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{{Redirect|WP:RDR|centralized dispute resolution requests|Wikipedia:Requesting dispute resolution}}
{{Redirect|WP:R|reliable sources|WP:RELY|relevance|WP:REL}}
<noinclude>{{Subcat guideline|editing guideline|Redirect|WP:R|WP:RDR|WP:REDIR}}</noinclude>

{{nutshell|Redirects aid navigation and searching by allowing a page to be reached under alternative titles.}}

A '''redirect''' is a page which has no content itself, but sends the reader to another page, usually an article or section of an article. For example, if you type "UK" in the search box, or follow the wikilink [[UK]], you will be taken to the article [[United Kingdom]], with a note at the top of the page: "<span style=font-size:85% ">(<font color=grey>Redirected from</font> <font color=#002BB8>UK</font>)</span>". This is because the page {{noredirect|UK}} contains the wikitext <tt>#REDIRECT&nbsp;<nowiki>[[United Kingdom]]</nowiki></tt>, which defines it as a redirect page and indicates the target article. It is also possible to redirect to a specific [[Help:Section|section]] of the target page, using the <tt>#REDIRECT&nbsp;<nowiki>[[Page name#Section title]]</nowiki></tt> syntax.

This page contains guidance on the proper use of redirects on Wikipedia. For technical help relating to how redirects work, see '''[[Help:Redirect]]'''. Other relevant pages are [[Wikipedia:Double redirects]], [[Wikipedia:Hatnote#Redirect]] and [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Redirect|WikiProject Redirect]].

[[File:EnWiki redirect - Pichilemo.png|thumb|right|419px|A screenshot of Wikipedia showing a redirect from [[Pichilemo]] to [[Pichilemu]].]]

==Purposes of redirects {{Anchor|reasons|What do we use redirects for?}}==
Reasons for creating and maintaining redirects include:
*Alternative names (for example, [[Edison Arantes do Nascimento]] redirects to [[Pelé]]), a redirect to the [[Wikipedia:Article titles|most appropriate article title]].
*Plurals (for example, [[Greenhouse gases]] redirects to [[Greenhouse gas]]).
*Closely related words (for example, [[Symbiont]] redirects to [[Symbiosis]]).
*Adjectives/Adverbs point to noun forms (e.g., [[Treasonous]] redirects to [[Treason]])
*Less specific forms of names, for which the article subject is still the [[WP:PRIMARYTOPIC|primary topic]]. For example, [[Hitler]] redirects to [[Adolf Hitler]], whereas [[Johnson]] is a disambiguation page rather than a redirect, since no Johnson is regarded as the primary topic for that name.
*More specific forms of names (for example, [[Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union]] redirects to [[Articles of Confederation]]).
*Abbreviations and initialisms (for example, [[DSM-IV]] redirects to [[Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders]]). But often an abbreviation will have multiple meanings, none of which is a [[WP:PRIMARYTOPIC|primary topic]]—in that case a [[WP:Disambiguation|disambiguation]] page should be created rather than a redirect.
*Alternative spellings or punctuation. For example, [[Colour]] redirects to [[Color]], and [[Al-Jazeera]] redirects to [[Al Jazeera]].
*Punctuation issues—titles containing [[en dash|dash]]es should have redirects using [[hyphen-minus|hyphens]].
*Representations using ASCII characters, that is, common transliterations (for example, [[Pele]] also redirects to [[Pelé]] while [[Kurt Goedel]] and [[Kurt Godel]] redirect to [[Kurt Gödel]]).
*Likely misspellings (for example, [[Condoleeza Rice]] redirects to [[Condoleezza Rice]]).
*Likely alternative capitalizations (for example, [[Natural Selection]] redirects to [[Natural selection]]). This is not necessary for user searching, but may aid linking from other articles and external sites.
*To comply with the maintenance of nontrivial edit history, pursuant to [[WP:MERGETEXT]] for copyright licensing requirements.
*Sub-topics or other topics which are described or listed within a wider article. (Such redirects are often targeted to a particular section of the article.)
*Redirects to disambiguation pages which do not contain "(disambiguation)" in the title (for example, [[America (disambiguation)]] redirects to [[America]]). These help maintenance by allowing deliberate links to disambiguation pages to be distinguished from links which need to be disambiguated.
*[[WP:Shortcut|Shortcut]]s (for example, [[WP:V]] redirects to [[Wikipedia:Verifiability]]). This is commonly done in [[WP:Project namespace|project space]], but not in article space.
*Old-style [[WP:CamelCase|CamelCase]] links (if already in existence) ([[AnnaKournikova]] redirects to [[Anna Kournikova]]).
*Links auto-generated from Exif information ([[Adobe Photoshop CS Windows]] redirects to [[Adobe Photoshop]]).
*Finding [[Help:What_links_here#Limitations|what links to a section]], when links are made to the redirect rather than the section.

