WikiQueer:Administration

WikiQueer requires a certain amount of administration in order to further the project's goals. To achieve this, a wide range of administration pages are made available in various namespaces (see also below) which enumerate the various policies created and implemented by user consensus for editing WikiQueer. Of course, this process is not generally automated, and live human administrators are necessary to ensure that the editing of project pages, whether administration pages or project content pages, happens peacefully and in accordance with the policies generally, and very loosely, governing the creation and editing of all project pages. Pursuant to the Guiding principles of WikiQueer, the "government" of WikiQueer does not occur according to firm rules, but policies and guidelines do exist that are used to decide editing disputes, when necessary. However, unlike the WikiQueer articles themselves, the WikiQueer administration pages are used to assist the building of content and should be seen to be mutually exclusive of the content pages, except for cases were a linkage is required. In other words, the administration pages should be in the background and not visible to the reader.

Administration pages (see below), including user pages, fall completely within the bounds of administration, as distinguished from project content. In this regard, categories are utilized for both content and administration but should not have both types of pages within the same category. Templates are also used for both content and administration pages and therefore, unlike other administration pages, are collected together and entirely as sub-categories of Category:WikiQueer templates. While a template itself may be used on a content page, it should not be part of a content category but, instead, should only be part of Category:WikiQueer templates.

Ensuring the harmonious implementation of the project's consensus-developed policies governing the creation and development of both administration pages and content pages are people elected or appointed to certain roles: i.e., stewards, bureaucrats, and admins, all of whom ultimately derive their own authority from The Aequalitas Project, which owns all the rights to WikiQueer and its sites. Both the non-human administrative structure, as well as its human components, are briefly described within this article (with appropriate links to the more exhaustive articles on each topic).

WikiQueer Data Structure and Development
Development of the WikiQueer data structure (as well as development of the other WikiQueer project databases) occurs within various namespaces. Each namespace segregates and organizes the data according to its function within the overall project schema. Each WikiQueer namespace and its particular function are briefly described below, with links to the corresponding project namespace article for each topic.

The Main Namespace
The Main namespace or article namespace is the namespace of WikiQueer that contains the encyclopedia proper—that is, where WikiQueer articles reside. The main namespace is the default namespace and does not use a prefix in article page names. This is distinct from other namespaces where page names are always prefixed by an indicator of the particular namespace in which the page resides. For example, all user pages are prefixed by, their talk pages by   templates by   and various types of internal administrative pages by   (such as this page). Thus, any page created without such a prefix will automatically be placed in the article namespace. The Main namespace number is zero (0).

The User Namespace
WikiQueer provides user pages to facilitate communication among participants in its project to build an encyclopedia. Generally, substantial content on a user page that is unrelated to WikiQueer is avoided. WikiQueer is not a general hosting service, so a user page is not used as a personal website. However, a user page may be about the particular editor's "persona" as a WikiQueerian, including the pages to which the user has contributed or their general interests in regard to subjects or projects related to WikiQueer, its administration and content. In addition, there is broad agreement that an editor may not include in his or her user space any material that is likely to bring the project into disrepute. To reach a user page, simply type, where "username" is the user's WikiQueer username. The User namespace is assigned the namespace number two (2).

The "WikiQueer" Namespace
Although it may appear from its name that the WikiQueer namespace or the Project namespace might contain the actual content of the WikiQueer articles, this is not correct. The Project namespace is a namespace consisting of pages with information or discussion about WikiQueer itself. As such, WikiQueer namespace pages are purely administrative, and the inclusion of substantive content should be avoided unless the content itself is about administration. The present page is contained within the WikiQueer namespace. The WikiQueer namespace number is four (4).

Pages in this namespace will always have the prefix. They can also be reached by alias  or the standard (for any MediaWiki site) prefix.

The File Namespace
The File namespace contains millions of illustrative images and other electronic media. The File Namespace is the namespace in which all of WikiQueer's media content resides and the media filenames all begin with the prefix. The File namespace number is six (6)

The MediaWiki Namespace
The MediaWiki namespace is one of the standard namespaces in the database structure of the MediaWiki software, on which WikiQueer runs. The pages in this namespace (whose titles begin ) contain the text to be displayed in certain places in the web interface. Only administrators can edit this namespace, but all editors can propose changes on the appropriate talk pages. See also WikiQueer:MediaWiki messages for discussions about the content of MediaWiki pages. The MediaWiki namespace number is eight (8).

