(In reply to comment #0)

It would be nice if I could disable some of those default namespaces (e.g.
Image_Talk, MediaWiki, MediaWiki_Talk).

You do *not* want to disable the MediaWiki namespace, because it has a special role.

You can't disable MediaWiki: namespace as it holds system messages. Even if you run with with $wgUseDatabaseMessages = false, you can't rip away this significant part of the core. It is also MediaWiki's philosophy that each content namespace must have its own discussion namespace.

However, you can disable or restrict editing of particular namespaces, see http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Preventing_access#Restrict_editing_of_an_entire_namespace for details.

post wrote:

Ok, can I hide name spaces from Search?

The MediaWiki NS aside, it should be possible to disable all talk namespaces and e.g. the project NS.

Talk namespaces: Often useless in intranet wikis with only a small team of users.

Project namespace: Often useless since the Help NS is pretty similar.

I am reclosing this bug : we are never going to add an option to disable the default namespace. They are a feature of MediaWiki. Other wiki engine might suit your needs better.

See https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33298 for a similar request (no dupe)

I usually disable the core Help namespace from wikis I install. All of the other namespaces have special meanings.

No talk ns is needed if unneeded.

@Bugreporter: Why did you merge this into T35298 if the scope of T35298 is smaller (only "Talk" namespaces)?

T17085#204593 said you can not remove the MediaWiki namespace.