There are [[Wikipedia:Template_messages/Redirect_pages|redirect templates]] to explain the [[WP:R#PLA|reason]] for a redirect.

Note that redirects to other Wikimedia projects, other websites, or [[Special:SpecialPages|special pages]] do not work. These should be avoided or replaced with a {{tl|soft redirect}} template. Soft redirects are also used in [[Help:Category|category space]] (using the {{tl|category redirect}} template).

==How to make a redirect==
{{main|Help:Redirect}}

To create a basic redirect manually, set <tt>#REDIRECT <nowiki>[[target page name here]]</nowiki></tt> as the only body text of the page. For instance, if you were redirecting from "{{noredirect|UK}}" to "[[United Kingdom]]", this would be the entire body of {{noredirect|UK|the "UK" page}}:

<code>
<nowiki>
#REDIRECT [[United Kingdom]]
</nowiki>
</code>

Redirects can also be automatically created when you [[Wikipedia:MOVE|move (rename) an existing page]].

==How to edit a redirect or convert it into an article==
{{Shortcut|WP:EDRED|WP:RTOA}}
Sometimes an existing redirect should really be handled by a full article, per [[:Category:Redirects with possibilities]]. For example, the name of a notable musician (who does not yet have an article) may instead be a redirect to an existing article about a band of which the musician is a member. In this case you may edit the redirect to make it into an article. Also, if an existing redirect points to the wrong page, you may edit the redirect to point to a different page.

If you want to edit a redirect page you must use a special technique in order to get to the redirect page itself. This is because when you try to go straight to the redirect page and edit it, the redirect page will automatically redirect you to its target page (because this is what a redirect page is meant to do). Below is an example of why you might need to go to a redirect page itself (to do a small edit) and how to actually get there.
For example, say [[Trygve Halvdan Lie]] did not have his own article, and so this link was a redirect to the page [[Secretary-General of the United Nations]]. If, later on, the page [[Trygve Lie]] was created as a biography, the page [[Trygve Halvdan Lie]] should be changed to redirect to [[Trygve Lie]] per [[WP:COMMONNAME]]. To do this, go to the redirect page by clicking the redirect note on the target page, which in this case would read "(Redirected from [[Trygve Halvdan Lie]])". Once there, you may click the "Edit" tab, and change the page from <tt>#REDIRECT&nbsp;<nowiki>[[Secretary-General of the United Nations]]</nowiki></tt> to <tt>#REDIRECT&nbsp;<nowiki>[[Trygve Lie]]</nowiki></tt>.

==Targeted and untargeted redirects==
{{shortcut|WP:TARGET|WP:RSECT}}
Most redirects are ''untargeted'', i.e. they lead simply to a page, not to any specific section of the page. This is usually done when there is more than one possible name under which an article might be sought (for example, [[Cellphone]] redirects to the article [[Mobile phone]]). For deciding which should be the actual title of the article, see [[WP:Article titles|Article titles]].

It is also possible to create a ''targeted redirect'', i.e. a redirect to a particular point on the target page—either a [[Help:Section|section header]] or an [[Help:Anchor|anchor]]. For example, [[Malia Obama]] redirects to [[Family of Barack Obama#Malia and Sasha Obama]]. Therefore, entering "''Malia Obama''" will bring the searcher straight to that section of the article [[Family of Barack Obama]] which deals with "Malia and Sasha Obama".

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.

The text given in the link on a targeted redirect page must exactly match the target section heading or anchor text, including capitalization. (In the absence of a match, the reader will simply be taken to the top of the target page.) It is often helpful to leave a [[WP:HIDDEN|hidden comment]] in the target text, to inform other editors that a section title is linked, so that if the title is altered, the redirect can be changed. For example:

<pre><nowiki>
==Vaccine overload==
<!-- linked from redirect [[Vaccine overload]] -->
</nowiki></pre>

To ensure that a redirect will not break if a section title gets altered, or to create a redirect to a point on the page other than a section heading, create an explicit target anchor in the page, e.g., by using the {{tl|anchor}} template. The anchor text will not be visible (unless the {{tl|visible anchor}} template is used), but it will serve as a permanent marker of that place on the page. Editors should generally not remove or alter such anchors without checking all incoming links and redirects.

