the name of a Wiki skin can allow people to customize their own skin. If you are a pooper, please do not use your user page to create your pooper page. Those go in the main namespace.

User_talk

The discussion page on a user's page can be used for leaving messages. If this page is edited, the user shall see a box notifying them that they have new messages near the top of the page until they go to their talk page.

Special

Pages that explain various info, such as Double Redirects. These pages are part of the MediaWiki installation, and can usually only be edited/created by a person who has access to the MediaWiki files.