Special pages are a collection of useful tools and reports applicable to the current wiki. They cannot be edited, and instead provide users with maintenance reports, various lists of pages, lists of users and ways to manage them, various logs and so on.
The special pages are located in the Special namespace and…
Oh, right, namespaces.
The Templates guide mentions the Template namespace, I here talk about the pages of Special namespace, but we have people who are still learning WikFandom, and don't know such things. So…
A namespace is a kind of an ultimate category, which stores all pages which have similar purposes and work differently from other types of pages. For example, a page in Template namespace can be included into any other page by writing its name in curly brackets on said page. A page in Category namespace contains a list of pages which were added to that category. And, a page in File namespace is dedicated to a single file, which can be then included into any other page, and the file's description.
This guide is situated in User blog namespace. Pages in this namespace can be edited only by their authors (and administrators and moderators), but can be commented by everyone. The list of blogs written by a user is located on their user page, which is situated in the User namespace.
While pages in different namespaces can look like they are completely different, they generally behave the same way. For example:
- If you create a "Saturme Magnesia" page, it will work like all those character/location/ability/whatever pages we have here: it contains text, images, templates and other code you put there, and can be added to categories, nothing special.
- If you create a "Category:Saturme Magnesia" page, it will become a category page, and, while it can contain text, images and templates, and can be added to categories, it also shows a list of pages that were added to this category.
- If you create a "File:Saturme Magnesia" page, you have to upload the file and specify its format. This page can also contain text, images and templates, and can be added to categories, but all of this is the description of the file you uploaded.
- If you create a "User:Saturme Magnesia" page, it will be the profile page of a user named "Saturme Magnesia". Text/images/templates/categories work in here as well.
Same goes for Threads, Talk pages, etc. But there are certain namespaces with certain limitations.
List of namespaces
Each namespace has a name and a code, the code is used in css, I'll explain more about it in later guides.
| Code | Name | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| ns:-2 | Media | Media:Gamma-03 (Illustration, Mori).jpg | Links directly to a file, while the File namespace links to the file description page. |
| ns:-1 | Special | Special:RecentChanges | Special pages of current wiki. |
| ns:0 | Main | Noel Vermillion | Main articles, do not require prefixes. |
| ns:1 | Talk | Talk:Noel Vermillion | Talk pages of pages in Main namespace. We use article comments instead of them. |
| ns:2 | User | User:Face Monster | User pages, created automatically after the user's first edit. Users with rights have badges and highlighted names. |
| ns:3 | User talk | User talk:Face Monster | Talk pages of pages in User namespace. They are disabled here, because we have Message Walls. |
| ns:4 | Project | BlazBlue Wiki:Policy | Each wiki's Project namespace uses this wiki's name as a prefix. |
| ns:5 | Project talk | BlazBlue Wiki talk:Community Portal | Talk pages of pages in Project namespace. The example page is unused, use Forum instead. |
| ns:6 | File | File:Gamma-03 (Illustration, Mori).jpg | Page with a file and its description. Use Media namespace to link directly to a file. |
| ns:7 | File talk | File talk:Six Heroes (Chronophantasma, Story Mode Illustration, 5).png | Talk pages of pages in File namespace. |
| ns:8 | MediaWiki | MediaWiki:Edittools | Special pages that contain code and messages with which the wiki works. Editable only by admins. |
| ns:9 | MediaWiki talk | MediaWiki talk:Common.js/facebook.js | Talk pages of pages in MediaWiki namespace. |
| ns:10 | Template | Template:Userbox/Windows 7 user | Templates are explained here. |
| ns:11 | Template talk | Template talk:T | Talk pages of pages in Template namespace. |
| ns:12 | Help | Help:Color Chart | Help pages. Usually, wikis don't have them as it is possible to include a Help page from the Community Central. |
| ns:13 | Help talk | Help talk:pagename | Talk pages of pages in Help namespace. We don't have one on this wiki. |
| ns:14 | Category | Category:Site administration | Page with a description of a category and list of articles in that category. |
| ns:15 | Category talk | Category talk:Magic Users | Talk pages of pages in Category namespace. |
| ns:500 | User blog | User blog:Face Monster User blog:Face Monster/Face Monster's Guide to Source Editor |
The first link links to a page with all blogs of a user, and each blog post is a sub-page of that page. |
| ns:501 | User blog comment | User blog comment:pagename | Works like article comments, and cannot be opened as a separate page. |
| ns:1200 | Message Wall | Message Wall:Face Monster | Replacement for User talk pages, a special extension enabled on this wiki. |
| ns:1201 | Thread | Thread:35789 | Used by both Message Walls and Forums. |
| ns:1202 | Message Wall Greeting | Message Wall Greeting:Night Vision | Contents of this page will appear at the top of the user's Message Wall. |
| ns:2000 | Board | Board:General BlazBlue discussion | Like a category, but for Forum threads. Contains all threads created in this Board. |
.jpg){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
And that's the list of namespaces. Granted I skipped some weird things which are rarely used, but the majority of it is here.