For example, in the [[Google search]] article, the text <tt><nowiki>{{anchor|calculator}}</nowiki></tt> is placed at the point where ''Google Calculator'' is described. The title [[Google Calculator]] can then be redirected to [[Google search#calculator]].

===Warning===
#Don't give an anchor the same name as a section heading&nbsp;– this creates invalid code, as [http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/#C_8 anchor names must be unique].
#Be careful with anchor capitalization&nbsp;– [http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/links.html#h-12.2.1 section redirects are case-sensitive in standards-compliant browsers].<!--(XHTML standard is the same)-->

==Double redirects==
{{main|Wikipedia:Double redirects}}
The software will not follow chains of more than one redirect – this is called a double redirect. A redirect should not be left pointing to another redirect page.

Double redirects often arise after a page is [[WP:MOVE|moved]] (renamed) – after moving a page, check whether there are any redirects to the old title (using the link on the move result page, or using [[WP:WHATLINKSHERE|"What links here"]]), and change them to redirect straight to the new title. (Double redirects are usually fixed by a [[Wikipedia:Bots/Status|bot]] after some time.)

==Linking to a redirect==
{{Main|Wikipedia:Manual of Style (linking)#Redirects|l1=MoS linking redirects}}

You can link to a redirect page just as you can [[Help:Link|link]] to an article page by placing the redirect page name within a set of double brackets, such as: <div style="margin-left: 2em"><code><nowiki>[[</nowiki><var>Redirect page name</var><nowiki>]]</nowiki></code></div> replacing <var>Redirect page name</var> with the name of the redirect page to link.

To link to a redirect page without following the underlying redirect, use: <div style="margin-left: 2em"><code><nowiki>{{</nowiki>noredirect|<var>Redirect page name</var><nowiki>}}</nowiki></code></div> replacing <var>Redirect page name</var> with the name of the redirect page to link. Clicking on a noredirect link will send the reader to the redirect page rather than the final redirect destination.

==Categorizing redirect pages==
{{main|Wikipedia:Categorizing redirects}}
Most redirect pages are not placed in article [[WP:Categorization|categories]]. There are three types of redirect categorization that are helpful and useful:
*Maintenance categories are in use for particular types of redirects, such as [[:Category:Redirects from initialisms]], in which a redirect page may be sorted using the {{tl|R from initialism}} template. See [[Wikipedia:Template messages/Redirect pages]] for a full alphabetical list of these templates. A brief functional list of redirect category ([[WP:RCAT|Rcat]]) templates is found at {{tl|R template index}}.
*Sometimes a redirect is placed in an article category because the form of the redirected title is more appropriate to the context of that category, e.g. <span class="plainlinks">[http://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=Shirley_Temple_Black&redirect=no Shirley Temple Black]</span>. (Redirects appear in italics in category listings.)
*Discussion pages. If a discussion/talk page exists for a redirect, please ensure (1) that the talk page's projects are all tagged with the "class=Redirect" parameter and (2) that the talk page is tagged at the TOP with the {{tl|talk page of redirect}} template. If the discussion page is a redirect, then it can also be tagged with appropriate Rcats.

===Redirects from moves===
When a page is renamed/moved, a redirect that is titled with the replaced pagename is created and is automatically tagged with the {{tl|R from move}} template. This sorts the redirect into [[:Category:Redirects from moves]].

==<span id="CRD">When should we delete a redirect?</span><span id="crd"/>==
<!-- Link directly to this section with: [[Wikipedia:Redirect#CRD]]
Where CRD represents Criteria for Redirect Deletion -->
{{shortcut|WP:R#CRD}}
To delete a redirect '''without replacing it with a new article''', list it on [[Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion|redirects for discussion]]. See the [[Wikipedia:Deletion policy|deletion policy]] for details on how to nominate pages for deletion.

Listing is not necessary if you just want to replace a redirect with an article, or change where it points: see [[meta:Help:Redirect#Changing a redirect|these instructions]] for help doing 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 use [[Wikipedia:Requested moves]] to request help from an [[Wikipedia:Administrators|admin]] in doing that.

