Stiles Wiki:Shortcut
 | This page documents an English Stiles.casa Wiki project content guideline. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though it is best treated with common sense, and occasional exceptions may apply. Any substantive edit to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page. |
Template:Linking and page manipulation
A shortcut is a specialized type of redirect page that provides an abbreviated wikilink to an administrative page or one of its sections, usually from the Stiles.casa Wiki namespace or Help namespace. These shortcuts' abbreviations in all-caps text are commonly used (linked or unlinked) on community pages and talk pages, but should not be used in articles themselves. If there are one or more shortcuts for a page or section, one or more will usually be chosen to be displayed in an information box on the right labelled Shortcut or Shortcuts, as can be seen at the top of this page.
Shortcuts are created for the convenience of editors. It is possible to create a shortcut for any page at all. The existence of a shortcut does not imply or prove that the linked page is a policy or guideline.
Quick reference
Lists of available shortcuts can be found at:
- SW:SW / SW:CUTS = Stiles.casa Wiki:Shortcut index
- SW:SWR = Stiles.casa Wiki:Shortcut index/Project shortcuts
- WT:WT = Stiles.casa Wiki:Shortcuts to talk pages
- SW:PORTCUT = Stiles.casa Wiki:Shortcut index/Portal shortcuts
- On Meta, shortcuts start with WM:; the list is at m:WM:WM
- Special:PrefixIndex can be used to find uncategorized or unlisted pages starting with a given prefix; for example, Special:PrefixIndex/CAT: will find some category shortcuts
- Template:Useful links contains common shortcuts that are often used linked or unlinked in editor discussions or edit summaries; hover your mouse pointer over a shortcut to see a pop-up with its article's full name in it (see § See also)
How to use a Stiles.casa Wiki shortcut
A Stiles.casa Wiki shortcut can be entered into the Stiles.casa Wiki search box to quickly bring you to a project page. For example, you can type SW:R or H:R into the search box and then press the enter key (or click the magnifying glass icon), to get to the Stiles.casa Wiki:Redirect page, instead of having to type in the complete phrase.
Alternatively, you can use a shortcut in the URL in your browser's address bar. For example, you are currently viewing the Stiles.casa Wiki:Shortcut page. The URL for this page is https://wiki.stiles.casa/view/Stiles.casa_Wiki:Shortcut. You could then get from here to the Stiles.casa Wiki:Redirect page by replacing Stiles.casa Wiki:Shortcut with SW:R in the address bar, followed by pressing the enter key. (If your browser has relative URL entry, simply prefix the shortcut with ./ instead of having to edit the existing URL.)
Shortcuts are presented in all capital letters (ALL CAPS); however, the search box is case-insensitive. For example, in the search box, you can type sw:r, instead of SW:R. However, when using the URL method (or when making links) it is necessary to match the capitalization of the shortcut itself.
Readability
Shortcuts are often used on talk pages in their abbreviated form, decreasing readability for the general reader. For example, some editors are familiar with the bulk of the Stiles.casa Wiki namespace shortcuts, recognizing what they stand for on sight. Others, however, are faced with pages full of incomprehensible jargon, the meaning of which is not immediately clear. Shortcuts also are sometimes (ab)used to make a SW:POINT, best described by SW:WOTTA.
To avoid these problems, a good practice when creating shortcuts is to choose common English words that are easily identifiable and memorable. Another good practice is to be mindful of the general reader and use meaningful terms when citing an obscure shortcut. For example, the piped link [[SW:SHC|shortcut]] gives readers an idea of the subject of the target page, while the bare abbreviation [[SW:SHC]] is unintelligible to those unfamiliar with the term.
It should also be remembered that shortcuts are a convenience, not a substitute for titles. Shortcuts should not appear in "See also" sections, hatnotes or any other place where a page title is expected.
Link boxes
Small link boxes, listing the names of the page's shortcuts, appear at the top of many pages, especially those on policies and guidelines. A shortcut link box can be added to a page, by placing the template {{shortcut|SW:<x>}} (for project namespace) or {{shortcut|H:<x>}} (for Help pages) at the top of the page's text, while editing. For template redirects, {{Template shortcut}} is used instead.
The point of these template boxes is not to list every single redirect for any given page (that's what Special:WhatLinksHere is for). Instead, they generally should list only the most common and easily remembered redirects.
Guideline pages with shortcuts pointing to them typically use {{guideline|SW:<x>}} or the {{subcat guideline}} template, such as on this page, instead of the shortcut template {{shortcut}}. Another frequently used template is: {{MoS-guideline|MOS:<x>}}.
