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Articles within Wikipedia are organised into a number of namespaces. Some namespaces contain the articles, templates and categories which make up the encyclopedia itself, while others contain information about wikipedia, help pages and various tools used by editors to help write encyclopedia articles such as projects and talk pages.
Links between articles in different namespaces can sometimes be problematic, particularly those from articles in the encyclopedia to those used by editors to organise their work. Someone who has come here to find out about a subject that interests them shouldn't be exposed to Wikipedia's inner workings. A common analogy likens the main encyclopedia to a building in which readers wander around; they should not see the plumbing hidden behind the walls that makes the building work.
See also: Wikipedia:Database reports/Cross-namespace redirects
Notes on getting rid of cross-namespace links:
- It is not necessary to sign contributions made to an article; the edit history shows who wrote what.
- If a wikipedia user is mentioned in an article, they should only be linked if that have an article in the main namespace - linking to their wikipedia user page is not a suitable alternative.
- Redirects to namespaces other than Category:, Template:, Wikipedia:, Help: and Portal: are not permitted (see Wikipedia:Criteria_for_speedy_deletion#Redirects).
- Where a user or talk page really is the subject of an article, it should be referred to using an external link to make sure it works on mirror sites - see Template:Srlink for a convenient way to do this.
- Wikipedia users/pages are not suitable reference material; they are neither immutable nor permanent.
- Links to user/talk pages are sometimes part of deletion/copyvio/other admninstrative notices, but more often signatures added by new editors or occasionally a signed comment added to an article rather than its talk page.
This list is no longer built. See http://toolserver.org/~tb/oddlinks/ instead.