No subject

"Note, however, that colons and prefixes can also appear in page
titles without indicating a namespace".

Apparently even MediaWiki editors have seen a need to distinguish
titles with a special, non-namespace, prefix.

> First, the site itself sets one relation -- this is why we use
> [[Mailing lists]] instead of [[Teaching Open Source mailing lists]]
> ... when the page is on teachingopensource.org.
>
> Second, we use categories. =A0So, any pages that are P_OSS_E chapters
> could be in [[Category:Practical OSS Exploration chapters]], while
> P_OSS_E plans are in [[Category:Practical OSS Exploration plans]].
>

I do not intend this to be a substitute for well constructed Categories.

> There are a few additional tricks.
>
> One is to use a Category: page as the actual landing page. =A0This lets
> you have page content as well as instantly see what is in the
> category. =A0As an example from another wiki:
>
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Community_Architecture redirects to
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Category:Community_Architecture
>
> Another example is http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fonts .
>

You need not go outside teachingopensource.org for an example of this.
 On the Main_Page is: [[:category:Projects|projects]] which is used in
this manner.

> Typically, in MediaWiki the usage of a word followed by a colon in a
> page name, e.g. [[User:Username]], indicates the page is in a
> different "namespace". =A0A namespace in MediaWiki refers to one of the
> default or an added Prefix:, such as [[Talk:]] and even
> [[User_talk:]]. =A0All pages that you see without prefixes are in the
> [[Main:]] namespace, but it is somehow a hidden prefix.
>
> Most namespaces are in *not* in the default search -- on
> teachingopensource.org, only the Main namespace is searched:
>
> http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/Special:Search?search=3D&fulltext=
=3DSearch
>

Thank you, I had noticed that.  I often need a larger search space to
gain more complete knowledge.

> Fedora Project's wiki has additional namespaces, with many more in the
> default search:
>
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=3D&fulltext=3DSearch
>
> So, using a prefix for a page name confuses it with namespaces. =A0There
> is some value, in my experience, in putting some content in a separate
> namespace. =A0It turns out that doing so increases maintenance
> complexity, so we've tried to keep it to to being needed. =A0For example
> from the Fedora Project:
>
> * [[Legal:]] has a very tight access list, we don't allow just any
> =A0person with wiki editing permissions to change those pages. =A0Putting
> =A0them in a separate namespace allows for fine-grained permission
> =A0control (i.e., specific individuals or small groups.)
>
> =A0[[Licensing:]] and [[Packaging:]] exist for similar reasons, to
> =A0limit page editing to a group smaller than "all account holders."
>
> * [[FUDCon:]] is the opposite, it is open to anonymous edits. =A0This is
> =A0a set of pages that are related to special Fedora events, the Fedora
> =A0Users and Developers Conference. =A0We need people to be able to sign
> =A0up to attend the event, and to edit pages about the event, who are
> =A0not Fedora contributors. =A0Normally, to edit the Fedora wiki, you
> =A0need to approve a contributor agreement. =A0We don't want that as a
> =A0barrier for folks to sign up for FUDCon. =A0Those pages are carefully
> =A0watched, and after each event, the set of pages are moved out of the
> =A0easy-to-deface FUDCon: namespace.
>

Thank you, this information about connecting a namespace to an access
control might be useful in some other context.  It is interesting that
the MediaWiki folks saw this need.

> Sorry about the overly thorough reply, but this is the sort of "reason
> why" that isn't written down very clearly anywhere -- it's part
> culture and part tool/technology. =A0I wanted to make a clear write-up,
> maybe it's worth copying some of it to a wiki page. :)

Indeed, it could be worth copying it to a page.  Tribal knowledge
takes a long time to acquire and can be a barrier to entry of a
potential valuable project participant.

>
> - Karsten

Please discuss a solution to this case:

Mihaela Sabin seemed to indicate she would be teaching two different
courses from the chapters being written:
http://teachingopensource.org/pipermail/tos/2010-August/001556.html
(The archive doesn't seem to have the complete text.)
"The following chapters are the most relevant to what I teach this semester=
: