Help:Special pages

BattleTechWiki data structure

Namespaces
Subject namespaces		Talk namespaces
0	(Main/Article)	Talk	1
2	User	User talk	3
4	BattleTechWiki	BattleTechWiki 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	Policy	Policy Talk	101
102	Property	Property talk	103
106	Form	Form talk	107
108	Concept	Concept talk	109
112	smw/schema	smw/schema talk	113
114	Rule	Rule talk	115
118	Draft	Draft Talk	119
828	Module	Module talk	829
3000	Portal	Portal Talk	3001
3010	Guideline	Guideline Talk	3011
3012	Information	Information Talk	3013
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 cannot be directly edited 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 directly 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://sarna.net/wiki/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 available for the current user can be accessed from Special:SpecialPages, which is found in the sidebar of every page on BattleTechWiki 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, or 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.

Available special pages

By function

General information

• Special:AllMessages (System messages): displays all pages in the MediaWiki namespace. See Help:MediaWiki namespace.
• Special:SpecialPages: a list of most special pages currently available to all users.
• Special:Statistics: total number of pages and users in various categories.
• Special:Version: shows the version of the software the site is currently running and lists the extensions, skins, and libraries currently installed.

Page listings

• Special:AllPages: allows the user to access a portion of an alphabetical list of all BattleTechWiki pages in a specified namespace. A starting point can be given as a parameter, e.g. Special:AllPages/T (pages in the main namespace, from "T"), Special:AllPages/Template: (pages in the Template: namespace, from the start).
• Special:Categories: shows an alphabetical list of categories, with numbers of members.
• Special:CategoryTree: displays categories in a tree structure.
• Special:ListFiles (File list): list of images and other files uploaded; can be sorted by size or date. Special:ListFiles/Example lists files uploaded by User:Example.
• Special:ListRedirects (Redirects): lists all redirects.
• Special:PagesWithProp (Pages with a page property): lists pages that use a particular page property.
• Special:PrefixIndex (All pages with prefix): similar to AllPages. Lists all pages of a specified namespace beginning with a given prefix. Useful to find subpages, for example: Special:PrefixIndex/User:Example.
• Special:ProtectedPages: lists protected pages.
• Special:ProtectedTitles: lists titles which have been protected to prevent pages being created there.

Tools

• Special:ApiHelp: MediaWiki API help.
• Special:ApiSandbox
• Special:ComparePages: to compare two pages (diffs between two pages).
• Special:Diff: e.g. [[Special:Diff/611653557|<text>]] gives diff between version 611653557 and the preceding version of the same article, or [[Special:Diff/583498451/611653557|<text>]] gives diff between version 583498451 and 611653557, not necessarily of the same article, e.g. Special:Diff/330350877/611653557.
• Special:Export (Export pages): produces an XML file containing the wikitext and metadata of either the current version only, or all revisions, of one or more pages, specified in the form of a list; the XML file is in the format required for Special:Import; exporting is typically done either in preparation of applying the latter at another MediaWiki project, or for searching within old page revisions.
• Special:MIMESearch: filters files for media type.
• Special:MovePage: for moving (renaming) a page (see BattleTechWiki:Moving a page). The page must be given as a parameter.
• Special:Random: redirects to a random page from the main namespace which is not a redirect. Other namespaces can be specified as a parameter, e.g. Special:Random/Talk.
• Special:RandomInCategory (Random page in category): redirects to a random page within the specified category (can be from any namespace).
• Special:RandomRedirect: redirects to a random redirect page.
• Special:RandomRootpage: redirects to a random root page, that is, excluding sub-pages. Some wikis, such as Wikibooks, use a sub-page hierarchy. This function can be used there as a substitute for Special:Random, so it can be used to show "random books" in Wikibooks, instead of random pages.
• Special:Upload (Upload file): upload a file to the wiki.
• Special:WhatLinksHere: enables listing all pages linking to a given page (including transclusions and redirects). The target can be specified as a parameter, e.g. Special:WhatLinksHere/Wyvern.

Latest changes

• Special:AbuseFilter (Edit filter management): a set of tools for detecting problematic edits.
• Special:AbuseLog (Edit filter log): the log generated by the Abuse Filter.
• Special:Log (All public logs): combined display of various logs. The type of log, user and page affected can be specified. Parameters "block", "delete", "protect" and "upload" are available. e.g. Special:Log/block displays the block log directly.
• Special:NewFiles (Gallery of new files): gallery of new uploaded files.
• Special:NewPages: newest pages with creation date and time, current size, user who created the page, and first edit summary, in reverse order of creation.
• Special:RecentChanges: lists the latest edits in the project. Changes to watched pages appear bold.
• Special:RecentChangesLinked (Related changes): enables listing of the most recent changes in pages linked from a selected page, or belonging to a selected category. Changes to watched pages appear bold. The page can be supplied as a parameter, e.g. Special:RecentChangesLinked/Lesotho.
• Special:Tags: lists the tags with which edits may be marked.

