Help:Glossary

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This is a glossary of wiki related terms.


  A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z 


A

Administrator
A user with a few extra privileges such as deleting pages, protecting pages from editing and blocking users.
Alphasort
Contraction of alphabetical sort
Article
A page in the main namespace.
Article revision
A revision of an article.
Automatic categorization
Some templates will automatically categorize pages they are placed on.

B

Base page
The opposite of a subpage.
Block
An editor can sometimes be blocked. Could for example happen during an edit war, after spamming etc.

C

Category
A category is something between a directory in a directory path and a tag, as a page sometimes can benefit from being in more than one category. Adding a category to a page is a way to organize the articles and put them in a larger context. See also category link.
Category diffusion
Breaking up categories that over time have gotten too big into smaller ones, often as subcategories to the larger one.
Category link
  1. A link that categorizes a page (for example [[Category:Help]]).
  2. A link to a category page (for example [[:Category:Help]]).
  3. Links to category pages that automatically are added to the bottom of categorized pages.
Category page
The page in the Category namespace where the categories resides. Should preferably only contain a description, links to parent categories and sometimes one or more templates.
Category sorting
A page can be sorted under a different name by using a sort key like this [[Category:Category name|Sort key]], for example [[Category:Boeing|707-320]]. If a page is in many categories the magic word {{DEFAULTSORT:Sort key}} can be used at the top of the page instead.
Category suppression
Suppression of automatic categorization by templates, usually depending on the page namespace. Some templates uses category suppression to only add a category to a page if it is in a certain namespace, for example the Main (article) namespace.
Cat sort
Contraction of category sorting.
Cleanup
See copy editing.
Copy editing
Editing to improve the formatting, style, and accuracy of text, but usually without changing its substance.

D

Diff
A comparison between two revisions of a page that allows a reader to see what was changed, added or removed from a page.
Discussion page
Synonymous to a talk page, a page in one of the talk namespaces.
Diffusion
See category diffusion.
Double redirect
A redirect page that links to another redirect page rather than directly to the article or other page.

E

Edit
To change the contents of an article. An edit is saved into a new revision of a page.
Edit summary
A short but meaningful summary of an edit to be show in the revision history for that page.
Edit war
When two or more editors battle each other, most often by changing some text back and forth. Will often lead to that the editors will be blocked temporarily to calm down a bit.
External link
  1. Link to content outside the wiki.
  2. An internal link that is not a wikilink, like for example permalinks.

F

File
A file, usually an image that can be used on pages by linking to it, like [[File:Thumbs up 32px]].
File page
A page in the File namespace containing information about a file, usually an image. Since a normal link will show the file, a colon must precede the file name in order to link to the file page, like [[:File:Thumbs up 32px]].
Lead section
The lead section in an article is one or more paragraphs of text preceding the first heading. The purpose of the lead section is twofold: It should give the reader a clear indication as to whether he have found the right page and it should give him an quick overview of the concepts of the article.

G

H

Hidden category
A category that will not be seen on the page that is categorized. A category can be hidden by adding the magic word __HIDDENCAT__ to the category page.

I

Infobox
A box with information on the subject of a page. Usually a template.
Interwiki link
A wiki link that links to another wiki, for example Wikipedia, by using a interwiki prefix followed by a colon and the name of an article on the other wiki. Technically the language links are interwiki links though they have additional functionality.

J

K

L

Language link
  1. A link at the end of an article connecting to an article about the same subject in another language by using its language prefix followed by a colon and the page title in the other language, for example [[fr:Accueil]] which will render as Français in the left hand menu under the heading "In other languages".
  2. A link to an article in another language preceded by a colon and its language prefix, for example [[:de:Hauptsite]] which will render as de:Hauptsite. Technically an interwiki link.
Language prefix
A two-letter prefix for a language, using the ISO 639-1 two letter language code, that precedes the name of articles not written in English. A forward slash (/) separates the prefix from the article name. A list with most of the language prefixes on the wiki can be seen in the {{LangSwitch}} template documentation.
Link template
A template that simplifies adding links commonly used. Link templates not only require less typing, they are also less error prone and will often help reduce maintenance.

M

Magic word
A built in functionality sometimes resembling a template, for example {{PAGENAME}}, that expands to the name of the page it is placed on, and __TOC__, that will place a table of contents where it is at.
Maintenance template
A template indicating to the reader and/or editor that a page have a deficiency in one way or another. Nearly always a messagebox template.
Mandatory
Something that have to be used. The opposite of optional.
Messagebox
A box with a message to reader and/or editor.
Messagebox template
A template for adding messageboxes. A gallery with them can be found at Help:Gallery of messagebox templates
Meta template
A template used by a template.

