Help:Redirect

Redirects are used to forward users from one page name to another. They can be useful if a particular article is referred to by multiple names, or has alternative punctuation, capitalization or spellings.

Creating a redirect

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

#REDIRECT [[NAME OF PAGE 2]]

For example, to redirect the Boosters page to the Booster page, edit the Boosters page and enter:

#REDIRECT [[Booster]]

Please note that you can only redirect to articles, not sections in them; although the syntax allows them, e.g.

#REDIRECT [[Boosters#See Also]]

You may start a new page with the name you want to direct from (see Help:Starting a new page). You can also use an existing page that you are making inactive as a page by going to that page and using the "edit" tab at the top. In either case, you will be inserting the following code at the very first text position of the Edit window for the page:

#REDIRECT [[pagename]]

where pagename is the name of the destination page. The word "redirect" is not case-sensitive, but there must be no space before the "#" symbol. Any text before the code will disable the code and prevent a redirect. Any text or regular content code after the redirect code will be ignored (and should be deleted from an existing page). However, to put or keep the current page name listed in a Category, the usual tag for that category is entered or kept on a line after the redirect code entry.

You should 'preview' (using the button below the Edit window, or use Alt-P) to check that you have entered the correct destination page name. The preview page will not look like the resulting redirect page, it will look like a numbered list, with the destination page in blue:

1. REDIRECT  pagename

If the pagename as you typed it is not a valid page, it will show in red. Until there is a valid destination page, you should not make the redirect.

Viewing a redirect

After making a redirect at a page, you can no longer get to that page by using its name or by any link using that name; and they do not show up in wiki search results, either. However, near the top of the destination page, a notice that you have been forwarded appears, with the source pagename as an active link to it. Click this to get back to the redirected page, showing the large bent arrow symbol and the destination for the redirect.

By doing this, you can do all the things that any wiki page allows. You can go to the associated discussion page to discuss the redirect. You can view the history of the page, including a record of the redirect. You can edit the page if the redirect is wrong, and you can revert to an older version to remove the redirect.

Deleting a redirect

There's generally no need to delete redirects. They do not occupy a significant amount of database space. If a page name is vaguely meaningful, there's no harm (and some benefit) in having it as a redirect to the more relevant or current page.

If you do need to delete a redirect, e.g. if the page name is offensive, or you wish to discourage people from referring to a concept by that name, then you simply go to the redirect page as mentioned above, and follow the procedures at Help:Deleting a page.

Double redirects

A double redirect is a page redirecting to a page which is itself a redirect, and it will not work. Instead, people will be presented with a view of the next redirect page. This is a deliberate restriction, partly to prevent infinite loops, and partly to keep things simple.

However, you could look out for double redirects and eliminate them by changing them to be 1-step redirects instead. You are most likely to need to do this after a significant page move. Use the "what links here" toolbox link to find double redirects to a particular page, or use Special:DoubleRedirects to find them throughout the whole wiki.

When should we delete a redirect?

To delete a redirect without replacing it with a new article, list it on redirects for deletion. See deletion policy for details on how to nominate pages for deletion.

This isn't necessary if you just want to replace a redirect with an article, or change where it points: see How do I change a redirect? 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 use Help:Requested moves to request help from an admin in doing that.

Renamings and merges

We try to avoid broken links, because they annoy visitors. Therefore, if we change the layout of some section of Wiki, or we merge two 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.

A redirect to a page in the category namespace

To redirect to a category page and prevent the redirect appearing in this category, precede the word "Category" with a colon, otherwise the redirect page will also be categorized to the category itself:

#REDIRECT [[:Category:Glossary]]

What do we use redirects for?

