Wikia

Most pages on SmashWiki are articles, such as Link (SSBM) and Sector Z. The title at the top of the page is just that: "Link (SSBM)". However, some pages, like this one, are not articles about Smash, but rather help users find their bearings on SmashWiki. These pages are part of different namespaces.

The title of every non-article page begins with a namespace which indicates what type of page it is. For instance, this page's title starts with "Help:" because it is a help page (described below). A Talk page's title starts with "Talk:", a Category with "Category:", et cetera. These namespaces help you distinguish namespace pages from normal articles, which have are part of the "Main" namespace (but are not labeled as such).

Additionally, articles in the main namespace have a white background, whereas articles in most other namespaces have a lavender background (user pages have a light aqua background). This is for easy identification. Generally, lavender or aqua pages do not contain information about Super Smash Bros. in general, but about SmashWiki or its users.

Below are descriptions of each type of special page.

Talk pagesEdit

Talk pages are essentially pages to discuss articles on this wiki. Discussion is usually about the content of the page, planning future content, discussing changes, etc. Talk pages are separate from the articles themselves, so you should be careful to avoid mixing the two up. You can get to a page's talk page by clicking the tab marked "discussion" on that page.

When you make a comment on a talk page (and only a talk page), you should sign your comment. You can do this by clicking the signature icon above the edit box, or manually by inserting four tildes (~~~~) after your message. This will leave your username and the time you wrote your message. You can also make sure you keep your comments in context by using colons to mark your place in a discussion.

For example:

This is the first message.

: This is a response to the first message. This is the second message.

:: This message is in response to the second message.

: This message is another response to the first message.

results in:

This is the first message.

This is a response to the first message. This is the second message.

This message is in response to the second message.

This message is another response to the first message.

User pagesEdit

User pages are for users to essentially have a space for free-play. Your user page is something akin to your profile on the wiki, and can be accessed by going to User:“Yourusername”. You can create sub-pages of your user page (e.g. User:Username/Subpage to test new pages, and later copy the content over. Your user page also has a talk page; unlike most other talk pages, however, your talk page is a place for others to leave you messages or discuss other issues on the wiki.

It is considered good etiquette to avoid editing user pages that are not your own, unless the user requests that you do so (an exception is that an administrator may place a notice upon a banned user page indicating that the user has been blocked). User pages contain a light aqua background for easy identification; that way you don't accidentally edit a user page, thinking it is an article or a talk page.

Although your user page is generally a place for free play, you must not upload any copyrighted or inappropriate material. Also you should not replace your user page with a redirect to any other page; this will ensure that if another user is looking for your talk page, they will be able to find it.

Project pagesEdit

SmashWiki pages (a.k.a. Project) describe goals, projects and policies of SmashWiki. You may edit most SmashWiki pages, but we encourage you to discuss any policy changes first on the corresponding talk page.

Images Edit

The Image namespace is used for uploading media, so that one don't need to direct link from another site. For example, [[Image:bg4x4.PNG]] includes the image at Image:bg4x4.PNG, so that it looks like . For info on uploading, see Help:Uploading media.

MediaWikiEdit

The MediaWiki namespace contains protected system namespaces, only editable by administrators. A list of such pages exists at Special:Allmessages.

TemplatesEdit

Template page can be included inside another page by placing {{NameOfTemplate}}. See Help:Templates for further information. One example of a commonly used template is Template:Smasherbeta, which can be seen on the right side of AOB's article.

Help pagesEdit

Help pages (like this one!) are meant to help users understand how SmashWiki works.

CategoriesEdit

Categories are different from most other name spaces - they store pages. For example, if [[Category:Help]] is written at any page, it is added to Category:Help, as seen in the long, gray bar at the bottom of the page. Categories are useful for organizing articles of similar subjects.

Special and mediaEdit

The special and media namespaces contain no editable content pages, but they have a purpose. The special namespace manages (mostly) auto updating pages such as wiki activity, linking to reader's page and random unexpected pages. Media namespace contains direct links to images. I.e., writing [[Image:bg4x4.PNG]] renders as , while [[Media:bg4x4.PNG]] direct links to an uploaded file's source: Media:bg4x4.PNG.

This text is stored on Wikia Community Central. Suggest changes here.

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.

Custom namespaces can be created in a wiki if the standard ones do not meet the needs of that Wikia project.

Namespaces are used for the following reasons:

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.

What namespaces do all wikis have?

By default, every wiki has 18 namespaces, and 2 special namespaces. Custom namespaces can also be created.

Namespace Code	Namespace Name	Notes
{{ns:Media}}	Media
{{ns:Special}}	Special
{{ns:0}}		Main namespace for regular wiki articles
{{ns:1}}	Talk	Discussion pages for regular wiki articles
{{ns:2}}	User
{{ns:3}}	User talk
{{ns:4}}	Project (on this wiki, "Community Central")	Uses the wiki's sitename
{{ns:5}}	Project talk (on this wiki, "Community Central talk")
{{ns:6}}	File
{{ns:7}}	File talk
{{ns:8}}	MediaWiki
{{ns:9}}	MediaWiki talk
{{ns:10}}	Template
{{ns:11}}	Template talk
{{ns:12}}	Help
{{ns:13}}	Help talk
{{ns:14}}	Category
{{ns:15}}	Category talk
{{ns:110}}	Forum	See Help:Wiki-style forums
{{ns:111}}	Forum talk

Namespaces added by default extensions

Namespace Code	Namespace Name	Notes
{{ns:400}}		See Help:Video Embed Tool
{{ns:401}}
{{ns:500}}	User blog	See Help:Blog article
{{ns:501}}	User blog comments
{{ns:502}}	Blog
{{ns:503}}	Blog talk
{{ns:1100}}	Related Videos	See Help:Related videos module
{{ns:1200}}	Message Wall	See Help:Message Wall
{{ns:1201}}	Thread	Used by both Message Wall and Forums
{{ns:1202}}	Message Wall Greeting	See Help:Message Wall
{{ns:2000}}	Board	See Help:Forum
{{ns:2002}}	Topic	See Help:Forum

What are the basic namespaces?

The Main or article namespace ({{ns:0}}) 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 Project namespace's prefix is the title of your wiki (the same title displayed in the {{SITENAME}} variable). On some wikis, this namespace is used for policies and guidelines, deletion discussions, requests for administratorship, and other behind-the-scenes details; other wikis use it for other purposes, or don't use it at all. If you don't know the name of the wiki (or just don't want to bother to type it,) you can use the shortcut, "Project:" as a substitute. This will be converted automatically to the real name of the wiki. For example, on the Community Central wiki, Project:Administrators will link to the same page that Community Central:Administrators does.

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 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 administrators. An automatically generated list of all interface messages can be found at Special:Allmessages. See Help:MediaWiki namespace for more.

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 {{Template name}}; see Help:Templates for a more in-depth description.

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 Help namespace is for help pages. The Shared Help system automatically provides pages from Wikia Help to each individual wiki, but projects can add their own notes about local practices above the shared text, and add new help pages that are unique to their projects in this namespace.

The Forum namespace can be used for threaded forum messages. These are normally conversations and questions for the entire wiki to contribute in. See Help:Forums.

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 uneditable pages, such as Special:RecentChanges or Special:UserLogin. They're vital to the MediaWiki software.

The Media prefix can be used to link directly to an image or sound clip, in the form [[Media:Image.jpg]] or [[Media:Sound.ogg]], rather than linking to the image description page.