N

Named parameter
A template parameter which have to be used as a key=value pair.
Namespace
There are several page namespaces of which the ones one see mostly is the Main (article), Template, File, Help and FlightGear wiki namespaces. Apart from the Main (article) namespace, the namespace is indicated by a prefix preceding the colon in a page title, for example Help:Contents. Some of the namespaces have special functions, like the File namespace. Most namespaces also have an associated * talk namespace for discussion of the contents of a page, for example the Template talk namespace. See also pseudo-namespace.
Navbox
Short for navigation box template. Synonymous with navigation template.
Navigation template
A box template used for navigation. Two common variants is a box in the top right corner of an article linking together articles in an article series and a flat box at the bottom of an article linking together articles with something in common, for example articles about aircraft from the same manufacturer.

O

Optional
Something that does not have to be used. Opposite of mandatory.

P

Page
A page in any namespace.
Page tabs
The tabs on top of each page for viewing the page discussion, source, history etc.
Paragraph
A piece of text separated from other content with one or more empty lines.
Permalink
Contraction of permanent link.
Permanent link
A link to a certain revision of a page. The permalink can be found either in the revision history of a page or in the "Toolbox" drop-down menu on the left.
Piped link
A technique to use when one want to to link to a page using an arbitrary label, for example Templates can be translated as well, though in a [[Help:Templates#Translating templates|different way]].
Preload
To load a text into the text edit box when a page is created from a link with an URL with a preload= parameter linking to the page with the text to be preloaded.
Protected page
A page that have been protected from editing by an administrator. Only administrators can edit or unlock protected pages.
Pseudo-namespace
A prefix used on several pages that is not a namespace prefix. Pages in a pseudo-namespace are in in effect in the Main (article) namespace, and will show up in search results filtered to only show pages in the article namespace.

Q

R

Redirect page
A page whose title for example is an abbreviation, alternative name or a common misspelling that redirects to the article page about the subject. The only content of a redirect page usually is #REDIRECT [[Page name]]
Revision
A page as it was at a fixed point in time. Can be linked to using a permalink.
Revision history
A list of all revisions of a page with time, date, what users did the edits and any edit summaries for those revisions. The revision history is shown when clicking the "View history" tab. You can also compare the changes between different revisions on that page.

S

Sandbox
A page or set of pages for experiments. These are generally user page subpages.
Section
A part of the article consisting of a heading and wikitext.
Section and subsection headings will automatically be shown in a table of contents if there is 4 or more headings (though this can be suppressed using the magic word __NOTOC__ or the {{TOC limit}} template). The exception is the lead section, which should precede the first heading.
Sort key
By adding a sort key to a category link on a page it can be sorted under a different name like this [[Category:Category name|Sort key]], for example [[Category:Boeing|707-320]]. If a page has many categories the magic word {{defaultsort: Sort key}} can be added to the top of the page.
Spam
Links to commercial or other sites with the sole and only purpose of get readers to have a look there.
Subpage
A page with a page title including a basepage name and the subpage name separated by a slash, like Archive 2012 in FlightGear wiki:Village pump/Archive 2012.

T

Tag
A messagebox marking a page in one way or another.
Talk page
A page in one of the talk spaces were contents of a page is discussed. Synonymous to discussion page.
Template
A template is a piece of wiki content that can be used by adding the template name between curly braces, like {{Template name}}. Many templates can take parameters to alter what they will show.
Template page
A page in the Template namespace. Contains the template and any categories and often the template's documentation.
Topic
A discussion page section about a specific subject.
Transclusion
The inclusion of one document into another by reference. In essence what happens when templates are used. This is not limited to templates only though.

U

User
Someone who has registered to the wiki and can edit it. A few pages are protected from editing by users and users can not delete pages, though they can mark pages for deletion for example using the {{delete}} template to notify the administrators.
User links
The user related links, to the top right in the default Vector skin.
User discussion page
The discussion page associated to a user page. Usually referring to the discussion page of the top user page of a specific user.
User page
A page in the User namespace. Usually referring to the top user page of a specific user, for example User:Username, but sometimes also subpages. Usually contains autobiographical information, notes on current projects on the wiki etc. It is often considered rude to edit someones userpages.
User subpage
A subpage to a user page. These often acts as to-do-lists, sandboxes etc.
User talk page
A page in the User talk namespace. These are discussion pages used when contacting and discussing with specific wiki users.

V

W

Wikilink
Internal link in a wiki, added with two square brackets on each side of the name of the page linked to, like [[Page name]]. Links to category and file pages must have the page name preceded by a colon, like [[:Category:Help]], in order to not add the page to that category or the file to the page.

X

Y

Z