Moving on…
The special pages are located in the Special namespace and the full list of them is available at Special:SpecialPages.
List of special pages
| Page | Description |
|---|---|
| Special:SpecialPages | Contains a list of special pages. |
| Maintenance reports | |
| Special:BrokenRedirects | Contains a list of redirects that link to non-existent pages. Either this redirect should be edited to link to another page, or that non-existent page has to be created. |
| Special:DeadendPages | Contains a list of pages that do not link to any other page on this wiki. Due to how searching engines work, it is advised to have at least one link on every page. |
| Special:DoubleRedirects | Contains a list of redirects that link to other redirects. Instead of being redirected twice, the user will arrive to a page that says "Redirected to here", so every redirect should link right to the proper page. |
| Special:LongPages | Contains a list of pages, in order from the longest to the shortest. |
| Special:AncientPages | Despite the name, contains a list of pages, in order from the earliest edited to the latest edited. |
| Special:LonelyPages | Contains a list of pages that are not linked from any other page on this wiki. Links to these pages should be added where appropriate. |
| Special:FewestRevisions | Contains a list of pages from the least edited to the most edited. Not necessarily a bad thing, I personally prefer to add all info to a page in a single edit. |
| Special:Withoutimages | Contains a list of pages without images. Not all pages should have images, but illustrations are nice. |
| Special:WithoutInterwiki | Contains a list of pages without links to these pages on BlazBlue Wikis in another languages. Some were created, but all of them are inactive and incomplete, so don't add them. |
| Special:ProtectedPages | Contains a list of pages that are protected from editing. Because vandals and such. |
| Special:ProtectedTitles | Contains a list of pages that cannot be created. Because vandals and such constantly tried to create these pages. |
| Special:ShortPages | Contains a list of pages, in order from the shortest to the longest. |
| Special:TagsReport | Contains a list of pages that use the selected tag. |
| Special:UncategorizedCategories | Contains a list of uncategorized categories. Each category should be categorized, with the only exception being Category:Browse, since it is a root category. |
| Special:UncategorizedPages | Contains a list of uncategorized pages. Each page should be categorized. |
| Special:UncategorizedFiles | Contains a list of uncategorized files. Each file should be categorized. |
| Special:UncategorizedTemplates | Contains a list of uncategorized template. Leave this be for now, sometimes it works weird. |
| Special:UnusedCategories | Contains a list of unused categories. "Pages with broken file links", "Stubs" and "To Delete" should be unused, but we seriously need a rollback. |
| Special:UnusedFiles | Contains a list of unused files. If these files are relevant, they should be added somewhere, but if they are not, they get deleted. |
| Special:UnusedTemplates | Contains a list of unused templates. Leave this as well, it will take a while to sort it out. |
| Special:UnusedVideos | Contains a list of unused videos. Same as files: relevant videos are added somewhere, others get deleted. |
| Special:UnwatchedPages | Contains a list of pages that are not on any user's watchlist. Available only to administrators. |
| Special:WantedCategories | Contains a list of non-existent categories that are linked from other pages on this wiki. Non-existent here means that there is no description page, and it should be created. |
| Special:WantedPages | Contains a list of non-existent pages that are linked from other pages on this wiki. They should either be created, or redlinks should be removed from those other pages. |
| Special:WantedFiles | Contains a list of non-existent files that are linked from other pages on this wiki. Either these files should be uploaded, or redlinks should be removed from those other pages. |