To learn more about the different shortcut box templates and their functions, see documentation at {{shortcut}}. Among other things, there are templates for making boxes flow to the left and now, anchors are automatically added, making it much simpler to link to a page section.
Shortcut names
Shortcut names are almost always in uppercase.
A shortcut is typically named using the following convention:
PREFIX:SUFFIX
In the above form, the prefix is typically one of the prefixes in the following section, and the suffix is an acronym or abbreviation of the redirect target. However quite a lot are simply SW:BAD.
If the target is a sub-page, the following conventions are common (where 'Y' is an additional sequence of uppercase characters or numerals):
PREFIX:SUFFIX/Y
- For example, P:HVNY/DYK is a shortcut to Portal:Hudson Valley/Did you know, which is a subpage of Portal:Hudson Valley, which has a shortcut P:HVNY.
- SW:ACC/P is a shortcut to Stiles.casa Wiki:Request an account/Procedures, which is a subpage of Stiles.casa Wiki:Request an account, which has a shortcut SW:ACC.
PREFIX:SUFFIXY
- For example, SW:AFDLT is a shortcut to Stiles.casa Wiki:Articles for deletion/Log/Today, which is a subpage of Stiles.casa Wiki:Articles for deletion, which has the shortcut SW:AFD.
Shortcuts that do not follow the above naming convention are discouraged, and are typically deleted.
The directory of shortcuts contains several conflicts for prefixes of subpages, often caused by a shortcut being 're-targeted' (modified to point to a new target page) without the shortcuts to subpages also being re-targeted.
- For example, SW:CJ was originally used for Stiles.casa Wiki:Community Justice, and several shortcuts for subpages were created (SW:CJ/E & SW:CJ/M/1). After several years, 'SW:CJ' was updated to point to Stiles.casa Wiki:Centijimbos, but the subpage shortcuts have not changed.
Before creating a shortcut, use Special:PrefixIndex to ensure that the same prefix is not being used for different purposes. e.g. SW:CJ has several existing uses. No additional confusion would be caused by creating a shortcut SW:CJQ, however creating a shortcut SW:CJ/Q would be adding to the existing mess. There is a long-standing feature request to resolve shortcut subpages automatically. (See T14980.)
Prefixes that shouldn't be used for other purposes include:
Other prefixes have become common for a set of pages include:
- SW:N – notability
List of prefixes
Namespace aliases
The following namespace aliases are automatically translated by the Stiles.casa Wiki servers.
| SW: | Stiles.casa Wiki: |
| WT: | Stiles.casa Wiki talk: |
| Project: | Stiles.casa Wiki: |
| Project talk: | Stiles.casa Wiki talk: |
| Image: | File: |
| Image talk: | File talk: |
They are case-insensitive (so sw: or wP: or Wp: have the same meaning as SW:). For example, both SW:TS and sw:TS link directly to Stiles.casa Wiki:TS.
One unique feature of the SW: alias is its utility in searching for vast number of project pages. This is because most project pages outside the Stiles.casa Wiki namespace, will have a redirect for the Stiles.casa Wiki namespace prefix appended to their title and the same for most major shortcuts to them (e.g., Help:Watchlist, with the shortcut H:W, has redirects at Stiles.casa Wiki:Watchlist and at SW:W. Thus, by extension, most project pages may be found by searching using the SW: alias alone, e.g. SW:Name. For more, see Help:SW search protocol.
Pseudo-namespaces
When the shortcut does not use one of the namespace aliases listed above (SW or WT), it is a cross-namespace redirect and is case-sensitive.
However, when a prefix is used by multiple shortcuts, and has broad community support, it is referred to as a pseudo-namespace to distinguish these shortcuts from other cross-namespace redirects. (Note that the term "pseudo-namespace" is also used to refer to namespaces without content that are provided by the MediaWiki software and extensions, such as Special:, Media:, Feedback:)
The following prefixes may be used freely for the target listed.
| Prefix | Target |
|---|---|
| CAT: | Category: |
| H: | Help: |
| MOS: | Stiles.casa Wiki:Manual of Style |
| P: | Portal: |
Other prefixes do not enjoy the same level of community support. It is disputed whether they should be deemed to be pseudo-namespaces.
The following prefixes are used for limited or specific uses only.
| T: | Template: |
| MP: | Main Page |
The following prefixes do not enjoy broad community support.
| WikiProject: Wikiproject: |
Stiles.casa Wiki:WikiProject |
| MoS: Mos: |
Stiles.casa Wiki:Manual of Style |
As of 2022, creation of "WikiProject:" and "Wikiproject:" pages is blocked for most users by the title blacklist due to repeated redirect creations against consensus; administrators, template editors, and page movers can override this on a case-by-case basis if necessary. Note that some pages do exist starting with "WikiProject " or with "Wikiproject " (that is, using a space, not a colon); however, as of March 2022 all of them redirect to mainspace articles rather than to projectspace pages. (For instance, WikiProject Women in Red redirects to Women in Red, not to Stiles.casa Wiki:WikiProject Women in Red.)