<!-- If you modify this list, do the same to the copy at [[WP:RfD]]. -->
<!-- Apparently this is too complex for some people to follow. Let's try it this way, then. -->
{{Wikipedia:Redirect/DeletionReasons}}

==<span id="PLA">What needs to be done on pages that are targets of redirects?</span><span id="pla"/>==
<!-- Link directly to this section with: [[Wikipedia:Redirect#PLA]]
Where PLA represents Principle of Least Astonishment -->
{{shortcut|WP:R#PLA}}
We follow the "[[Wikipedia:Guide to writing better articles#Principle of least astonishment|principle of least astonishment]]"—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" other than misspellings or other obvious close variants of the article title are mentioned in the first couple of paragraphs of the article or section to which the redirect goes. It will often be appropriate to '''bold''' the redirected term. For example:
* '''James Tiptree, Jr.''' (August 24, 1915&nbsp;– May 19, 1987) was the pen name of American science fiction author '''Alice Bradley Sheldon''' ...
** [[James Tiptree, Jr.]], redirect from [[Alice Sheldon]]

But insignificant or minor redirects can skip this:
* [[Density of water]] redirects to [[Properties of water]]. There's no need to insert a bolded '''density of water''' sentence in the lead section; it is a minor subtopic of the article.

If the redirected term could have other meanings, a [[WP:Hatnote|hatnote]] ([[Wikipedia:HATTEST#Redirect|examples]]) should be placed at the top of the target article directing readers to the other meanings or to a relevant [[WP:DAB|disambiguation]] page. This is usually done using one of the [[:Template:Redirect#"… redirects here. For other uses, see …"|redirect disambiguation templates]] ([[Wikipedia:HATTEST#Redirect|examples]]).

It may also be helpful to [[Help:Searching|search]] the [[Help:Category#Listing_all_categories|List of Categories]] for [[Wikipedia:FAQ/Categories#Can_I_specify_categories_when_searching.3F|related terms]]; adding a [[WP:HATNOTE|hatnote]] and a [[Help:Category|category link]] to the old term will make related pages easier to locate.

==Redirects that replace previous articles==
{{short|WP:BLANKANDREDIRECT|WP:BLAR}}
{{rellink|See also: [[WP:R#KEEP|Reasons for not deleting]] and [[Wikipedia:Deletion policy#Redirection]].}}

Removing all content in a problematic article and replacing it with a redirect is common practice, known as '''blank-and-redirect'''. If other editors [[WP:BRD|disagree]] with this blanking, its contents can be recovered from [[Help:page history|page history]], as the article has not been formally [[WP:DEL|deleted]]. If editors cannot reach consensus, the article should be formally submitted to [[WP:AFD|a deletion discussion]].

To make it easier for other editors to find the history of the blanked article, it's good practice to add a short notice at the talk page of the target article, even if no content has been [[Wikipedia:Merging|merged]] there. This is specially useful if the blanked article had few visits and infrequent edits. If the redirect is replacing an article that had been deleted by an [[Wikipedia:Administrators|administrator]], this notice is the only way for editors to know that a previous version of the article existed at all.

===Content of the replaced article===

If the topic of the article can be reasonably thought to describe a notable topic, mark the redirect with the template
{{tl|Redirect with possibilities}} to indicate that [[Wikipedia:Redirect#How_to_edit_a_redirect_or_convert_it_into_an_article|it could be expanded in the future]]. You may also consider [[Wikipedia:Stubbing#Stubbing_existing_articles|turning the article into a stub]] by removing all unsourced content and keeping the valid references, instead of blanking it.

Note that certain forms of blanking are not allowed. [[Wikipedia:Vandalism#Blanking.2C_illegitimate|Illegitimate blanking]] of valid content without reason is considered [[WP:vandalism|vandalism]], a form of [[Wikipedia:disruptive editing|disruptive editing]]. Other forms of blank-and-redirect, although not vandalism, are still undesirable. If you want to [[WP:CUTPASTE|rename the article by cutting and pasting text]] to a new article with a different title, you should instead [[Wikipedia:Moving a page|move the page]] with the ''Move'' option. If you want to keep some content from the blanked article and add it to the target article, you should follow the instructions at [[Wikipedia:Merging#How to merge]]. Both processes will create proper links to the edit history, which is required by the [[Wikipedia:Copyrights|Wikipedia license]] for legal reasons to [[Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia|preserve attribution of content to its authors]].

==<span id="NOTBROKEN">Do not "fix" links to redirects that are not broken</span><span id="notbroken"/>==
{{shortcut|WP:NOTBROKEN|WP:R#NOTBROKEN|WP:UNBROKEN}}
There is nothing inherently wrong with linking to redirects to articles. Some editors are tempted, upon finding a link to a redirect page, to bypass the redirect and point the link directly at the target page. While there are a limited number of cases where this is beneficial, it is generally an unhelpful and time-wasting exercise, and it can actually be detrimental.

