Religions Wiki:Special pages

Special pages are pages that can't be directly edited by users; their content is instead generated by the MediaWiki software automatically, sometimes in real-time, sometimes based on cached information. Most special pages provide lists of pages that match specific criteria, such as articles with no categories or those having no incoming links to them. Others list other things, such as registered users. Some are page-specific, such as "what links here".

Below is a list of the special pages in use on this wiki and brief descriptions of what they're used for. For more in-depth information, see WikimediaMeta:Help:Special page.

Special pages for all users

Special pages — Special:Specialpages

List of (almost) all special pages that the user can use. (Some pages are only usable by administrators and others are just not in this list.)

Searching

These special pages are primarily used for searching.

General searching and browsing

Search — Special:Search

Allows keyword searching in any namespace or combination of namespaces (chosen by checkboxes).

When wiki-linking to this special page, the results match those of a keyword search using the "search box" and the "Go" button; see Project:Searching for more details.

Examples: [[Special:Search/bible]] (exact match on page title), [[Special:Search/video]] (search for keyword), [[Special:Search/template:bible]] (including a namespace)

All pages — Special:Allpages

Alphabetical listing of all pages in a specified namespace (chosen by drop-down menu), including redirects, which are shown in black.

When wiki-linking to this special page, a starting point can be given after a forward slash in the link; the main article namespace is used unless a different namespace prefix is specified with a colon in the usual way.

Examples: [[Special:Allpages/Bi]], [[Special:Allpages/Category:Bi]]

All pages with prefix — Special:Prefixindex

Very similar to Special:Allpages, described above, except the list contains only pages whose title begins with a given string of characters (the "prefix"); redirects are shown in black.

When linking to this special page, the "prefix" string is given after a forward slash at the end of the link; namespaces are handled in the same way as Special:Allpages.

Examples: [[Special:Prefixindex/Bi]], [[Special:Prefixindex/Category:Bi]]

Categories — Special:Categories

Alphabetical list of categories actually in use on the wiki, including those for which pages have not been created yet (i.e., "missing categories"). Alternatives to this list include searching the Category namespace using "Allpages" or "Prefixindex" (doesn't include missing categories), or browsing the category structure starting at the top (doesn't include categories that have not been themselves categorized).

Random page — Special:Randompage

Brings up a randomly chosen page in the main namespace (by default).

Can be made to work with other namespaces by appending the namespace prefix after a forward slash at the end of the link.

Example: [[Special:Randompage/Template]]

Specialized searching

List of redirects — Special:Listredirects

List of all redirect pages (pages whose sole purpose is to make links to non-existent page titles lead to existing pages). The existence of such redirects is not a problem that needs to be fixed. However, inappropriate redirects should be changed (for example, if Jesus were to redirect to Albert Einstein instead of Jesus Christ). Sometimes a redirect looks wrong, but that's just because more than one topic is discussed in a particular article. For example, BCE should redirect to Common Era, even though it means "Before Common Era", because both BCE and CE are discussed in the article Common Era.

MediaWiki:Imagelist — Special:Imagelist

History of uploaded images.

MIME search — Special:MIMEsearch

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User list — Special:Listusers

Alphabetical list of all users who have ever registered. Includes users with no user page, those who have been banned, etc. Can be narrowed down to bots, sysops (administrators), or bureaucrats using a drop-down menu.

Example: [[Special:Listusers/sysop]]

Book sources — Special:Booksources

Not for searching the wiki, but for finding books for purchase by their ISBN. This is used in conjunction with the automatic linking of ISBNs by the MediaWiki software. This special page can also be linked to explicitly by appending the ISBN after a forward slash.

Example(s): the bare text ISBN 0-486-41862-6 is auto-linked and equivalent to [[Special:Booksources/0486418626]]

Maintenance

Checking for vandalism and other bad edits

Recent changes — Special:Recentchanges

History of most recent edits. Should be checked occasionally for vandalism or other inappropriate changes (unwise page moves, etc.). Minor edits, as specified by the editors themselves, are marked with "m". (If you're an administrator, edits that have not been checked by other admins will be marked with "!".)

New pages — Special:Newpages

History of most recently created pages. Should be checked for bad page names, useless pages, redundant page titles, etc.

Gallery of new files — Special:Newimages

The latest uploads. Should be checked occasionally for blatant copyright violations or offensive images.