Reason	Usage notes, and text that will be shown	Tag	Category to find articles so tagged
Abbreviations	This is a redirect from a title with an abbreviation. For more information, follow the category link. DSM-IV redirects to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders	{{R from abbreviation}}	Category:Redirects from abbreviation
Misspellings	This is a redirect from a misspelling or typographical error. Pages using this link should be updated to link directly to the page this link redirects to. For more info, follow the category link. Condoleeza Rice redirects to Condoleezza Rice	{{R from misspelling}}	Category:Redirects from misspellings
Other spellings, other punctuation	This is a redirect from a title with a different spelling. Pages using this link should be updated to link directly to the page this link redirects to. For more info, follow the category link. colour redirects to color Al-Jazeera redirects to Al Jazeera	{{R from alternate spelling}}	Category:Redirects from alternate spellings
Other capitalisations, for use in links	This is a redirect from a title with another method of capitalisation. It leads to the title in accordance with the Wikipedia naming conventions for capitalisation, and can help writing. Natural Selection redirects to Natural selection	{{R for alternate capitalisation}}	Category:Redirects for alternative capitalisation
Other capitalisations, to ensure that "Go" to a mixed-capitalisation article title is case-insensitive	This is a redirect from a title with another method of capitalisation. It leads to the title in accordance with the Wikipedia naming conventions for capitalisation, and can help writing. Adding a redirect for mixed-capitalisation article titles (e.g., Isle of Wight) allows "Go" to these articles to be case-insensitive. For example, without the redirect Isle of wight a "Go" for "Isle Of wight" or any capitalisation other than exactly 'Isle of Wight' would not find the article Isle of Wight. Why: Articles whose titles contain mixed-capitalisation 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 capitalised 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 capitalisations. They are not needed, for example, for proper names which are all initial caps. Examples: Redirect Vice chancellor of austria to Vice Chancellor of Austria 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 Francis Ford Coppola is needed because the "Go" command is case-insensitive for an article whose title is all initial caps. Any capitalisation (e.g. "francis fOrD CoPPola") entered as a "Go" will find the article.	{{R for alternate capitalisation}}	Category:Redirects for alternative capitalisation
Other names, pseudonyms, nicknames, and synonyms	This is a redirect from a title that is an alternative name, a pseudonym, a nick name or a synonym. It leads to the title in accordance with the naming conventions for common names and can help writing. For more information, follow the category link. Wellie throwing redirects to Wellie wanging Butcher of Kurdistan redirects to Ali Hassan al-Majid Rev. Fred Phelps redirects to Fred Phelps Linear operator redirects to Linear transformation	{{R from alternate name}}	Category:Redirects from alternate names
Plurals, tenses, etc	This is a redirect from a plural word to the singular equivalent. For more information follow the category link. greenhouse gases redirects to greenhouse gas, etc. Note that [[greenhouse gas]]es shows up as greenhouse gases, so it is not usually necessary to redirect plurals	{{R from plural}}	Category:Redirects from plurals
Related words	This is a redirect from a related word. Related words in an article are good candidates for Wiktionary links. Redirects from related words are not properly redirects from alternate spellings of the same word. But at the same time, they are also different from redirects from a subtopic, since the related word is unlikely to warrant a full subtopic in the target page. For more info. follow the category link. Controller redirects to Command station	{{R from related word}}	Category:Redirects from related words
Facilitate disambiguation	This is a redirect to a disambiguation page. This redirect is pointed to by links that should always point to the disambiguation page rather than be disambiguated. For more info. follow the category link. America (disambiguation) redirects to America	{{R to disambiguation page}}	Category:Redirects to disambiguation pages
To track statements that date quickly	`  This redirect page effects an "as of ..." link. The primary purpose of linking to this redirect is to keep track (using the "Whatlinkshere" feature) of information that was current in the year when the link to this redirect was created, but may need updating later. For more info. follow the category link. As of 2003 redirects to 2003 See DCCWiki:As of for more info.	{{R for as of}}	Category:Redirects from "As of"
To redirect from a shortcut	This is a redirect from a shortcut. Shortcuts are reserved for DCCWiki project reference pages (DW: namespace) only. DW:CAT redirects to DCCWiki:Category	{{R from shortcut}}	Category:Redirects from shortcut

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, 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.

In accordance with naming standards it's best to have an article at a well-defined, unambiguous term, with redirects from looser colloquial terms, rather than vice versa.

Some editors prefer to avoid redirects and link directly to the target article, as it is reported that redirects lower search engine rankings.