UESPWiki:Namespace Move Project

Plan
Tamriel
:Overall goal: move all Tamriel articles to new Lore namespace
Because of the magnitude of the planned tasks, most work on the Tamriel move will be done by bots.  However, certain tasks will need to be done manually, as specified below

Until the Lore namespace is created, we cannot start to use or reference any articles in the Lore namespace.  In particular, do not create any articles prefixed with "Lore:".  For example, editing an article named "Lore:Main_Page" right now will not work properly: it will actually create an article in the main namespace, not in the Lore namespace.  And once the Lore namespace is created, that article will turn into a phantom: visible in some places, but completely inaccessible (for example, until recently, we had a second, phantom Daggerfall:Hints article).  Also, even starting to add links (redlinks) pointing to future Lore articles is probably not recommended.  At the moment, those links will be processed as main namespace links, and therefore may not automatically link to the articles once they are created.  If you need to create a link, it's best to make a link to the Tamriel namespace (even if it's a Tamriel redlink); bots will automatically update every single Tamriel link on the site, so having more Tamriel links is no more work for anyone.  Basically, in terms of editing Tamriel articles everything should continue to be done "as usual" until we have a new namespace: continue to treat the Tamriel namespace as the home for all Tamriel articles.

Once the bot part of this job starts (i.e., once we reach the Moving Articles stage), the job will be far easier for the bots if we can assume that editors will not make certain changes to Tamriel or Lore articles.  Therefore, before starting the page moves, we should post a Community Portal notice asking that editors:
Do not rename any Tamriel or Lore articles (bots are going to assume that before-move name is the same as after-move name, and that assumption has to hold until after all the links are fixed)
Do not attempt to fix any Tamriel or Lore articles that appear in Double Redirects (the bots should be fixing all of these; if any are missed by the bot, then the bot operator needs to know about it to update the bot code, and will probably want to test the updates on the existing problem case).
Any new articles that need to be created should be created in Lore and only in Lore.  But first make sure that no Tamriel article with same name exists.  If there's a Tamriel article, edit that article instead of creating a Lore article.
Standard edits to Lore/Tamriel articles can still be made. 
These restrictions will only go into effect when the Community Portal notice is posted (they're just posted here for planning purposes).  The notice will need to be removed/updated once Updating Links is complete.

Preparation
Several of these tasks are not critical, but they're listed first because they are tasks that do not rely upon the creation of the Lore namespace.  In other words, they can be done right now.
   (Moving Articles cannot be started until the Lore namespace exists.)
 
 
 
 
 
 
  -- manual job (bots shouldn't edit templates)
 
 
 
 Check all templates that use statements such as     and change the if statement to work for both Tamriel and Lore.
 
  
 
 
Create an overview/guidelines article at 
Fix PHP search functions (and other PHP code?) so that Lore namespace is added anywhere Tamriel is currently checked -- can only be done by Nephele or Daveh

Moving Articles
 Will all be done by bot (probably RoBoT?).  Cannot start until Lore namespace exists.
Before starting: post a notice on Community Portal notifying all editors about requested restrictions on Tamriel/Lore edits (see above).
;Pseudocode
:For each Tamriel Page in Tamriel and Tamriel_talk namespaces
::If Tamriel Page is proposed for deletion, Skip
::If Tamriel Page is a books subpage (Tamriel:Books/*), Skip
::If Tamriel Page is a redirect, Skip
:: 
::Move Tamriel Page to Lore Page (automatically creating redirect at Tamriel Page)
:: 
::// Checking redirects has to be done as each page is moved, otherwise it will create double redirects, which
::// will effectively break most Tamriel links (since most Tamriel links go through redirects).
::For each Redirect to Tamriel Page
:::If (Redirect is in Tamriel namespace) and (Redirect is not proposed for deletion) and (Redirect is not a books subpage)
::::Move Tamriel Redirect to Lore Redirect
::::Change Lore Redirect to point to Lore Page
::::Change Tamriel Redirect to point to Lore Page
:::Else
::::Change Redirect to point to Lore Page
:::End If
::End For
:: 