Users

• Special:ActiveUsers (Active users list): lists editors who have performed at least one action in the last 30 days.
• Special:BlockList (Blocked users): blocked IPs and usernames.
• Special:Contributions (User contributions): enables listing of a user's contributions, or all new users' contributions. The user can be supplied as a parameter, e.g. Special:Contributions/Example.
• Special:EmailUser: e.g. Special:EmailUser/Example.
• Special:ListGroupRights (User group rights): shows the rights assigned to user groups.
• Special:ListUsers (Users): lists all registered users. Can be filtered by group (e.g. administrators) and other criteria. Note that Special:ListAdmins redirects to Special:ListUsers/sysop.

Personal

• Special:ChangePassword, Special:ChangeEmail (Change or remove email address), Special:ConfirmEmail (Confirm email address) and Special:ResetTokens
• Special:Contributions (User contributions)
  • Special:MyContributions: links to your contributions page.
• Special:EditWatchlist and Special:EditWatchlist/raw: To edit your watchlist.
• Special:MyPage: links to your user page.
• Special:MyTalk: links to your user talk page.
• Special:MyUploads (File list): lists files you have uploaded.
• Special:Preferences: allows you to view and modify your personal settings.
• Special:UserLogin (Log in): to log in to BattleTechWiki. Special:UserLogin/signup (Create account) to create an account.
• Special:UserLogout (Log out): to log out of your account.
• Special:Watchlist: shows recent changes to the pages you are watching.

Maintenance

• Special:BrokenRedirects: lists redirects that point a non-existent page. May contain false positives.
• Special:DisambiguationPages: lists all the disambiguation pages.
• Special:DisambiguationPageLinks (Pages linking to disambiguation pages), which lists all of the pages that link to disambiguation pages. (This is a replacement for the old Special:Disambiguations page which is deprecated.)
• Special:DoubleRedirects: lists redirects that redirect to another redirect. May contain false positives.
• Special:FileDuplicateSearch: Check to see if a certain file has a duplicate.
• Special:ListDuplicatedFiles: See all duplicated files on BattleTechWiki.
• Special:LongPages: pages in the main namespace, with size in bytes, in order of decreasing size.
• Special:MostLinkedFiles (Most linked-to files): lists images and other files linked from the largest number of pages.
• Special:ShortPages: pages in the main namespace, with size (of the wikitext excluding that of templates used) in bytes, in order of increasing size.
• Special:UncategorizedFiles: images and other files without category tags (see above).
• Special:UncategorizedPages: pages without category tags. Note that after adding a tag to a page, refreshing this page does not immediately reflect the change.
• Special:UncategorizedCategories categories without category tags. Note that after adding a tag to a page, refreshing this page does not immediately reflect the change.
• Special:UncategorizedTemplates: templates without category tags (see above).
• Special:UnusedCategories: categories which don't contain any pages
• Special:UnusedFiles: files which are not used by any page on the wiki
• Special:UnusedTemplates: templates which are not transcluded (however, they may be used for substitution).
• Special:WantedCategories: categories with members but no category page.
• Special:WantedFiles: missing image files and others.

Miscellaneous

• Special:BlankPage: a blank page.
• Special:BookSources: search sources for a book by inputting the book's ISBN number.
• Special:Captcha (CAPTCHA help): shows "Captcha" help.

• Special:ExpandTemplates: an extension used to produce expanded wikitext, i.e. templates, parser functions and variables in the input text are expanded recursively. See also mw:Extension:ExpandTemplates.
• Special:FilePath (Redirect by file, user, page or revision ID): returns the complete path for a file.

• Special:Interwiki (View interwiki data): view interwiki data.
• Special:LinkSearch (External links search): for searching for external links.
• Special:Permalink/Oldid: for linking to a specific version of a wiki page.
• Special:Random: a random page.
• Special:Redirect (Redirect by file, user, page or revision ID): Special:Redirect/revision/532639569 is equivalent to Special:Permalink/532639569

Restricted

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

• Special:Block: available to administrators. Used to block or unblock users, IPs and ranges of IPs.
• Special:CheckUser: available to users with the checkuser privilege.
• Special:DeletedContributions: available to administrators.
• Special:Import: available to administrators and importers.
• Special:LockDB and Special:UnlockDB: available only to developers. Used to switch the database between read/write and read-only modes.
• Special:Undelete: available to administrators. Provides one way to undelete a page.
• Special:UnwatchedPages: available to administrators.
• Special:UserRights: can be read by anyone, however only administrators can use the page to assign and remove user access rights.

