View source for Help:Redirect

For general info on '''redirects''' in [[wikipedia:MediaWiki|MediaWiki]], see [[wikipedia:meta:Help:Redirect|Wikipedia's Help on Redirects]] &mdash; part of the [[wikipedia:m:Help:Contents|MediaWiki User's Guide]]. This article discusses policy on the use and abuse of redirects on the Spiral Knights Wiki, and is taken largely from [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Redirect|Wikipedia's policy]]. Other MediaWiki projects may have different approaches.

==How to make a redirect==

To redirect a page (1) to a different page (2), enter on the top of page 1:

'''<nowiki>#REDIRECT [[NAME OF PAGE 2]]</nowiki>'''

If you are redirecting to a section on a page, this would be:

'''<nowiki>#REDIRECT [[NAME OF PAGE 2#SECTION OF PAGE]]</nowiki>'''

For example, to redirect the [{{SERVER}}{{localurl:Administrators|redirect=no}} Administrators] page to the [[SpiralKnights:Administrators]] page, [{{SERVER}}{{localurl:Administrators|action=edit}} edit] the Administrators page and enter:

'''<nowiki>#REDIRECT [[SpiralKnights:Administrators]]</nowiki>'''

More examples are included below:

== What do we use redirects for? ==
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3"
!Reason
!Usage notes, and text that will be shown
!Tag
!Category to find articles so tagged

|-
|Abbreviations
|{{R from abbreviation}}
*[[FAT]] redirects to [[Flash authoring tool]]
|{{tlist|R from abbreviation}}
|[[:Category:Redirects from abbreviation]]

|-
|Misspellings
|{{R from misspelling}}
*[[Whilred]] redirects to [[Whirled]]
|{{tlist|R from misspelling}}
|[[:Category:Redirects from misspellings]]

|-
|Other spellings, other punctuation
|{{R from alternate spelling}}
*colour would redirect to color
|{{tlist|R from alternate spelling}}
|[[:Category:Redirects from alternate spellings]]

|-
|Other capitalizations, for use in links
|{{R for alternate capitalization}}
*Fleet Officer would redirect to Fleet officer
|{{tlist|R for alternate capitalization}}
|[[:Category:Redirects for alternative capitalization]]

|-
|Other capitalizations, to ensure that "Go" to a mixed-capitalization article title is case-insensitive
|{{R for alternate capitalization}}

Adding a redirect for '''mixed-capitalization article titles''' (e.g., Isle of Kent) allows "Go" to these articles to be case-insensitive. For example, without the redirect [[Terms of service]] a "Go" for "Terms Of service" or any capitalization other than exactly 'Terms of Service' would not find the article [[Terms of Service]].

'''Why''': Articles whose titles contain mixed-capitalization words (not all initial caps, or not all lower case except the first word) are found via "Go" only by an exact case match. (Articles, including redirects, whose titles are either all initial caps or only first word capitalized are found via "Go" using a case-insensitive match.)

Note: "Go" related redirects are needed '''only if''' the article title has more than two words and words following the first have different capitalizations. They are not needed, for example, for proper names which are all initial caps.

Examples:
*Redirect [[Qbeez Whirled]] to [[QBeez Whirled]] is needed because the Go search is case-sensitive for mixed-caps titles.  Adding this redirect allows the article to be found when a user enters "vice chancellor of austria" or "vice chancellor of Austria" as a Go search.
*No redirect to [[Underwhirled Drift]] is needed because the "Go" command is case-insensitive for an article whose title is all initial caps. Any capitalisation (e.g. "underWhIRLed dRIFT") entered as a "Go" will find the article. 

|{{tlist|R for alternate capitalization}}
|[[:Category:Redirects for alternative capitalization]]

|-
|Other names, pseudonyms, nicknames, and synonyms
|{{R from alternate name}}
*[[Alternative Virtual Reality Game]] redirects to [[AVR game]]
|{{tlist|R from alternate name}}
|[[:Category:Redirects from alternate names]]

|-
|Plurals, tenses, etc
|{{R from plural}}
*[[agents]] redirects to [[agent]], etc. 
**Note that <nowiki>[[agent]]s</nowiki> shows up as [[agent]]s, so it is not usually necessary to redirect plurals
|{{tlist|R from plural}}
|[[:Category:Redirects from plurals]]