| Special:WantedTemplates | Contains a list of non-existent templates that are linked from other pages on this wiki. Ignore this as well. |
| Lists of pages | |
| Special:AllPages | Contains a list of all pages on the wiki, can select pages only from a certain namespace. |
| Special:PrefixIndex | Displays a list of all pages on the wiki that begin with a certain prefix. |
| Special:Categories | Contains a list of all categories on the wiki. |
| Special:Templates | Contains a list of all templates on the wiki. |
| Special:CategoryTree | Displays a category tree of a certain category. |
| Special:Disambiguations | Contains a list of pages that link to disambiguation pages, but it doesn't work here. |
| Special:ListRedirects | Contains a list of all redirects on the wiki. We have too many of them. |
| Users and rights | |
| Special:Block | Used to block a user or IP address. Available only to administrators. |
| Special:Unblock | Used to unblock a user or IP address. Available only to administrators. |
| Special:BlockList | Contains a list of blocked users. You don't want to end up here. |
| Special:ChangeEmail | A page that allows a user to change their email address for this wiki. |
| Special:Contributions | A page for looking up someone's contributions. |
| Special:DeletedContributions | Used to see someone's deleted contributions. Available only to administrators and content moderators. |
| Special:Editcount | Used to see someone's edit count. |
| Special:Preferences | Your settings. |
| Special:ListGroupRights | A list of all user groups and what they can do. |
| Special:UserRights | Used to manage user's rights. Available only to users with rights, although only bureaucrats can give someone rights, others can only remove them from themself. |
| Special:ListUsers | A list of all users of this wiki. |
| Recent changes and logs | |
| Special:Following | A list of pages you're following. |
| Special:Log | Displays various logs, like upload log with the list of uploads, or deletion log, with the list of all things deleted. |
| Special:NewPages | A list of recently created pages. |
| Special:RecentChanges | One of the most useful special pages. Basically, it's WikiActivity on speed. |
| Special:Watchlist | Like RecentChanges, but displays edits made only on the pages you're following |
| Special:WikiActivity | Nature's mistake. Basically, it's RecentChanges after speed's effects wear off. |
| Media reports and uploads | |
| Special:ListFiles | A list of all files on the wiki. |
| Special:FilePath | Works like Media namespace: you put file's name and get the full file. |
| Special:MultipleUpload | You should use this when you upload several files in one go. |
| Special:Upload | And this is used to upload a single file. |
| Page tools | |
| Special:ComparePages | Compares pages, yep. Input names of two pages you want to compare, and ComparePages will do its magic. |
| Special:CreatePage | Or you can just use the "Add a Page" option in the "Contribute" dropdown list at the top-right corner of a page. |
| Special:Undelete | Used to restore deleted pages. Available only to administrators and content moderators. |
| Special:WhatLinksHere | Second most useful page. You write a pagename and get a list of pages that link to the pagename. |
| Fandom pages | |
| Special:CloseMyAccount | Your self-destruction button. |
Conclusion
Even SpecialPages doesn't have a full list of these pages, and I also excluded some of the broken and weird and unneeded stuff here, but that should do for a regular contributor. I mean, me and Night already know all of this, and since we are the only ones with rights, these pages are the most useful just for us. I doubt anyone will actually use them, since I still see people on Visual Editor here, even though it was explained already how horrible that abomination is.
Well, if contributions on this wiki will actually improve, I might make a list of the best scripts and explain how to use them in the next guide, I think?