With a few limited exceptions, there are no good reasons to pipe links solely to avoid redirects. It is almost never helpful to replace <code><nowiki>[[redirect]]</nowiki></code> with <code><nowiki>[[target|redirect]]</nowiki></code>.

It is likewise unhelpful to edit visible links for no reason other than to avoid redirects. That is, editors should not change, for instance, <code><nowiki>[[Franklin Roosevelt]]</nowiki></code> to <code><nowiki>[[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]</nowiki></code> just to "fix a redirect". However, it is perfectly acceptable to change <code><nowiki>[[Franklin Roosevelt]]</nowiki></code> to <code><nowiki>[[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]</nowiki></code> if for some non-redirect-related reason it is preferred that ''Franklin D. Roosevelt'' should actually appear in the text.

Reasons not to change (bypass) redirects include:
* Redirects can indicate [[:Category:Redirects with possibilities|possible future articles]] (see {{tl|Redirect with possibilities}}).
* Introducing unnecessary invisible text makes the article more difficult to read in page source form.
* Non-piped links make better use of the "what links here" tool, making it easier to track how articles are linked and helping with large-scale changes to links.
* Shortcuts or redirects to embedded anchors or sections of articles or of [[Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines|Wikipedia's advice pages]] should never be bypassed, as the anchors or section headings on the page may change over time. Updating one redirect is far more efficient than updating dozens of piped links. (The [[tools:~dispenser/cgi-bin/rdcheck.py|Rdcheck]] tool is extremely useful in such cases for finding which redirects need to be changed after an article is updated.)
* Intentional links to [[Wikipedia:Disambiguation|disambiguation page]]s always use the title with "(disambiguation)", even if that is a redirect.
* If editors persistently use a redirect instead of an article title, it may be that the article needs to be moved rather than the redirect changed. As such the systematic "fixing of redirects" may eradicate useful information which can be used to help decide on the "best" article title.

Exceptions:{{shortcut|WP:BRINT}}
* {{Anchor|Bypass redirects in navigational templates}}<span id="template link fix"/><span id="template linkfix"/><span id="templatelinkfix"/><span id="TLF"/>In many cases it is preferable to change redirected links in navigational templates, such as those found at the bottom of many articles (e.g., {{tl|US Presidents}} at the end of [[George Washington]]). In this case, when the template is placed on an article, and contains a direct link to the same article (rather than a redirect), the direct link will display in '''bold''' (and not as a link), making it easier to navigate through a series of articles using the template. There are exceptions to this exception: where a redirect represents a distinct sub-topic within a larger article and is not merely a variant name, it is preferable to leave the redirect in the template.
* It may be appropriate to make this kind of change if the hint that appears when a user hovers over the link is misleading.

===Self-redirects===
{{See also|Help:Self link}}
Avoid linking to titles which redirect straight back to the page on which the link is found. This situation may arise if a redirect is created from a red link on the page, or if the title was once a separate page but was merged.

However, linking to a title which redirects to a section or anchor within the article (redirects with {{tl|R to section}} or {{tl|R to anchor}}) is acceptable as it facilitates navigation in particular on long articles that cannot be viewed all at once on an average-sized computer screen. It is not necessary to remove such redirects if they are marked with {{tl|R with possibilities}} as they have the potential to become independent articles in the future.

==Template redirects== <!--Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/General fixes links here -->
A template can be redirected to another template in the same way, e.g., by entering the following markup at the top of a template T2:
<nowiki>#REDIRECT [[Template:T1]]</nowiki>

This allows the template name T2 to be used instead of the actual template name T1. All the parameters of T1 will be respected by T2.

A categorisation template such as {{tl|R from move}} may be added to T2 (below the <code><nowiki>#REDIRECT</nowiki></code> line) as follows:

<nowiki>{{R from move|T1}}</nowiki>

Redirects for templates can cause confusion and make updating template calls more complicated. For example, if calls to T1 are to be changed to some new template TN1, articles must be searched for <code><nowiki>{{T1}}</nowiki></code> and a separate search must be made for each of its aliases (including T2 in this example). Moreover changes to syntax, corrections, scans and other processes (for example tag dating) must take into account ''all'' redirects.
==Redirect protection==
{{Main|Wikipedia:Protected redirects}}
Sometimes, a redirect to an article pertaining to a very controversial topic will be fully- or, more rarely, semi-protected indefinitely. Examples include [[Obama]], [[Hitler]], and [[9/11]].

