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ADR 33: Page-first and Subject-first Wikis ​

Date: 2026-09-18

Status: Accepted (2026-09-28)

Context ​

NeoWiki serves two kinds of wiki. In one the page comes first and Subjects hold data about it, as in Semantic MediaWiki or BlueSpice; in the other the Subject comes first and the page only stores it, as in Wikibase, and people create and view Subjects without caring about pages. User testing showed both kinds, and they want different answers to the same two questions: where a new Subject goes, and where a link to a Subject leads.

Decision ​

A wiki runs in one of two modes, page-first or subject-first. $wgNeoWikiSubjectFirst selects which; the default is page-first.

Page-firstSubject-first
A new Subject goeswhere its author puts it, by default on the page they are onon a page of its own
A link to a Subject leadsto the page that stores itto the Subject itself, on Special:Subject
A Subject's own page isan ordinary page, titled by the label unless the author picks a title; it can be movedin the Subject namespace by default, titled by the id; it cannot be moved

A surface that must behave differently in the two modes follows this setting and gets none of its own; the installation page lists which surface does what under Choosing page-first or subject-first. A second setting, or a change to what the mode decides, needs a new ADR.

Stored data and RDF output are the same on both, and a page may hold several Subjects on both.

Consequences ​

  • One switch to document and test, instead of separate toggles whose combinations would each need explaining.
  • $wgNeoWikiDereferenceSubjectsToHostingPage is gone. Where a concept URI leads in a browser now follows the mode.
  • Switching an existing wiki's mode moves nothing. Pages keep their titles and namespaces; new Subjects, and all links to Subjects, follow the new mode.
  • On a subject-first wiki, editing a label renames nothing, and two Subjects may share a label. The id still shows wherever MediaWiki prints a page title NeoWiki has not hooked yet, tracked in https://github.com/ProfessionalWiki/NeoWiki/issues/1503.
  • The Data tab as default view, generated labels, a source of labels for links at render time, and per-schema or per-user overrides are open decisions of their own.