Infrequently updated

The following special pages are updated on a less regular schedule.

• Special:AncientPages (Dormant pages): pages in the main namespace, in order of last edit.
• Special:DeadendPages: pages without any outgoing links.
• Special:FewestRevisions (Pages with the fewest revisions): lists articles with the fewest revisions.
• Special:LonelyPages (Orphaned pages): i.e. articles with no links to them in the wiki.
• Special:MostCategories (Pages with the most categories): lists articles whose number of categories is largest.
• Special:MostLinkedCategories (Most linked-to categories): lists categories with the most pages.
• Special:MostLinkedPages (Most linked-to pages): lists pages linked from the largest number of other pages.
• Special:MostRevisions (Pages with the most revisions): lists articles with the most revisions.
• Special:MostTranscludedPages or Special:MostLinkedTemplates (Most transcluded pages): lists templates for which the number of pages in which the template is transcluded is largest, not counting transclusions through redirects.
• Special:UncategorizedCategories lists categories that belong to any other categories.
• Special:WantedPages lists all pages on the wiki that are linked to, but are not yet pages on the wiki.
• Special:WantedTemplates lists all templates that are transclused on pages of the wiki, but are not yet templates on the wiki.

Alphabetical order

A

• Special:AbuseFilter, Edit filter management
• Special:AbuseLog, Edit filter log
• Special:ActiveUsers, Active users list
• Special:AllMessages, System messages
• Special:AllMyUploads, File list
• Special:AllPages, All pages
• Special:AncientPages, Dormant pages
• Special:ApiHelp, MediaWiki API help
• Special:ApiSandbox, MediaWiki web service API sandbox
• Special:AutoblockList, list of active autoblocks

B

• Special:BlankPage, Blank page
• Special:Block, Block user
• Special:BlockList, Blocked users
• Special:BookSources, Book sources given the 10- or 13-digit ISBN number
• Special:BotPasswords, Create bot passwords
• Special:BrokenRedirects, Broken redirects
• Special:BrokenLinks, Wanted pages. Redirects to Special:WantedPages.

C

• Special:Captcha, CAPTCHA help
• Special:Categories, Categories
• Special:CategoryTree, Category tree
• Special:ChangeContentModel, Change content model of a page. Available only to administrators.
• Special:ChangeCredentials, For changing password
• Special:ChangeEmail, Change or remove email address
• Special:ChangePassword, For changing password
• Special:CheckUser, Check user.
• Special:CheckUserLog, CheckUser log
• Special:ComparePages, Compare differences between page A and B
• Special:ConfirmEmail, Confirm email address
• Special:Contribs, redirects to Special:Contributions
• Special:Contributions, List contributions of a user
• Special:CreateAccount, Create account

D

• Special:DeadendPages, Dead-end pages
• Special:DeletedContributions, Deleted user contributions
• Special:Diff, Display the difference between one version and another of a BattleTechWiki page
• Special:DisambiguationPageLinks, Pages linking to disambiguation pages
• Special:DisambiguationPages, Disambiguation pages
• Special:DoubleRedirects, Double redirects

E

• Special:EditTags, For edit tags
• Special:EditWatchlist, Edit watchlist
• Special:EmailUser, Email user
• Special:ExpandTemplates, Expand templates
• Special:Export, Export pages

F

• Special:FewestRevisions, Pages with the fewest revisions
• Special:FileDuplicateSearch, Search for duplicate files
• Special:FilePath, Redirect to a file
• Special:FileList, File list. Redirects to Special:ListFiles

G

• Special:GoToInterwiki, (required value: valid project prefix), Hop into another wiki. Example: Special:GoToInterwiki/w:

I

• Special:Import, Import pages. Available only to administrators.
• Special:Interwiki, View interwiki data
• Special:InvalidateEmail, invalidate e-mail. Parameter required.