Pages with the most revisions — Special:Mostrevisions

Articles that have been edited the most. A heavily edited page may be an indication of an edit war (link is to Wikipedia's policy on such matters — remember that their policies don't apply here, but are often good ideas, anyway).

Wiki errors in need of fixing

Broken redirects — Special:BrokenRedirects

List of redirect pages whose target doesn't exist. Obviously, such errors always need fixing. If the target page is simply misspelled, fix the redirect page; if the target just hasn't been created yet, consider creating the page, or look for a more appropriate target that does exist. (Note the capitalization on this pagename; "Special:Brokenredirects" will not work.)

Dead-end pages — Special:Deadendpages

Pages that don't link to any other page in the wiki. Such articles should be populated with relevant wikilinks.

MediaWiki:Disambiguations — Special:Disambiguations

List of links to disambiguation pages, pages that have been marked with {{disambig}}. These links should generally be changed to point to the more precise page being referred to in the article.

Double redirects — Special:DoubleRedirects

List of "chained" redirects (redirect pages that point to other redirect pages). These always need to be fixed since the MediaWiki software won't automatically follow such redirects to their ultimate target page. Note that single redirects (links that go through a single redirect page to a target article) never need fixing. (Note capitalization on pagename; "Special:Doubleredirects" will not work.)

Orphaned pages — Special:Lonelypages

These articles are not linked to from any other page of the wiki. Consider setting up "reciprocal" links from articles the orphaned article links to (see "What links here" entry below), or search for other articles that should link to it.

Uncategorized categories — Special:Uncategorizedcategories

Category pages not containing any [[Category:]] links, which specify parent categories. Since links to category pages show up as "broken" until there is actually a wiki page for them, every category should contain at least a [[Category:]] link, if not any other explanatory text. The sole exception is the "top-most" category, called Category:Browse categories, which actually should appear in this list since it has no parent.

Uncategorized pages — Special:Uncategorizedpages

Articles not containing [[Category:]] tags. All articles should be categorized into one or more categories. See also Project:Categorization.

Unused categories — Special:Unusedcategories

Categories that have been created (i.e., pages exist for them) but do not currently contain any articles (no articles contain a [[Category:]] link to them). This may indicate an old category that is not needed anymore, or a new one that someone created in anticipation of having articles in it. Depending on the situation, either look for articles to populate the category with or nominate it for deletion.

Unused files — Special:Unusedimages

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Wanted categories — Special:Wantedcategories

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Wanted pages — Special:Wantedpages

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General cleanup

Pages with the most categories — Special:Mostcategories

Articles containing the most [[Category:]] links.

Short pages — Special:Shortpages

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Long pages — Special:Longpages

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Most linked-to categories — Special:Mostlinkedcategories

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Most linked-to files — Special:Mostimages

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Most linked-to pages — Special:Mostlinked

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Oldest pages — Special:Ancientpages

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MediaWiki:Popularpages — Special:Popularpages

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Administrative information and tasks

Export pages — Special:Export

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Blocked users — Special:Ipblocklist

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Logs — Special:Log

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Statistics — Special:Statistics

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System messages — Special:Allmessages

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Upload file — Special:Upload

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Version — Special:Version

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Special pages visible only to administrators

These special pages are only usable (and visible on Special:Specialpages) by administrators.

Block user — Special:Blockip

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Import pages — Special:Import

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Unwatched pages — Special:Unwatchedpages

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Page-specific special pages

What links here — Special:Whatlinkshere

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Related changes — Special:Recentchangeslinked

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User-centric special pages

MediaWiki:Userlogin — Special:Userlogin

Shown on every page when a user is not logged in, this link leads to the login/register screen.

Shown on every page when a user is logged in

Log out — Special:Userlogout

Following this link logs the user out (live link not provided on previous line to prevent accidental log-outs).

Page — Special:Mypage

The user's own User page. For example, if the user Dcljr were to follow the link above, he would be taken to the page User:Dcljr, while Arensb would be taken to User:Arensb. The next three pages work similarly.

Talk — Special:Mytalk

The user's own Talk page.

Preferences — Special:Preferences

The user's own Preferences page, where various options can be changed.

Watchlist — Special:Watchlist

A list of pages the user has chosen to "watch".

Shown on individual User pages

User contributions — Special:Contributions

A list of the user's contributions to the wiki (i.e., page edits).

When linking to this special page, a username is required after a forward slash.

Example: [[Special:Contributions/Dcljr]]

Email this user — Special:Emailuser

If enabled by the user, allows someone to e-mail them without knowing their e-mail address.