[Wikipedia-l] No-subpage policy makes editing [[Middle Earth]] difficult

[Uri Yanover]

Hello,

The recent conversion to the no-subpage policy has created a 
problem with editing those pages that describe whole independent 
universes. This first came to my mind in relation to 
[[Middle Earth]], but it is also relevant to pages such as 
[[Star Wars]], [[Star Trek]] and possibly other pages.

Since this involves a policy issue as well as a technical one,
I wanted to discuss it in Wikipedia-L before I (or someone else)
began to write lengthy patches.

The problem is in the following: it is extremely inconvenient 
(as a policy) to write "[[Middle Earth/Elrond|Elrond]] was 
the lord of [[Middle Earth/Rivendell|Rivendell]]" than it is
to write "[[Elrond]] was the lord of [[Rivendell]]"

I could think of several solutions to this problem:
* Remove the [[Middle Earth/]] part (e.g. [[Elrond]] instead 
    of [[Middle Earth/Elrond]]. But this would not only 
    add fictional content to the generally real-world 
    encyclopedia but also confuse the readers (think about
    [[USS Enterprise]]!)
* Creating a new namespace (e.g. [[Middle Earth:Elrond]]). 
    But that would not automatically solve the linking problem, 
    and would generally contradict the way namespaces are 
    used now (the division being functional and not
    content-oriented).
* Creating a new Middle Earth wiki. Although it would solve 
    most of the problems above, that would require too much 
    effort and make linking with the "main" Wikipedia more difficult.

The solution which I would personally prefer is to add another
addressing mode to the Wiki links.For example, we could add 
a #base directive after which all links except escaped ones 
would receive a certain prefix. For example:

#base [[Middle Earth/]]
[[!JRR Tolkien]] wrote that [[Elrond]] was the lord of Rivendell.

The link with the prefixing "!" would not be affected. However
after the #base directive, [[Elrond]] will automatically become
[[Middle Earth/Elrond]].

What do you think about it? Could this be implemented or there's
another (easier) solution?

Sincerely yours,
                Uri Yanover