Proposal:Namespaces in wiki

A namespace is a prefix, suffix or infix to a key. It can be used in special cases to group closely related keys (domain prefix), or as additional qualifier for keys (typically a suffix, which can become infix if more suffixes are combined).

The colon character (':') is used as separator of namespaces in key names. Typical examples are the contact:* (contact=*) prefix to group together contact related keys and language suffix which is an additional qualifier (attribute) applicable to a wide variety of main keys such as name=*.

This proposal should serve to focus discussion, clarify the terminology used for namespaces in the wiki, and improve technical support of namespaces in the wiki.

This use of namespace must be differentiated from the wiki use of namespaces - the wiki has for example the article, talk page, key, tag and relation namespaces prefixed with "Talk:", "Key:" etc.

Problem description

While some namespace prefixes and suffixes are widely used there is no support for describing and searching them in the wiki.

The wiki has special prefixes for tags, keys and relations but none for key prefixes/suffixes and no templates exist to aid description of namespaces.

As a result many articles describing namespaces are misleadingly described as keys using the key description template, resulting in wrong links all over the place, misleading information and hard to find information.

What is needed

The wiki needs one or more namespaces for key prefixes and suffixes and one or more templates suited for describing those.