Wikisource:Namespace usage proposal

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In the interest of making our library more research friendly, there is discussion about expanding the navigational aids offered to users. Currently we have:

  • Disambiguation pages ("dabs") in the main namespace
  • Portal pages in the portal namespace
  • Index pages in the project namespace
  • Category pages in the category namespace
  • Author pages in the author namespace

The idea is to simplify and expand the navigational options. Below is a summary of five classes of navigational aids, the status quo for how they are handled, and the proposals made by different users. Bold indicates a departure from the status quo:

Type Status Quo Spangineer Bob Burkhardt,
Charles Matthews
Cmadler Hesperian (Commons) Wikipedia
Works about a non-person topic Portal Portal Portal Category Main Portal
Works about a non-author person Portal Author Main Category Main Portal
Works about an author Author Author Author Author Main Portal
Works by an author Author Author Author Author Main Portal
Works about a work Main (dabs, notes) Main Main Main Main Portal

Spangineer (original proposal)

[edit]
Type Proposal
Works about a non-person topic Portal
Works about a non-author person Author
Works about an author Author
Works by an author Author
Works about a work Main
Positive
  • Works within existing framework with limited upheaval
Negative
  • Not consistent—separates non-people from non-author people.

Bob Burkhardt, Charles Matthews

[edit]
Type Proposal
Works about a non-person topic Portal
Works about a non-author person Main
Works about an author Author
Works by an author Author
Works about a work Main
Positive
  • Intuitive: the reader will most often be sent to what he expects when he types something in to the search box
Negative
  • Not clean, because of cross namespace redirects, and moving of pages from Main to Author when a work is found by that person.
  • Sacrifices pages like Charles Dickens.

Cmadler

[edit]
Type Proposal
Works about a non-person topic Category
Works about a non-author person Category
Works about an author Author
Works by an author Author
Works about a work Main
Positive
  • Categories are standard navigational tools already; simply expand their use
  • Easy to add a work to a category
Negative
  • Limited organizational options once in a category

Hesperian (Commons)

[edit]

(Move all works to new namespace, perhaps "Works")

Type Proposal
Works about a non-person topic Main
Works about a non-author person Main
Works about an author Main
Works by an author Main
Works about a work Main
Positive
  • Logically consistent
  • Matches Commons structure
Negative
  • Would require massive maintenance effort

Wikipedia

[edit]
Type Proposal
Works about a non-person topic Portal
Works about a non-author person Portal
Works about an author Portal
Works by an author Portal
Works about a work Portal
Positive
  • Logically consistent
  • Matches Wikipedia structure
Negative
  • Would require massive maintenance effort