Interlude
 Before moving on to updating the links, there are several tasks that will need to be done manually:
Update all Tamriel links contained within templates (bots shouldn't edit templates; doing this before starting the bots will quickly fix a large fraction of the Tamriel links and therefore reduce the bot task list)
Check all templates that originally used statements such as    

Updating Links
;pseudocode
://Starting by just editing all Lore articles, because almost every one will need to be updated, and this will reduce
://the length of the "what links here" lists substantially
:For (each Page in Lore namespace that is not a redirect), then (each Page that links to a Tamriel article)
:: 
::// This replace will not check to see whether the Lore article exists
::// (assume it was a redlink on Tamriel article, too; check will just be a waste of bot time and server resources)
::Replace all instances of     with    
::Log these cases for manual review?
:: 
::Replace all instances of   , bots add a disclaimer to all Tamriel namespace redirects about eventual deletion of Tamriel namespace, changing them to manual redirects
# Around the middle of ’09, all Tamriel namespace articles proposed for deletion by bot
# Delete all Tamriel namespace articles

Fanfiction
:Overall goal: move all fanfiction to user namespace
All revisions to the fanfiction need to be manually done (especially because moving user content by bot doesn't seem appropriate).
# Create some new templates for use on fanfiction pages that specify what edit permissions are granted to editors other than the author. 
I've already gone through and done most of it manually. It is quicker, and won't mean a ton of talk page notifications, half of which will be ignored.--Ratwar 15:47, 4 July 2008 (EDT)

Reviews
:Overall goal: move all reviews to user namespaces, with possible exception of certain reviews
Working on reviews should wait until final decision is made about reviews

General
:Overall goal: move all remaining General namespace articles to Mainspace
Plan on doing all changes to General namespace manually: don't want bots to do Fanfiction (see above), also too few articles to justify bots.
Note: When changing links of the form  , they must be changed to   -- the colon (:) at the start is required or else the link won't work.
Create templates, trails, categories (if needed)
Create ‘All Content’ Page
All Games Page
General:Main Page

Reasoning
Review Namespace
It is a small namespace, currently only used by Wrye.  This alone makes it a prime candidate for integration.  It is also used to imply that the reviews contained within are ‘better’ than most (if not all) of the reviews currently in the User namespace.  Personally, I think it would be better to keep all single editor articles in the User namespace and separate them by a ‘featured’ status.  This would serve to both indicate good reviews and keep the User namespace from growing.  If other reviews of good quality were created, they could be nominated for featured status, but the current review namespace articles would be grandfathered in.

Tamriel Namespace
The Tamriel namespace has been a bit of a problem.  For one thing,  is the main page, not an article about the continent of Tamriel itself.  Secondly, it doesn’t accurately portray the contents as being something other than a game (some users might not know that there isn’t an Elder Scrolls: Tamriel), and the namespace includes pages about other continents besides Tamriel.  Another potential problem could arise if Bethesda eventually names a game ‘Tamriel’.  Therefore, it stands to reason that it would be beneficial to move it to a new ‘Lore’ namespace.

Moving Fanfic to User Space
These are single-editor articles, so they are best suited to user space. 

Moving General Namespace to Mainspace
All articles in the General namespace, besides the fanfictions, are non-game related topics.  It shouldn’t be a problem to move these articles to the Mainspace, where they will have preference over namespace articles.  Currently searching for ‘Bethesda’ takes you too ‘Daggerfall:Bethesda’ not ‘General:Bethesda’.  With this move, you would be taken to ‘Bethesda’.

Reorganizing Sidebar
Currently people want info about Oblivion, so putting the Oblivion article closer to the top will help them find it.  It will also make it clearer that the expansions are not stand-alone games.

New Sidebar
Sections


Page Moves (Human interaction):
Lore
 to Lore:Main Page

General
: Move info to new "General Information" page, split developers off to separate page
: Move to "Elder Scrolls", need to delete redirect in Mainspace
: Move links to User namespace


Main
:All Games to :All Content
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