|-
|Related words
|{{R from related word}}
*[[Buy]] redirects to [[Shop]]
|{{tlist|R from related word}}
|[[:Category:Redirects from related words]]

|-
|Sub-topics or closely related topics that should be explained within the text
|{{R with possibilities}}
*[[Status]] redirects to [[Profile]]
|{{tlist|R with possibilities}}
|[[:Category:Redirects with possibilities]]

|-
|Facilitate disambiguation
|{{R to disambiguation page}}
*[[Wikipedia:America (disambiguation)|America (disambiguation)]] redirects to [[Wikipedia:America|America]]
|{{tlist|R to disambiguation page}}
|[[:Category:Redirects to disambiguation pages]]

|-
|To redirect from a shortcut
|{{R from shortcut}}
*[[Redirect]] redirects to [[Help:Redirect]]
|{{tlist|R from shortcut}}
|[[:Category:Redirects from shortcut]]
|

|}

* Avoiding broken links (see [[#Renamings and merges|below]])

* Minor but notable topics

[[Template:R with possibilities|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 &mdash; they can sometimes be counter-productive, because they disguise the absence of a proper article from editors. Sub-topic redirects should only be used where the main article has a section on the sub-topic. For example, on Wikipedia, [[Wikipedia:denial of service|denial of service]] has a section on distributed denial of service. Sub-topics should be '''boldfaced''' on their first appearance in the section, to indicate that they are in fact alternate titles or sub-titles.

In accordance with [[wikipedia:naming conventions (precision)]] it's best to have an article at a well-defined, unambiguous term, with redirects from looser colloquial terms, rather than vice versa.

'''See also''': [[Wikipedia:Template_messages#Redirect_pages|Redirect template message list]]

=== Renamings and merges ===
We try to avoid broken links, because they annoy visitors. Therefore, if we change the layout of some section of the Whirled Wiki, or we merge two [[wikipedia:duplicate articles|duplicate articles]], 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, and so on. 

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

== When should we delete a redirect? ==

To propose the deletion of a redirect, write in the article's talk page, and add a proposed deletion template if you feel it's warranted.  See the [[SpiralKnights:Deletion|deletion policy]] for details on how to nominate pages for deletion.  Please also see [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Redirect/DeletionReasons|this page]] on Wikipedia for reasons not to delete a redirect.


This isn't necessary if you just want to replace a redirect with an article, or change where it points: see [[Wikipedia:meta:Help:redirect#How do I change a redirect?|How do I change a redirect?]] on Wikipedia for instructions on how to do this. If you want to ''swap'' a redirect and an article, but are not able to move the article to the location of the redirect please ask on the article's talk page to request help from an [[SpiralKnights:Administrators|admin]] in doing that.

== What needs to be done on pages that are targets of redirects? ==
We follow the "[[Wikipedia:Guide to writing better articles#Principle of least astonishment|principle of least astonishment]]" &mdash; after following a redirect, the reader'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:

* '''Longships''' were boats used by the Vikings... 
** [[Wikipedia:longship|longship]], redirect from [[Wikipedia:viking ship|viking ship]]
* '''Edvard Munch''' ([[Wikipedia:1863|1863]]&ndash;[[Wikipedia:1944|1944]]) was ... The broadest collection of his works is at on display at the Munch Museum at...
** [[Wikipedia:Edvard Munch|Edvard Munch]], redirect from [[Wikipedia:Munch Museum|Munch Museum]]

Don't cause a [[Wikipedia:secondary redirect|secondary redirect]].  They don't work like a primary redirect; same with tertiary redirects.

== Self-links, duplicate links ==
Avoid [[Wikipedia:Self link|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 unnecessarily load the same page twice.

[[Category:Redirects|*]]
[[Category:Redirects from abbreviation|*]]
[[Category:Redirects from misspellings|*]]
[[Category:Redirects from alternate spellings|*]]
[[Category:Redirects for alternative capitalization|*]]
[[Category:Redirects from alternate names|*]]
[[Category:Redirects from plurals|*]]
[[Category:Redirects from related words|*]]
[[Category:Redirects with possibilities|*]]
[[Category:Redirects to disambiguation pages|*]]
[[Category:Redirects from shortcut|*]]