Encyclopedia: Fundamentals

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Fundamentals covers the properties of any given wiki page.

Fandom uses a modified version of MediaWiki, an open source wiki software originally created for Wikipedia.

Pages

Pages on MediaWiki are organized by their names, and no two pages can share the exact same name. All pages on MediaWiki automatically have the first letter capitalized, and links with a lowercase first letter will be treated as though they have an uppercase first letter.

The content a page displays is created from the page's wikitext, a markup language based on HTML. It is what is being modified when editing using the source editor, and provides a fairly intuitive way of inserting content onto a page.

Subpages offers a way for pages whose content is derivative of another to clearly associate with it. By simply adding a slash (/) to the title, and putting what you want the subpage's name to be after the slash, you'll be at a subpage. Subpages function identically to their parent pages in most cases. Subpages can have their first letter be lowercase.

Namespaces

MediaWiki uses namespaces to organize pages, each namespace holding pages for a specific purpose. Every page is in one namespace, and cannot occupy multiple or none. Namespaces allow pages serving different purposes to share a name, such as Irish Guard, File:Irish Guard.png and User:Irish Guard.

Every namespace (with one exception) has a corresponding talk namespace, which can be found by appending " talk:" to a namespace (i.e. "File talk:" or "User talk:").

A list of the most common namespaces can be found below.

(Main)

The main namespace is where most of a wiki's content resides. It goes unlabeled in URLs, page names and links, and what does refer to it uses (main). The talk namespace for main is just "Talk:".

File:

File namespace holds every file on the wiki, from photos to audio to video. Linking to pages in the namespace will display the file. In order to traditionally link to it, include a colon before the namespace.

Template:

Pages in this page are designed to be transcluded into other pages. Not that other pages can't be transcluded, but templates are the most streamlined to do so. For other namespaces the namespace has to be specified. Templates can implement parameters to modify their output.

User:

User pages are where user profiles are kept, being a little slice of the wiki for everyone. On Fandom, user pages have quick links to their message wall (a replacement for user talk), contributions, social activity, and blog posts they've made.

Those are the most prevalent namespaces, but there are a variety of less used ones.

Special:

Reports and data about the wiki. Technically speaking, pages in this namespace aren't pages, as they cannot be directly edited, nor is their data stored as pages. This is aforementioned namespace without a corresponding talk namespace.

Typical Colors 2 Wiki:

This namespace is named differently on every wiki, but is designed to contain info about the wiki that would be too meta for (main). It doesn't have any special traits.

Category:

Linking to a category page adds it to the category, and all pages in a category can be found on the category's page. If one wishes to link towards it normally, include a colon before the namespace.

MediaWiki:

Pages containing many "settings" of a wiki (with Fandom's modified version of MediaWiki, there are plenty of settings that don't appear in MediaWiki pages). All pages in it are administrator-only by default.

User blog:

All user blogs are a subpage of a user of the same name, i.e. User blog:Username/Username's blog. For whatever the user wants.

Extension namespaces have special properties that allow for the creation of special content that does not work elsewhere on the wiki.

Message wall:

Enabled by default on Fandom wikis, it functions as a more intuitive alternative user talk. User talk pages redirect to message walls while they're enabled.

Map:

This namespace allows for the creation of interactive maps, that can be transcluded.

Module:

A part of Scribunto, it is possible to run Lua code. It is done by putting pages in the module namespace, which can then be executed using {{#invoke}}.

Irrelevant namespaces, or at least irrelevant to this wiki. Maybe the wiki should use them, maybe they shouldn't, but for the time being, no reason has arisen for us to use them.

Help:

Made for making pages that help people. If only there was something that could go in that category.

Forums:

A part of the DPLforum extension, it is completely outclassed by discussions in 90% of cases.

GeoJson:

A part of the Maps extension, it is designed for making real-life maps (not to be confused with interactive maps).