On 11-09-22 01:13 AM, Michael Allan wrote:

Hello to all,

I'm posting to request help with a conflict in namespace registration: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension_default_namespaces?oldid=430890 Wiki admins are looking for a safe range of namespaces to use for custom, site-specific purposes. A little over a year ago, we floated the range 500-599 on the registration talk page. There were no objections, so, a couple of months ago we reserved the range and amended the manual. You can see the discussion in section 4: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Extension_namespace_registration?oldid=43...

It turns out that an extension had already been using that range. Apparently the developer forgot to register it (see section 5, above). I guess he spoke to someone else, because just yesterday:

• The namespace registration system was replaced with a "default" system and the page was moved: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension_default_namespaces

• The range 500-599 is no longer marked as reserved in the same manner as the extensions are marked.

• A Liquid Threads extension was enabled on the talk page. (I mention this because it fails on my Firefox 3.6, so I can't use the talk page anymore.)

I guess the issue isn't open for discussion there, anyway. Please someone else take a thought for the needs of the admins, and:

1. Pick a range to reserve for site-specific use. A whole block of 100 would be ideal, if that's possible.

2. Clearly mark the range as reserved, in the same manner as the extension ranges are marked. For example: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension_default_namespaces?oldid=430890#Site...

3. Update the manual to reflect these changes: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Using_custom_namespaces

The extension developer (the one who forgot to register his namespace) says this is a "silly" request, but I think it's quite reasonable.

PS - Could someone also add a link to this thread from the talk page? I am no longer able to post there. http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Extension_default_namespaces

Please include wikitech-l in this discussion. Not every developer watches mediawiki-l because it's more of a help list, wikitech-l is our mailing list for development discussion.

Jack is not the author of the BlogPage extension. BlogPage is an extension developed for ArmchairGM, Jack has kindly been porting ArmchairGM and Wikia built extensions to be installable in normal MediaWiki. Naturally as he recently ported the BlogPage code that was in an external code repo and put it in our code repo for everyone to use, he went and responsibly added the namespaces that the extension has been using since it was developed (presumably sometime back in 2007) to that page so people would know. There were no 'objections' because practically no-one even knew that discussion existed. That's like walking into a forest, shouting out "I am now king of North America", then walking back into a city and asserting that because no-one objected you're now king.

ArmchairGM was founded in 2005, bought by Wikia in 2006, and their code was released in early-mid 2008. That page on MW.org however never existed before mid-2008. So not only is the concept of forcing 3rd party companies to abide by and add information to a wiki page we have on MW.org ridiculous, that page never even existed when BlogPage was developed.

The sentiment that the site-specific reservation added is "silly" seams to be shared by Jack, ^demon, and me at the least. For the record, all three of us are core developers.

That page does NOT list "reservations" or "registrations". It is nothing but a helpful informational page that lists default namespaces currently used by existing extensions and other known practices. The only purpose being so that developers of new extensions who want to try and avoid conflicting with namespaces other people may already be using can do so by avoiding any area of namespace numbers that people are already using. The page itself even lists two extensions using 600-601.

~Daniel Friesen (Dantman, Nadir-Seen-Fire) [http://daniel.friesen.name]