WHTwiki:Wiki terminology
Wikis have developed wiki-specific terminology. These terms are used with MediaWiki software. Terms that have more information elsewhere in WHTwiki are linked to the pages about them.
Contents |
A
| Admins / Administrators | Members who have access to more wiki tools than the standard editing tools to help with content organization and decisions. Admins can also take more action against spam and vandalism. Also called sysops. Note that while some members may have both roles, wiki admins and forum admins are not the same. |
C
| Categories | Groups of pages with related content. Pages can belong to more than one category, and categories can be sub-categories of other categories. |
D
| Dead-end pages | Pages that don't link to any other pages in the wiki. |
E
| Editors | People who contribute to wiki content. At some wikis, such as this one, people need to be registered and logged in to edit. At other wikis, anyone can edit, but if they don't have a wiki account, their IPs are logged and displayed with their edits. |
| Edit wars | Disagreements between two or more editors over page content in which the editors keep reverting the other editor's changes. |
N
| Namespaces | The optional prefix (before a colon) of wiki page names using MediaWiki software. The main namespace is for wiki-topic content and has no prefix. The namespace prefix WHTwiki is for content about WHTwiki, and Help is for Help pages. The Prefix index shows the namespaces in use, which also appear with some search results. |
O
| Orphans (also Lonely pages) | Pages that no other pages link to yet. |
R
| Redirect | (noun or verb) To direct a page to redirect to another page. In addition, redirects are created automatically when a page is moved (renamed). |
| Rollback | (noun or verb) The action of rolling back a number of edits to return a page to an earlier state. A rollback may be done after an editing war has taken place or if someone has vandalized the page. |
S
| Sandbox | A page that’s just for experimenting with wiki formatting. |
| Special pages | A collection of pages with lists and other information relevant to wiki users, such as most linked-to pages and categories, broken redirects, and short and long pages. |
| Sysops | Another word for wiki admins. |
| Stubs | Pages that have been started but have minimal content. |
T
| Talk pages | Pages where users can discuss if and how to change the content of a page. The Discussion link at the top of each article, category, and template page leads to the talk page for that page. |
U
| User pages | Pages where wiki users can write about their wiki interests and other interests. When you click on a wiki username, the link goes to the talk page for that user. |
| User talk pages | Pages where wiki users can leave messages for other users. |
W
| Watchlist | A user-specific list of pages that the user has chosen to watch. Users can choose to receive email notification of pages that have changed or just check their watchlist online for updates to watched pages. |
| WikiNature | The nature of wikis and how they develop and change through the participation of numerous users. WikiNature is starting a page and coming back to find more information than you alone could have added to it. It’s the interconnection of knowledge and the spirit of collaboration. |
| Wikiquette | The principles of wiki etiquette. |
| Wikitext | Wiki markup or formatting. |
See also
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