Help:Namespace

A namespace (NS, not to be confused with National Socialism) is a division in MediaWiki software that defines and separates content in RationalWiki. Usually, they have an associated ID number which can be checked with {{ns:}}, e.g. {{ns:1}} produces Talk (Note: {{ns:talk}} also produces Talk).

Except for the "main" ("mainspace"), articles in them are distinguished by having the namespace and a colon before the title, like, for example, Essay:Gender and Sysops (the page "Gender and Sysops" is located in the "Essay" namespace).

List of namespaces

Here are the namespaces and their descriptions in RationalWiki:

NS	NS ID	Description	Talk NS	Talk NS ID
• Main	0	This is where main articles ("missional" i.e. according to RationalWiki's mission statement) go. Referred to as "Mainspace".	Talk	1
User	2	An editor's own space to treat or ignore as they wish. (obscenities, racist, homophobic, "nasty" entries, and redlinks may be censored or amended).	User talk	3
RationalWiki	4	This is info at a "meta" level about the running of the wiki. It also contains the Saloon Bar and Non-CP WIGOs, as well as the timeline and articles related to the history of the site.	RationalWiki talk	5
File	6	This is where pretty pictures or any non-text files are stored.	File talk	7
Media	-2	This is not a "true namespace", but a way to link directly to a file. For example, Media:Jellybrain.png links directly to the image, whereas File:Jellybrain.png links to its description page.	(none)	(empty)
MediaWiki	8	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. Only editable by members of the Tech user group.	MediaWiki talk	9
Template	10	This is a "storage area" for things (things called "templates") that are likely to be used (called "transcluded") on more than one page. See: Help:Templates for more information.	Template talk	11
Help	12	Here we are. Yes, it's the help section for newcomers like you.	Help talk	13
Category	14	Any article or page can and should be classified into at least one category; this enables searching & identifying subjects much easier. See: Help:Categories for more information.	Category talk	15
Thread and Summary	90 and 92 resp.	The two namespaces used by the LiquidThreads extension.	Thread talk and Summary talk resp.	91 and 93 resp.
Conservapedia	100	Anything about Conservapedia goes in here. It has its own namespace to keep it from accidentally spilling over into the rest of RationalWiki.	Conservapedia talk	101
Essay	102	A place for individual and original contributions which allow personal POVs (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 RationalWiki.	Essay talk	103
Debate	104	Used for heated fights polite and civil discussions. For some reason, this namespace is not very well used. The function is largely usurped by talk pages.	Debate talk	105
Fun	106	Totally off mission and amusing or entertaining? Then it goes here. Don't expect the humour to be too high brow. Is mostly defunct, and is rarely edited these days.	Fun talk	107
Recipe	108	RationalWiki's concession to weirdness. Mostly defunct.	Recipe talk	109
Forum	110	The namespace for our pure-discussion pages. No one uses them anymore, but the archives are available. Most discussion takes place on individual article pages and the Saloon Bar.	Forum talk	111
Draft	112	Used to collaboratively write articles before they are mainspace-worthy.	Draft talk	113
TimedText	710	Used by the TimedMediaHandler extension. It can be used for adding timed text for audio and video uploads.	TimedText talk	711
Module	828	Used for Scribunto modules to write template-like functionality in the Lua scripting language. Wikipedia does this and has many modules, and like templates they can potentially be imported here. Newer Wikipedia templates often use modules, so that both are needed.	Module talk	829
Gadget and Gadget definition	2300 and 2302 resp.	Code for the various tools that can be enabled via your preferences.	Gadget talk and Gadget definition talk resp.	2301 and 2303 resp.
Special	-1	This is one of two namespaces that are not directly editable (the other is the unused "Media" namespace), but gives you information about the wiki like, for example, Recent Changes and user Contributions.	(none)	(empty)

Talk pages

Every page in all of these namespaces (except "Special" and "Media") 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 they have no exceptional rights over the contents beyond what is prescribed in the Community Standards.

Searching

When you use the Search box on the upper right corner 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 (left sidebar) and click on All pages, 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.