Wiki Development Project: Namespace Cleanup and Configuration

Namespace Configuration System

• Namespaces will be itemized in a database table.
• There will be a php page where anyone can view the list and the settings for each namespace, and mods can edit them.
• The configuration system will have (roughly) the following attributes:
  • Name: (Main, YMMV, etc.) This will include the canonical capitalization of the namespace (see below).
  • Editing Status: This will be a selection from a list of possible restrictions, from "Open" (anyone can edit/create articles) to "Require TLP" (article creation must go through Trope Launch Pad) to "Closed" (nobody can edit or create articles), and a few more.
  • Page Type: The default page type to assign to articles in the namespace (a work, a creator, a trope, a subpage, etc.).
  • Style: Main, Darth Wiki, Sugar Wiki, etc.
  • Auto-Index: Whether the namespace behaves like normal or is automatically indexed, such as in Laconic Wiki.
  • Icon: Choose the icon that appears in the namespace tab bar in the header of wiki articles.
• When anyone requests a wiki article (HTTP GET to pmwiki.php), the namespace part of the URL will be checked and forced to the proper capitalization. This will prevent things like "Ymmv", which break wiki functionality.
• When anyone tries to create or edit an article, the namespace configuration will be checked to determine if that action is allowed. If creation is blocked, a suitable message will be displayed. If editing is blocked, then the article will display as locked.

What We Need

What we need from the community is agreement on which namespaces should be kept and which should be discarded. The wiki has accumulated a lot of cruft due to the free-for-all nature of namespace creation, and we want to start with as clean a slate as possible.

For reference:

• The formal namespace list is here: Namespace.
• The complete list of namespaces may be viewed with this tool: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/articlecount.php
• The full list of articles in any particular namespace may be seen here, except that it won't work for Main: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/namespace_index.php?ns=YMMV.

How This Will Work

If we decide not to keep a namespace, any articles in it should either be cut or moved to a more suitable namespace. Any such namespaces that have remaining articles when the new system goes live will be set to "Closed", so that nobody can make new ones and the existing ones will be automatically locked.

For all remaining namespaces, we need to populate the initial settings: page type, editing status, and style. Note that many of these are already known and configured, so we'll carry those over — there's no need to renegotiate the status of Main or YMMV, for example. I'm mainly talking about the odder ones like, say, Castle.

After the system goes live, if anyone tries to add an article that isn't in an approved namespace, the attempt will be blocked. Requesting new namespaces would be done in the Locked Pages topic or some other topic we create specifically for that purpose.

Rules and Procedures

• The working list of namespaces to load into the configuration system will be stored in Namespace Cleanup Project.
• Any user may bring up a namespace that they think should be removed or given special handling.
• If there is significant immediate consensus, we'll approve it and any required actions (cleanup, transplants) can begin.
• If consensus is not clear, then we will use a crowner to collect votes.

We will also answer general questions about the system in this topic, but we will keep it focused specifically on the namespace project. Off-topic thumps will be used if needed.

• Q: Are we changing any media namespaces (Film, Western Animation, Manhua, etc.)?
  A: No, we are not. That's not in the scope of the project; the intent is to configure all media namespaces as they currently exist.

• Q: What are we doing with examples subpages (like Castle.Tropes Ato D)?
  A: We want to clean those up. Check out this post to see some ideas, and this Google Drive doc for a list of all such articles.
  Note: We can't just merge them back together, as most were hard split for size to begin with.

• Q: So what should we focus on?
  A: That's a great question! We're looking mainly at namespaces that have fewer than 40 articles in them, and that are not medium namespaces. In other words, let's start from the bottom of the list. In particular, let's get rid of one-off namespaces that aren't being used for actual trope content.

• Q: Is there a list of all namespaces that are being used for trope example subpages?
  A: Thanks for asking. Yes, it's here. Note that some media namespaces were caught in the query.