Wikisource:Namespace usage proposal

In the interest of making our library more research friendly, there is discussion about expanding the navigational aids offered to users. Currently we have:
 * Disambiguation pages ("dabs") in the main namespace
 * Portal pages in the portal namespace
 * Index pages in the project namespace
 * Category pages in the category namespace
 * Author pages in the author namespace

The idea is to simplify and expand the navigational options. Below is a summary of five classes of navigational aids, the status quo for how they are handled, and the proposals made by different users. Bold indicates a departure from the status quo:

Spangineer (original proposal)

 * Positive
 * Works within existing framework with limited upheaval


 * Negative
 * Not consistent&mdash;separates non-people from non-author people.

Bob Burkhardt, Charles Matthews

 * Positive
 * Intuitive: the reader will most often be sent to what he expects when he types something in to the search box


 * Negative
 * Not clean, because of cross namespace redirects, and moving of pages from Main to Author when a work is found by that person.
 * Sacrifices pages like Charles Dickens.

Cmadler

 * Positive
 * Categories are standard navigational tools already; simply expand their use
 * Easy to add a work to a category
 * Negative
 * Limited organizational options once in a category

Hesperian (Commons)
(Move all works to new namespace, perhaps "Works")


 * Positive
 * Logically consistent
 * Matches Commons structure


 * Negative
 * Would require massive maintenance effort

Wikipedia

 * Positive
 * Logically consistent
 * Matches Wikipedia structure


 * Negative
 * Would require massive maintenance effort