Project:Flat namespace


 * Flat namespaces are easier to navigate
 * The fewer levels of hierarchy the better when dealing with collaboration
 * People can't collaborate if they can't find what they are looking for

An encyclopedia is a classic flat namespace. So is a dictionary.

The names of pages in MediaWiki.org are not encyclopedic nor dictionary like because the topic of MediaWiki is narrow and deep, not shallow and wide like an encyclopedia or dictionary. So keeping the page namespace on MediaWiki.org flat and easy to navigate is not as easy as keeping the page namespace of Wikipedia.org or Wiktionary.org flat. But the need to keep taxonomic hierarchy on MediaWiki.org as simple as possible and flat as practical is important. It is management of information complexity.

Subpages may hurt site usability more than help because it can be hard for newcomers to guess where in the hierarchy something can be found and hard for veteran users to remember how to type out the exact hierarchy under which a page is located.

Categories and other labels should be kept as short as possible so that bunches remain easy to read and navigate at a glance and individual instances remain easy to type from memory into a page.