Help:Special page

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Namespaces
Subject namespaces Talk namespaces
0 (Main/Article) Talk 1
2 User User talk 3
4 Safer Nicotine Wiki Safer Nicotine Wiki talk 5
6 File File talk 7
8 MediaWiki MediaWiki talk 9
10 Template Template talk 11
12 Help Help talk 13
14 Category Category talk 15
100 [[Wikipedia:Portal|]] 101
118 [[Wikipedia:Drafts|]] 119
710 [[mw:Extension:TimedMediaHandler|]] 711
828 Module Module talk 829
Deprecated
2300 [[Wikipedia:Gadget|]] 2301
2302 [[Wikipedia:Gadget|]] 2303
Not installed
90 Thread Thread talk 91
92 Summary Summary talk 93
108 Book Book talk 109
442 Course Course talk 443
444 Institution Institution talk 445
446 Education Program Education Program talk 447
2600 Topic 2601
Virtual namespaces
-1 Special
-2 Media
Current list (API call)

Special pages are pages generated by the software on demand for special purposes, usually related to project maintenance. They are found in the Special: namespace, a virtual namespace whose pages lack corresponding talk pages. They are not written in wikitext and can't be edited in the normal way; but elements of their pages can sometimes be edited through corresponding pages in the MediaWiki namespace. If you make a normal redirect to a special page, the redirect will not be immediately followed (though special pages can be targets of soft redirects), and creating any pages beginning with the Special: prefix is also not possible.

Special pages often take parameters. Sometimes these can be supplied after a slash (as in Special:Log/block); in other cases an index.php call is used; for example https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&days=3&limit=10. Also, the content of most special pages depends on preferences that have been set by the user, e.g. classic or enhanced Recent Changes, the number of titles in Recent Changes and the watchlist, etc.

A directory of special pages can be accessed from Special:SpecialPages, which is found in the sidebar of every page on Wikipedia in the Tools section.

Modifying special pages

Although special pages are not themselves editable, they generally contain standard text which is modifiable (although only by administrators). To find the right portion of text, append ?uselang=qqx to the special page URL, and append &uselang=qqx instead if the URL already contains a ?, This will reveal message names in parentheses. Then, go to that name in the MediaWiki namespace. For example, Special:BookSources?uselang=qqx reveals "(booksources-summary)", so MediaWiki:booksources-summary is used on that page. To propose a modification, leave an {{edit protected}} request on the talk page of the relevant MediaWiki page. An administrator will make the change if it seems appropriate.

Available special pages

General information

Page listings

Tools

Latest changes

Users

Global users

Personal

Maintenance

Miscellaneous

Restricted special pages

The following pages can be accessed only by users with certain privileges.

Inactive

The following special pages are updated on a less regular schedule. Some of these pages may have analogues on cloud services.

Linking and transcluding

To create a link to a special page:

It can take a label:

  • [[Special:PrefixIndex/HMS|All HMSs]]All HMSs

To present the list on a page, transclude the name:

  • {{Special:PrefixIndex/HMS}}

However, some pages cannot be transcluded and would produce only a wikilink (e.g., {{Special:Random}}Special:Random). When non-existent pages are linked or transcluded, a red link is produced (e.g., Special:Red link example).

More information on transcludable special pages can be found at Wikipedia:Transclusion#Special pages.

Links containing URL query strings

Because the ampersand character (&) is disallowed, it is not possible to create an ordinary link containing &action=edit or &redirect=no in the URL query string.

Special pages in other languages

The term in the site language equivalent to English "Special" is used in each project, for example:

  • "Especial" in Spanish
  • "Spécial" in French
  • "Speciaal" in Dutch
  • "Spezial" in German

These also appear in the URLs. The English word "Special" always works, even on foreign-language sites.

See also

References

  1. ^ Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/Newsroom/Suggestions/Archive 18#Volunteer-initiated extension to be deployed to Wikimedia sites
  2. ^ https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/plugins/gitiles/operations/puppet/+/production/modules/mediawiki/manifests/maintenance/updatequerypages/fewestrevisions.pp
  3. ^ https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/plugins/gitiles/operations/puppet/+/production/modules/mediawiki/manifests/maintenance/updatequerypages/enwiki/cronjob.pp#21
  4. ^ https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/plugins/gitiles/operations/puppet/+/production/modules/mediawiki/manifests/maintenance/updatequerypages/mostrevisions.pp
  5. ^ https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/plugins/gitiles/operations/puppet/+/production/modules/mediawiki/manifests/maintenance/updatequerypages/deadendpages.pp
  6. ^ https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/plugins/gitiles/operations/puppet/+/production/modules/mediawiki/manifests/maintenance/updatequerypages/enwiki/cronjob.pp#27
  7. ^ https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/plugins/gitiles/operations/puppet/+/production/modules/mediawiki/manifests/maintenance/updatequerypages/mostlinked.pp
  8. ^ https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/plugins/gitiles/operations/puppet/+/production/modules/mediawiki/manifests/maintenance/updatequerypages/enwiki/cronjob.pp#33
  9. ^ https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/plugins/gitiles/operations/puppet/+/production/modules/mediawiki/manifests/maintenance/updatequerypages/enwiki/cronjob.pp#15
  10. ^ https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/plugins/gitiles/operations/puppet/+/production/modules/mediawiki/manifests/maintenance/updatequerypages/wantedpages.pp
  11. ^ https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/plugins/gitiles/operations/puppet/+/production/modules/mediawiki/manifests/maintenance/updatequerypages/enwiki/cronjob.pp#45
  12. ^ https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/plugins/gitiles/operations/puppet/+/production/modules/mediawiki/manifests/maintenance/updatequerypages/ancientpages.pp
  13. ^ https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/plugins/gitiles/operations/puppet/+/production/modules/mediawiki/manifests/maintenance/updatequerypages/enwiki/cronjob.pp#39

External links