Wikipedia:Redirect

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This tutorial discusses redirects in Wikipedia.

What is a redirect?

Wikipedia uses redirects to direct people who go to one location on Wikipedia to another. For example, if somebody browses to: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/redirection, or follows a link to redirection, then they will end up at this page instead, and the top of the article will look like:

Wikipedia:Redirect
(Redirected from Redirection)

This tutorial discusses redirects in Wikipedia. It will cover the following topics:

(etc)

After you create a redirect, you get sent to a page with the string "&redirects=no" in the URL. This is a "feature" put in the software to confuse newcomers. To see your redirect working, use your address bar to delete that part of the URL. Alternatively, create a page that links to your redirect, and then follow that link.

What do we use redirects for?

Sub-topic redirects are often temporary, eventually being replaced by fully fledged articles on the sub-topic in question. Be conservative when creating sub-topic redirects - they can sometimes be counter-productive.

We try to avoid broken links, because they annoy visitors. Therefore, if we change the layout of some section of Wikipedia, we always leave redirects in the old location to point to the new location. Search engines and visitors will probably have linked to that page at that url. If the page is deleted, potential new visitors from search engines will be greeted with an edit window. The same is true for anyone who previously bookmarked that page.

We don't use manual redirects and cut and paste to change the title of an article. This would leave the page history under the old title, and if there's a talk page it wouldn't get moved automatically. Instead we use the Move page function, which keeps the page history together and automatically makes a redirect at the old location.

How do I create a redirect?

If you're creating a new redirect, start a new page, write #REDIRECT [[pagename]] at the top of the page, where pagename is the name of the target page. Here is an example. If you're replacing an existing article with a redirect, for example after merging a duplicate article, go to the page, edit it, and replace the existing text with #REDIRECT [[pagename]].

A redirect page will still redirect if there is extra text on the page after the #REDIRECT command and link. However, it will not redirect if there is anything on the page before the redirect. Also, there must be no spaces between the # and the REDIRECT. Consider copying the #REDIRECT [[pagename]] text into the edit summary so that people know that you've just created a redirect.

When creating new redirects, bear in mind that creating too many redirects can clutter up the search results page, which can hinder users. Sometimes it is better to use a piped link rather than creating a redirect.

How do I change a redirect?

Click on a link to the redirect page. Then look for the "(redirected from pagename)" link at the top of the page you've been redirected to. You will be taken to a page looking something like:

Pagename From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

  1. REDIRECT target page

Then click Edit this page. You can then either change the target of the redirect, or replace the redirect with a brand new article.

Another way to do the same thing: Go to the target page, and click "What links here". This will show you all the back-links from that page, including redirects. To change a redirect, click on it, and then click on Edit this page as above.

How do I remove a redirect?

To delete a redirect without replacing it with a new article, list it on votes for deletion. You might do this if the redirect is offensive and not useful, if it is unreasonably cluttering the search results, or if it has been added for the purposes of advertising or self-aggrandisement. See deletion policy for details on deletion.

What not to use redirects for?

When adding new redirect pages, try to keep the number of redirects to any one article to a reasonable number, those needed to cover common searches, meet user expectations, and particularly common misspellings (not every possible misspelling or permutation of a name, that's why there is a search engine).

A redirect should be deleted when one or more of the following conditions is met:

  1. the number of redirect pages for an article is unreasonably high making it difficult for users to locate similarly named articles
  2. the redirect has been added by a self-interested party for the apparent purpose of advertizing, self-aggrandizment, or fanaticism
  3. the redirect is offensive and not useful (such as "Joe Bloggs is a Loser" to "Joe Bloggs"), however, redirects which are meaningful due to common real-world usage (such as Dubya or Chemical Ali) should not be deleted (even if highly offensive)

What needs to be done on pages that are targets of redirects?

We follow the "principle of least astonishment" - after following a redirect, the readers's first question is likely to be: "hang on ... I wanted to read about this. Why has the link taken me to that?". Make it clear to the reader that they have arrived in the right place.

Normally, we try to make sure that all "inbound redirects" are mentioned in the first couple of paragraphs of the article. For example:

Avoid self-links, including self-links through redirects ("loop links"). Also, avoid having two links that go to the same place. These can confuse readers, and cause them to unnecessarilly load the same page twice.

Inter-wiki redirects

It is also possible to set up redirects between Wikipedia and its sister projects, such as Wiktionary. Simply proceed the article name with the wiki name and a colon. To link to the wiktionary article for dog, one would use [[wiktionary:dog]]. For example wiktionary:dog. As a redirect: #REDIRECT[[wiktionary:dog]]

Double redirects

As a simple way to avoid problems with infinite recursion, you cannot have a redirect to a redirect to an article. In such a case, only the first redirect is followed. See Wikipedia:Defective redirects for an auto-generated list of double redirects.

Question

In a redirect page, I edited the page to put some explanation of why I created the redirect page, after the redirection "Command". Naturally, I expected this would not normally be shown, as the redirect in action means that page is not shown. And, that is what happened. 

But, if people click on the ""Redirected From"" info in the target page, they can come back to the redirection page. But the text/explanation I put in is not apparent. Yet it was when I did the Preview of the page.
So, what happened to the text I entered ?? How can I get that explantory text to show, if people want to uderstand why a redirect page exists ?

Or, should I put the explanation in a Talk: page for the Redirect Page. Seems a bit more complicated, unnecessarily so. 

Can we have some explanation of this on this page, please.RB-Ex-MrPolo 10:38, 31 Jul 2003 (UTC)
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