Help:Redirect

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This is an archived version of this page, as edited by Patrick (talk | contribs) at 09:06, 2 October 2003 (As a simple way to avoid problems with infinite recursion, in the case one is redirected to another redirect page, the second redirect is not applied.). It may differ significantly from the current version.

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<-MediaWiki User's Guide

Short form (for easy linking): redirect (or meta:redirect)

What is a redirect?

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

MediaWiki User's Guide: Using redirects
(Redirected from Redirection)

(etc)

This tutorial discusses redirects as used in MediaWiki. It will cover the following topics:

Renamings and merges

Broken links are generally considered to be bad, because they annoy visitors. 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, and so on.

On a small scale, this applies to cases where duplicate pages exist on some subject, or lots of twisty little stubs on different aspects of the same overall subject.

The move tool

When a page is moved/renamed with the the Move page function, a redirect is automatically created from the old to the new name.

How do I create a redirect?

If you're creating a new redirect, start a new page, write #REDIRECT [[pagename]] (or #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 page with a redirect, for example after merging a duplicate page, 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 (but this text will normally not be seen). 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 have created a redirect.

After you create a redirect, you get sent to a page with the string "&redirects=no" in the URL. Thus the just created redirect page is shown, not the page to which it redirects. 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.

When creating new redirects, bear in mind that creating too many redirects can clutter up the search results page, which can hinder users. Also, don't spend too much time creating redirects - often it's more important to spend time improving the quality of the target page. A piped link is another way to make a link to a page with a name which does not occur in the first page.

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 {project name} ...

  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 page.

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.

These things do not work for redirects to other projects or to Special pages. Use http://{project domain name}/w/wiki.phtml?title=...&redirect=no (for projects outside Wikimedia the "w/" is not always used).

How do I delete a redirect?

To delete a redirect without replacing it with a new page, list it on your project's "votes for deletion" page. See your project's deletion policy page for details on how to nominate pages for deletion.

You might want to delete a redirect if one or more of the following conditions is met:

  1. The redirect page makes it unreasonably difficult for users to locate similarly named pages via the search engine. (see meta:searches and redirects for proposals to lessen this impact)
  2. The redirect might cause confusion.
  3. The redirect is offensive.
  4. The redirect makes no sense, such as Pink elephants painting daisies to Chemistry

However, avoid deleting such redirects if:

  1. They have a potentially useful page history. If the redirect was created by renaming a page with that name, and the page history just mentions the renaming, and for one of the reasons above you want to delete the page, copy the page history to the Talk page of the page it redirects to. The act of renaming is useful page history, and even more so if there has been discussion on the page name.
  2. They would aid accidental linking and make the creation of duplicate pages less likely
  3. They aid searches on certain terms.
  4. Someone finds them useful. Hint: If someone says they find a redirect useful, they probably do. You might not find it useful - this is not because the other person is a liar, but because you browse MediaWiki in different ways.

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 page.

Self-links, duplicate links

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 and redirects to Special pages

It is also possible, but controversial, to set up redirects between MediaWiki wikis, such as Wikipedia. Simply prefix the page name with the wiki name and a colon. To link to the Wikipedia article for dog, one would use [[EnWikipedia:dog]]. For example EnWikipedia:dog. As a redirect: #REDIRECT[[EnWikipedia:dog]]

However, compared with redirects within a MediaWiki wiki there are restrictions and drawbacks:

  • The message "Redirected from ..." is not shown.
  • Editing the redirect page is cumbersome, one has to use http://{project domain name}/w/wiki.phtml?title=...&redirect=no
  • "What links here" does not work across wiki's; this applies also to redirects, so one can not see which page(s) redirect(s) to a given page.
  • Being led to an other wiki without explicit request may be confusing.

In order to change an inter-wiki redirect (perhaps restoring previous content), manually go to a URL like http://{project domain name}/w/wiki.phtml?title=my_title&redirect=no , but replace "my_title" with the title of the page in question. You can then view page history, edit the page, etc, in the normal fashion. This is tedious, but it is the only way of doing this, currently.

The same applies to redirects to Special pages.

Double redirects

As a simple way to avoid problems with infinite recursion, in the case one is redirected to another redirect page, the second redirect is not applied.

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