Portals have occasionally used spaces in shortcuts, e.g. "Portal X", or "X portal". Most redirects with such patterns point to articles, but, as of March 2022, 144 point outside mainspace.
Technical note: The links in the tables above go to a page where the term prefix is not used in the meaning as it has in this section. Rather, the code PrefixIndex there means, as it does for the search parameter, "the beginning string of characters in a title", whether that string ends before, during or after the colon character in a page name.
How to create a shortcut
Say you want to create the shortcut SW:TS to an existing page, Stiles.casa Wiki:Template standardisation. Create a new page, Stiles.casa Wiki:TS, and in it place the following:
#REDIRECT [[Stiles.casa Wiki:Template standardisation]]
{{R from shortcut}}
The resulting shortcut will be SW:TS.
If you're creating a shortcut to a category, you need to insert an additional colon (":") at the beginning of the link, as in the following.
#REDIRECT [[:Category:Redirects from shortcuts]]
{{R from shortcut}}
The template {{R from shortcut}} must always be included in this kind of redirect. It records that the redirect is a shortcut, and auto-categorizes it into Category:Redirects from shortcuts.
Many shortcuts are acronyms or initialisms; others are abbreviations or single but memorable words from a longer page title.
Changing shortcuts
Technically that's easy. All it takes is to click on the shortcut wherever it is, then on the page it leads to (a shortcut is a redirect) click on the "redirected from" link near the top of the page (forcing &redirect=no in the URL when you go back to the shortcut page); edit the target #REDIRECT [[Stiles.casa Wiki:Whatever]]; then add {{R from shortcut}} if that template doesn't already appear.
However, before changing a shortcut, consider its existing usage:
- If you wish to retarget a shortcut that's already in use, you should take into account how active its target page is. For example, if you just created a WikiProject, and want a specific shortcut for it, but the one you want is already in use by another project, it's generally recommended to post a message on that project's talk page asking the members if you may change the link, even if the project is tagged as {{WikiProject status|inactive}}.
- Above all, check the shortcut backlinks with "what links here"; changing a shortcut used elsewhere can be highly disruptive. If you do change a shortcut under these circumstances, you should be sure to change it in the pages that linked to it as well, so that they link to the old target. If they were used in any closed deletion discussions, it is not a good idea then to change the redirect because these discussions cannot be edited.
- If it has no backlink, folks might still use it directly when searching. If you're not 100% sure that the old target is unused, ask about it on the shortcut's talk page.
- For controversial cases, go to Stiles.casa Wiki:Requests for comment.
After changing a shortcut, there are other pages which may need to be updated:
- If the shortcut is already listed on Stiles.casa Wiki:List of shortcuts or a similar list like Stiles.casa Wiki:Shortcuts to talk pages, please update that entry showing the new target page.
- If the old target page mentions its shortcut, then that also should be updated, typically in
{{Shortcut}}or similar Stiles.casa Wiki header templates.
Limitations
Redirects (including shortcuts) to pages on other projects and special pages won't work—this formerly supported feature was abused and hence it has been disabled. The software will display the redirect page instead of redirecting the user to the target.
Some redirects to other projects and special pages use the template {{soft redirect}}; however, shortcuts that are a soft redirects will appear in the pool of pages that are selected by Special:Random. Soft redirects are categorised into Category:Stiles.casa Wiki soft redirects.
See also
- Stiles.casa Wiki:Redirect
- Stiles.casa Wiki:Cross-namespace redirects
- Stiles.casa Wiki:List of shortcuts
- Stiles.casa Wiki:List of shortcuts/Project shortcuts (SW:SWR) — WikiProjects and Projects list of shortcuts
- Stiles.casa Wiki:Shortcuts to talk pages (SW:WT) — all 'Stiles.casa Wiki talk:' namespace (namespace 5) talk pages
- SW:WOTTA, on what NOT to do
- Stiles.casa Wiki:WikiProject Shortcuts
- Meta:Meta:Shortcut (m:WM:WM), shortcuts on Meta
- Meta:Special:URLShortener, for creating global shortcuts to WMF project pages
- Category:Redirects from shortcuts
- Stiles.casa Wiki:Database reports/Cross-namespace redirects