Guide:Links-Namespaces-Redirects

## Namespaces

A namespace is a group of pages of a certain type. In a page's name and URL, the namespace is a prefix separated from the rest of the page's name by a colon. In the following URL, the namespace name is in red.

monkeysandplants.wikia.com/wiki/Guide:Links-Namespaces-Redirects

There are several important namespaces on the wiki. Visit Special:AllPages is view a list of all the pages on the wiki sortable by namespace. Below is a list of the major namespaces and their characteristics.

### (Main)

* Pages in the main namespace do not have the namespace name before their page name.
	+ Example: A.K.E.E. is in the main namespace.
* By default, they can be found as results when searching the wiki through the search bar.

### Guide

* Pages in the Guide namespace are part of the Wiki Editing Guides
* The page you are viewing right now is in the Guide namespace
* By default, they can be found as results when searching the wiki through the search bar.

### Template

* Pages in the Template namespace are often transcluded to multiple other pages.
	+ Example: Placing {{Delete}} on a page adds the "Delete" template to it.
* The namespace can be omitted when transcluding a template page.
	+ Example: {{Delete}} is equivalent to {{Template:Delete}}

### Mediawiki

* This namespace contains the wiki's Javascript, CSS, and settings files.
* Pages in this namespace can only be edited by Administrators.

### Special

* This namespace contains pages that provide reports, special information, and other special tools.
* These pages are usually uncreatable and fully or almost fully uneditable.
* A list of valid Special pages can be found at Special:SpecialPages.

### User

* This namespace contains user profile pages.
* Subpages of a user's page are often used as personal pages by that user.

### User\_blog

* This namespace contain blogs written by users.
* The page names follow this syntax: *User\_blog:[Author's Username]/[Blog Post Title]*

### File

* This namespace contains the wiki's images and videos.

### Category

* Pages can be placed in categories.
* The category namespace contains category pages that link to the pages in the corresponding category.

## Link Types

### External Links

Links that go to external sites (not on Wikia) are created with single brackets or no brackets at all. External links will have a small blue icon to the right of them.

#### **Examples**

```
http://www.google.com

```
```
[http://www.google.com]

```
 Display text other than the URL
```
[http://www.google.com Go to Google]

```

### Wiki Links

Links that go to pages on this wiki are made with double brackets. The namespace must be included in the link, but the full URL is not needed. If the page that the link leads to does not exist, the link will be bright blue and clicking it will lead to the editor to create that page.

#### **Examples**

```
[[Peashooter]]

```
 Template namespace page
```
[[Template: User Favorite Tower]]

```
 Display text other
than the page name
```
[[User:LittleWhole|LittleWhole's Profile Page]]

```
 Easily pluralize
```
[[Peashooter]]s

```
 The pipe trick automatically
removes the namespace.
```
[[Template: User Favorite Tower|]]

```

### Categories

Categories can be added to pages through code, but people unaware of this may think they are adding a link to a category page. Make sure you use colons correctly as shown below.

#### **Examples**

```
[[Category:Monkeys]]

```
 Adding a link to a category
```
[[:Category:Monkeys]]

```
 Display text other
than the page name
```
[[:Category:Monkeys|Towers]]

```
 The pipe trick automatically
removes the namespace.
```
[[:Category:Monkeys|]]

```

### Files

Files work similarly to categories. Without the leading colon, a file link is used to display the actual file on the page. To learn the Wikitext used to display and adjust images, visit the image guide.

#### **Examples**

```
[[File:Peashooter.png]]

```
```
[[:File:Peashooter.png]]

```
 Display text other
than the page name
```
[[:File:Peashooter.png|First Plant]]

```
 The pipe trick automatically
removes the namespace.
```
[[:File:Peashooter.png|]]

```

### Section Links

Section links not only go to a specific page, but they automatically scroll the page to a specific section. The displayed text is changed in the same way as regular wiki links.

#### **Examples**

```
[[Dart Monkey#Trivia]]

```
```
[[#Namespaces]]

```

### Special Links

The destination of special links change depending on who is logged in. They effectively place the username of the user viewing the page into the link. The displayed text is changed in the same way as regular wiki links.

#### **Examples**

```
[[Special:Mypage]]

```
```
[[Special:Mypage/autofill]]

```

#### **Special Links List**

* Special:Mypage
* Special:Myblog
* Special:Mytalk
* Special:Mycontributions
* Special:Myuploads

## Redirects

Redirects are pages that send the user to a different page when they try to go to the redirect page. These are useful for helping people find what they are looking for. For instance, someone may search for "Map". The "Map" is the same thing as the Archipelago, so Map redirects to Archipelago.

Redirects are important for three reasons:

1. **Clarity**: If a user clicks a link that says "Monkey SUB", and they are sent to the Bloons TD 6/Towers page, and it does not say, "redirected from Monkey SUB", they would get confused. Our goal is to make the wiki as easy to read and navigate as possible. That is why [[Monkey SUB]] is better than [[Bloons TD 6/Towers#Monkey SUB|Monkey SUB]].
2. **In case of future moves**: Let's say we decide to make a new Monkey SUB page, and take all of that info off of the Bloons TD 6/Towers page. If a page has [[Monkey SUB]], we can simply change that redirect page's destination, and all [[Monkey SUB]] links across the site will go to the new correct place. Any page that has [[Bloons TD 6/Towers#Monkey SUB|Monkey SUB]] will have to be found and edited individually. That is why there should be a redirect that is used for every individual topic.
3. **Search**: Redirects like ZOMG do not really make much sense to use as links besides making link-making easier because the real page is ZOMG (Zepplin Of Mighty Gargantuaness), but if a user searches for "ZOMG", that redirect will cause its destination to be the first search result. Redirects are used in this way to help users find the correct page even if they use an abbreviation or do not know the full/correct name.

For a full list of redirects, visit Special:Allpages; the page names that are italicized in the main namespace list are redirect pages.