==<span id="CATEGORY" /><span id="category"/>Category redirects==
{{anchor|category}}
{{shortcut|WP:R#CATEGORY}}
{{about|technical issue on category redirects|making "soft" category redirects|Wikipedia:Categories for discussion#Redirecting categories}}
Do ''not'' create inter-[[Help:Category|category]] redirects, by adding a line <tt>#REDIRECT [[<nowiki />:Category:''target category'']]</tt> to a category page. Articles added to a "redirected" category do not show up in the target category, preventing proper categorization. What's worse, since redirected categories do not become "red links", editors won't be aware even when they add an article to a redirected category.

For an attempt to fix this issue in [[MediaWiki]], see {{bug|3311}}.

Instead, [[WP:soft redirect|"soft" redirects]] are used. It can be created by placing {{tlx|Category redirect|target}} in the category page. See [[Wikipedia:Categories for discussion#Redirecting categories]].

== {{anchor|SUPPRESS}}Suppressing redirects ==
{{shortcut|WP:R#SUPPRESS}}
When a page is moved, a redirect is automatically left behind. Some groups of users (those who possess a <code>suppressredirect</code> [[Special:ListGroupRights|right]]) have the ability to prevent the redirect being created, by unchecking the box labelled "Leave a redirect behind." Currently these groups are administrators, bots and [[meta:Global rollback|global rollbackers]]. In some circumstances, a page should be moved, but a redirect from its current name is inappropriate, such as reverting page-move vandalism. Suppressing the redirect can avoid an extra action (page removal) and save time in these cases.

However in general, the redirect will be a useful entry in the history, and it is best to leave it behind, unless there is a good reason to suppress the redirect, such as vandalism, [[WP:Userfication|userfying]] ''recently created'' malplaced items or freeing a title to be occupied immediately by another page (e.g., moving <u>term</u> to <u>accurate term</u> and <u>term (disambiguation)</u> to <u>term</u>). Redirects leave a trail to help readers find the old article, in case a new article is created at its previous location, and to prevent [[Wikipedia:Linkrot|linkrot]]. Therefore, we usually neither suppress nor [[#When should we delete a redirect?|delete]] redirects. As Brion Vibber [[bugzilla:15842#c20|said]], "Not breaking links helps everyone, ''especially us first and foremost''". He also [[bugzilla:15842#c15|said]] that the removal of (file) redirects is "extremely user-hostile and makes the project less useful".

==Technical notes==
A Wikipedia redirect is not the same as an HTTP redirect; therefore it does not generate an [[HTTP 302]] response. Instead, the MediaWiki software generates a duplicate of the target page with small text below the title identifying the redirect that was used, and so the HTML is different than the HTML for the target page. When a user clicks on a redirect such as [[housecat]], the page URL is still https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Housecat despite the page being a redirect to [[cat]] (that is, a MediaWiki redirect is not an [[HTTP redirect]]). On one hand, this allows links like [[housecat#Anatomy]] to work as expected, but it also requires redirects to anchors to be implemented as a piece of JavaScript that jumps to an appropriate section after the page has loaded (since [[second-stage boot loader]] is https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Second-stage_boot_loader and not https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Booting#Second-stage boot loader – the anchor part of the URL only changes to "#SECOND-STAGE" after page load).

==See also==
{{Wikipedia glossary}}
{{Commonscat|MediaWiki redirects}}
*[[:Category:Redirect templates]]
*[[:Category:Wikipedia redirects]]
*[[Help:Moving a page]]
*[[Help:Redirect]]
*[[Special:ListRedirects]]
*[[Special:BrokenRedirects]]
*[[Special:DoubleRedirects]]
*[[Template:Redirect]]
*[[Wikipedia:Hatnote]] (see [[Wikipedia:Redirect#What_needs_to_be_done_on_pages_that_are_targets_of_redirects.3F|above]])
*[[Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion]]
*[[Wikipedia:Redirects to be made]]
*[[Wikipedia:Soft redirect]]
*[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Redirect]]
**[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Redirect/Style guide]]
*[[Wikipedia:Database reports/Page count by namespace]] and by non-redirects/redirects


[[Category:Wikipedia editing guidelines]]
[[Category:Wikipedia redirects| ]]

Revision as of 06:34, 26 March 2014

Asif Classic