L

• Special:LinkAccounts, Link accounts
• Special:LinkSearch, External links search
• Special:LintErrors, Lint errors (mw:Help:Extension:Linter)
• Special:ListAdmins, redirects to Special:ListUsers/sysop
• Special:ListBots, redirects to Special:ListUsers/bot
• Special:ListDuplicatedFiles, List of files with duplicates
• Special:ListGrants, Grants
• Special:ListGroupRights, User group rights
• Special:ListRedirects, Redirects
• Special:ListUsers, List of all users
• Special:LockDB, Lock database (disable write)
• Special:Log, All public logs
• Special:LonelyPages, Orphaned pages
• Special:LongPages, Long pages
• Special:Login, redirects to Special:UserLogin
• Special:Logout, redirects to Special:UserLogout

M

• Special:MediaStatistics, Media statistics about uploaded file types
• Special:MergeHistory, Merge page histories
• Special:MIMESearch, MIME search
• Special:MostCategories, Pages with the most categories
• Special:MostInterwikis, Pages with the most interwikis
• Special:MostLinkedCategories, Most linked-to categories
• Special:MostLinkedFiles, Most linked-to files
• Special:MostLinkedPages, Most linked-to pages
• Special:MostRevisions, Pages with the most revisions
• Special:MostTranscludedPages, Most transcluded pages
• Special:MovePage, (required value: valid page name). Example Special:MovePage/Main page
• Special:MyContributions, User contributions
• Special:MyLanguage, intended for multilingual sites for which the BattleTechWiki is not.
• Special:MyPage, User page for active user, also used for generic link to User/sandbox
• Special:MyTalk, Talk page of active user.
• Special:MyUploads, Uploads of active user

N

• Special:NewFiles, Gallery of new files
• Special:NewPages, New pages

O

• Special:OrphanedPages, Orphaned pages

P

• Special:PasswordReset, Reset password
• Special:PermanentLink, A link to a specific version of a wiki page
• Special:Preferences, preferences
• Special:PrefixIndex, All pages with prefix
• Special:ProtectedPages, Protected pages
• Special:ProtectedTitles, Protected titles
• Special:Purge, refresh a page

R

• Special:Random, Random page
• Special:RandomInCategory, Random page in category
• Special:RandomRedirect, Random redirect
• Special:RandomRootpage
• Special:RecentChanges, Recent changes
• Special:RecentChangesLinked, Related changes
• Special:Redirect, Redirect by file, user, page, revision, or log ID
• Special:RemoveCredentials
• Special:ResetTokens, Reset tokens which allow access to certain private data associated with your account
• Special:RevisionDelete, used to delete revisions
• Special:RunJobs

S

• Special:Search, search
• Special:ShortPages, Short pages
• Special:SpecialPages, Special pages
• Special:Statistics, statistics

T

• Special:Tags, Tags that the software may mark an edit or logged action with, and their meaning
• Special:TrackingCategories, Tracking categories which are automatically populated by the MediaWiki software

U

• Special:Unblock, Unblock user
• Special:UncategorizedCategories, Uncategorized categories
• Special:UncategorizedFiles, Uncategorized files
• Special:UncategorizedPages, Uncategorized pages
• Special:UncategorizedTemplates, Uncategorized templates
• Special:Undelete, Search deleted pages; View and restore deleted pages
• Special:UnlinkAccounts
• Special:UnlockDB, opposite of LockDB
• Special:UnusedCategories, Unused categories
• Special:UnusedFiles, Unused files
• Special:UnusedTemplates, Unused templates
• Special:Upload, Upload file
• Special:UploadStash, Upload stash, files that are uploaded or in the process of uploading
• Special:UserLogin, log in
• Special:UserLogout, log out
• Special:UserMerge, merge users
• Special:UserRights, User groups management
• Special:UserGroupRights, redirects to Special:ListGroupRights
• Special:UserList, redirects to Special:ListUsers

V

• Special:Version, Version of MediaWiki in use, extensions installed, authors, etc.

W

• Special:WantedCategories, most red-linked categories
• Special:WantedFiles, most red-linked images
• Special:WantedPages, most red-linked articles
• Special:WantedTemplates, most red-linked templates
• Special:Watchlist, watchlist
• Special:WhatLinksHere, What links here
• Special:WithoutInterwiki, Pages without language links

Linking and transcluding

To create a link to a special page:

• [[Special:PrefixIndex/BTW]] → Special:PrefixIndex/BTW

It can take a label:

• [[Special:PrefixIndex/BTW|All BTWs]] → All BTWs

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

• {{Special:PrefixIndex/BTW}}

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.

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

Links containing URL query strings

Main page: Help:Link § 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.

See also

• Writing a new special page on the MediaWiki site
• Special page extensions: MediaWiki category
• Help:Special page on Meta

External links

• MediaWiki special page class definitions