Difference between revisions of "Help:Redirect"

Revision as of 16:44, 22 June 2009

A redirect is a Wikipedia page starting with:

#REDIRECT [[Article]]

where Article is the target page. A redirect is not an article, but it sends the reader to an article, usually from an alternative title.

For example, if you type "UK" in the search box, or if you make a wikilink: UK, you will be taken to the article United Kingdom, with a note at the top of the page: "(Redirected from UK)". The article UK contains no content other than the one line of code shown above, as you can see here.

How to make a redirect (redirect command)

To redirect page A (the redirecting page) to a different page B (the target page), enter the following redirecting command at the top of the redirecting page.

#REDIRECT [[NAME OF PAGE B]]

For example, to redirect the Cambridge University page (redirecting page) to the University of Cambridge page (target page), edit the Cambridge University page and enter:

#REDIRECT [[University of Cambridge]]

In addition to checking your spelling, make sure you capitalize the article name exactly like the main article is capitalized. Alternative capitalizations sometimes cause halts in redirects.

You can and should also give a reason for a redirect:

#REDIRECT [[University of Cambridge]]{{R from alternative name}}

See below for an incomplete list of possible reasons.

Redirects to page sections

You can also redirect to page sections within an article. See Meta:Help:Redirect#A redirect to an anchor:

#REDIRECT [[University of Cambridge#History]]{{R from alternative name}}{{R to section}}

Consider that when the target page is displayed, it is likely that the top of the page will not be shown, so the user may not see the helpful "(redirected from... )" text unless they know to scroll back to the top. This is less likely to cause confusion if the redirect is to a heading with the same name as the redirect; see for example "Argument from contingency".

One option for documenting a redirect to a section heading is to leave a comment using <!-- ... ---> to remind others that the title is linked, so that if the title is altered, the redirect can be changed. For example:

 ==Evolutionary implications== <!-- This section is linked from redirect "[[Richard Dawkins]]" --> 

A redirect to a non-existent section – perhaps due to a misspelling or name change – will simply lead to the top of the target article.

A more resilient approach is to insert an Template:Tl inside the heading, copying the heading's current title as a parameter to the template; then, even if the heading is renamed, its original anchor is preserved and the existing anchor links will still work. Template:Tl will take multiple parameters, so several names and variations can be accommodated. Documenting terms expected in the subsection without confusing the readers is encouraged. The above example becomes:

==Evolutionary implications {{Anchor|Evolutionary implications}}==

This method however has an unwanted side effect: the {{Anchor|parameters}} will appear in section edit summaries:

/* Some section title {{Anchor|parameters}} */ the user summary

The following markup avoids this side effect:

==Evolutionary implications ==
{{Anchor|Evolutionary implications}}

or this real example, which does have a convenient nearby section title:

==Table of AWG wire sizes==
{{Anchor|Table of AWG wire sizes}} <!-- redirect target and direct link from other articles -->

Template:Tlx will also work in the body text of a long section where one might not want a section or sub-section title, such as above a table referenced by another article.

Undesirable redirects

Double redirects

A double redirect is a title that redirects to another redirect. Double redirects are usually created after a move when old redirects are left unchanged and pointing toward an old name. This is one reason good editors check links and observe if the link traversed was a redirect or direct path.

Avoid making double redirects (a redirect that points to another redirect); they do not work (to prevent endless looping, a redirect will not "pass through" more than one entry).

If you move or rename a page, it is best to click on "What links here" to see if any redirects exist, and to change them to redirect straight to the new title.

Self-redirect

A self-redirect is a title that redirects straight to the page on which the link is found. This may occur if a redirect is created from a red link on the page, or if the title once was an article of its own but was merged. This is particularly common in a series of new inter-related topics moving together from the stub stage. Many editors despise red links, even temporarily in new topics. The team working the articles may well intend to expand such redirects to full articles, so the cyclical links are place holders; in such cases, checking the page histories should make it clear whether to make a corrective edit.

An exception is a redirect to a section within the article, especially in a long article that cannot be viewed all at once on an average-sized computer screen. Essentially, this is comparable to a "see above" or "see below," accomplished by wikilinking [[#Heading]] (no article name, just the heading name prefixed by #).

Nonfunctional redirects

Redirects to other Wikimedia projects, other websites, or special pages do not work. These should be avoided or replaced with a soft redirect template.