The Template Namespace
'''Templates duplicate the same content across more than one page. You can change a template in one place and it will immediately propagate to the pages that use it. Templates should not normally be used as a substitute for usual article content, in the main article namespace.

Templates often look like text boxes with a different background color from that of normal text. They are in the template namespace, i.e. they are defined in pages with "Template:" in front of the name.

For example, consider the template Template:Disambig (follow the link to see the page where it can be edited). To insert the template's content into an article, type in the wiki page (  is called a template tag). Every article with that tag in it will display the following text:

This technique is commonly known as transclusion. Templates can also include calculated and substituted elements, as well as parameters, allowing for complex usage. For a table of some useful templates, see WikiQueer:Template messages. For detailed templating documentation see m:Help:Template. The Template namespace number is ten (10).

The Help Namespace
The Help namespace is a namespace consisting of WikiQueer pages whose titles begin with the prefix, such as Help:Link.

These pages contain information intended to help use WikiQueer or its software. Some of these pages are intended for readers of the encyclopedia; others are intended for editors, whether beginning or advanced. Some of the pages in the Help namespace are copied from the MediaWiki.org wiki.

There is a large amount of overlap between the Help namespace and the Project namespaces. For this reason redirects and hatnotes are often set up between these two namespaces. The Help namespace number is twelve (12).

The Category Namespace
Categories are a software feature of MediaWiki, which enables pages to be added to automatic listings. These help structure a project such as WikiQueer by grouping together pages on similar subjects.

A category page lists the articles (or other pages) that have been added to a particular category. There may also be a section listing the subcategories of that category. The subcategorization feature makes it possible to organize categories into tree-like structures to aid navigation. The Category namespace number is fourteen (14).

The Portal Namespace
Portals are pages intended to serve as "Main Pages" for specific topics or areas. Portals may be associated with one or more WikiProjects; unlike WikiProjects, however, they are meant for both readers and editors of WikiQueer, and should promote content and encourage contribution.

The idea of a portal is to help readers and/or editors navigate their way through WikiQueer topic areas through pages similar to the Main Page. In essence, portals are useful entry-points to WikiQueer content.

Portals are subject to the guiding principles of WikiQueer, and must comply with WikiQueer's core content policies like WikiQueer:Neutral point of view, WikiQueer:Original research and WikiQueer:Verifiability.

The Book Namespace
A WikiQueer book is a collection of WikiQueer articles that can be easily saved, rendered electronically, and ordered as a printed book. For information and help on community books in general, see Help:Books (general tips) and WikiProject WikiQueer-Books (questions and assistance). The Book namespace number is one hundred eight (108).

The Talk Namespaces
For every type of namespace there is a corresponding talk namespace. The accompanying talk namespace for each namespace page is a place where WikiQueerians may discuss and dialogue on their work in the various administrative and content pages in the corresponding namespaces. Whereas the user and project namespaces are even-numbered (or zero, in the case of the Main namespace), the talk namespaces are odd-numbered and are assigned the odd number that follows the corresponding substantive namespace number.

The Virtual Namespaces
There are two virtual namespaces that do not relate to pages stored in the database: Special and Media.

The Special Namespace
Special pages are pages that have no wikitext, but are generated by the software on demand. They are found in the "Special:" namespace. It is not possible to make a redirect to a special page, or to create normal pages beginning with the "Special:" prefix. The namespace number for a special namespace page is negative one (-1).

Special pages often take parameters. Sometimes these can be supplied after a slash (as in Special:Log/block); in other cases an index.php call is used (as in Special:RecentChanges). Also the content of some special pages depends on preferences that have been set by the user, e.g. classic or enhanced Recent Changes, the number of titles in Recent Changes and the watchlist, etc.

The Media Namespace
The Media namespace can be used to link directly to a file, rather than to the file description page. See information above on the File namespace. The namespace number for a Media namespace page (not a MediaWiki namespace page, see above) is negative two (-2)