| Namespaces | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Subject namespaces | Talk namespaces | ||
| 0 | (Main/Article) | Talk | 1 |
| 2 | User | User talk | 3 |
| 4 | Wikipedia | Wikipedia talk | 5 |
| 6 | File | File talk | 7 |
| 8 | MediaWiki | MediaWiki talk | 9 |
| 10 | Template | Template talk | 11 |
| 12 | Help | Help talk | 13 |
| 14 | Category | Category talk | 15 |
| 100 | Portal | Portal talk | 101 |
| 118 | Draft | Draft talk | 119 |
| 126 | MOS | MOS talk | 127 |
| 710 | TimedText | TimedText talk | 711 |
| 828 | Module | Module talk | 829 |
| Former namespaces | |||
| 108 | Book | Book talk | 109 |
| 442 | Course | Course talk | 443 |
| 444 | Institution | Institution talk | 445 |
| 446 | Education Program | Education Program talk | 447 |
| 2300 | Gadget | Gadget talk | 2301 |
| 2302 | Gadget definition | Gadget definition talk | 2303 |
| 2600 | Topic | 2601 | |
| Virtual namespaces | |||
| -1 | Special | ||
| -2 | Media | ||
| Current list | |||
Special is a namespace categorizing the underlying Wikipedia software, WikiMedia. What is special about Special pages is that they are not your usual "WikiPedia text". They are more like "WikiMedia text", because WikiMedia is written in PHP, and so are pages in the Special namespace. This is demonstratable by refreshing for an updated report several times, and then noticing that a single browse backwards will goto the previous page, and not the previous report.
Wikipedia is writtin in wikitext, and WikiMedia renders that wikitext using PHP. Special pages are more directly WikiMedia software, and thus require a virtual namespace. The Special namespace is a virtual namespace because to Wikipedia users, there is only clicking on a link, and the page magically appears, wherease in the relatively concrete world of wikitext, we can have a hand on the rendering of the page.
The page will render "Special" on in somewhere, and clicking on that word
usually calls for the page's automatic, in-place regeneration.
[1]
The URL will usually have Special: in it.
There is a list of Special pages at Special:SpecialPages.
Notice your web browser's address bar displays Special: for your
- my talk
- my watchlist, and
- my contributions
- log out completed page
pages, but not for your
For example, did you ever notice the special page title on your Recent Changes report page?
Notice the word special in your URL of your Recent Changes report.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&days=3&limit=10
Two of the parameters days=3&limit=10 in this example
come from the user preferences.
Here is another example of the contents of a Special page.
[[Special:Log/block]]
The parameter is block.
A Special page is not permitted to accept a redirect. They are categorized in a namespace called "Special:", but it is a virtual namespace, really, and it is not permitted to create your usual pages beginning with the "Special:" prefix.
Special pages are not the only script driven pages on Wikipedia. So are the toolserver reports. But toolserver projects are not "Special" pages because they are not so virtual to that community, for that community is the programmers who made to maintenance and operating tools that WikeMedia is today. See WP:Database reports.
- ^ In a special way, wikitext is like PHP: it renders a dynamic page; but in one case it is a programming language operating a computer, and in the other case it is a mostly natural language that can change at any moment. The next time we click a Wikipedia page, someone has "reprogrammed" it in wikitext, and it is changing and dynamic. A worldwide editing frenzy would make a dynamic Wikipedia Page indeed.