Help:Namespace

A namespace is a way of separating types of content in a wiki; groups of pages with similar purposes can be grouped together and can be searched and listed separately from each other. Each page belongs to exactly one namespace.

The namespace of a page is indicated by the word preceding the colon in the page title. For example, "Talk:Pagename" is a page in the "talk" namespace, and is used to describe a page called pagename. If there is no prefix (or the prefix does not match an existing namespace) the page belongs to the "Main" or "article" namespace of that wiki.

Namespaces are used for the following reasons, as they:
 * Allow separation of wiki content from help and policy pages about the creation of content;
 * Allow separation of different kinds of unrelated content;
 * Allow control of which content is indexed by search engines;
 * Provide some special features related to the namespace's intended purpose;
 * Provide facilities to limit searches to a particular area;
 * Allow easy exporting.

List of namespaces

 * Special
 * (Main)
 * Talk
 * User
 * User talk
 * Project/PikminFanon
 * Project talk/PikminFanon talk
 * File
 * File talk
 * MediaWiki
 * MediaWiki talk
 * Template
 * Template talk
 * Help
 * Help talk
 * Category
 * Category talk
 * Forum
 * Forum talk

Basic namespaces
The Main or article namespace (     ) is the informational content of the wiki. In Wikipedia, this would be an encyclopedia article. It is the default namespace and does not use a prefix. Only the Main namespace is indexed by public search engines such as Google or Bing (unless the magic word  __INDEX__  is inserted.)

The User namespace has the prefix User: and is used for information about users of the wiki. A user has a main user page and possibly some sub-pages. The main user page is linked from page histories and from recent changes. A user page has links to a user's talk page and contributions. Clicking on the avatar (profile picture) at the top will show a link which allows you to e-mail the user if they have checked "Enable e-mail from other users" in their preferences.

The Project, or PikminFanon, namespace is used for policies and guidelines and other behind-the-scenes details. If you don't want to bother to type "PikminFanon:" in a link, you can use the shortcut, "Project:" as a substitute. This will be link automatically to "PikminFanon:".

The File namespace is prefixed with File:. Pages in this namespace are also called image description pages. They are used for information about images or other files. Every image uploaded will show the information given in the upload summary on the image description page. (note: the previous prefix Image: will continue to work)

The MediaWiki namespace (prefix MediaWiki:) contains behind-the-scenes code and messages such as link labels and color schemes. These are only editable by a wiki's interface administrators. An automatically generated list of all interface messages can be found at Special:AllMessages.

The Template namespace can be used for small standard texts which need to be inserted on a number of pages. Templates can be things like infoboxes or items in a list. They can be inserted with  ; see Help:Template for a more in-depth description.

The Help namespace is for help pages. These pages are intended to be useful for beginner and veteran users alike in editing on Pikmin Fanon.

The Category namespace contains categories of pages, with each displaying a list of pages in that category and optional additional text; see Help:Category.

The Forum namespace is used for threads that categorize topics. See Help:Forum.

What are the talk namespaces?
Except for special pages, each namespace has an associated talk namespace. The talk namespaces are designated by adding talk: to the normal prefix. For example, the talk namespace associated with the unprefixed main article namespace has the prefix Talk:, while the talk namespace associated with the User: namespace has the prefix User talk:. Most of the pages in the talk namespaces are used to discuss changes to the corresponding page in the associated namespace.

Pages in the user talk namespace are useful for leaving messages for a particular user, since they will get automatic notification of any messages left there; see Help:User page.

What are virtual namespaces?
There are two virtual namespaces that do not relate to pages stored in the database.

Special pages, or the special namespace, are automatically generated and not editable pages, such as Special:RecentChanges or Special:UserLogin. They're vital to the MediaWiki software.