Pseudo-namespace

A pseudo-namespace is a group of pages that users treat as a distinct, but which MediaWiki recognizes as part of another namespace (usually the ). This is often caused by user misunderstanding about what a namespace is, or how extra namespaces are added to the software.

Usually namespaces are formally recognized by MediaWiki. There are several benefits provided when a namespace is recognized by the software:


 * Special:Recentchanges can display changes to one specific namespace. When pseudo-namespaces are kept in mainspace, this means that users see changes to articles that they aren't interested in.
 * Special:Search can display search results from only specific namespaces.

To retain these features, it's better if, rather than informally creating them.

Namespace Examples

Manual:Parameters to index.php has a Manual namespace, but in Wikipedia:2001:_Space_Odyssey is not a namespace but a colon in the title

Alternate definition
Less often, "pseudo-namespace" refers to local namespaces that don't have any content associated with them, that are generated on the fly, and internally use a negative number. The only two namespaces like this are the and Media: namespaces.