Stiles Wiki:Categorizing redirects: Difference between revisions

{{redirect|WP:RCAT|how to redirect one category to another|Template:Category redirect}}

{{subcat guideline|editing guideline|Categorization Redirects|WP:RCAT}}

This is a Wikipedia guideline for placing [[WP:redirect|redirect]] pages into [[WP:Categorization|categories]]. It is intended to document current practice and suggest best practice in other areas and indicate where categorization of redirects can be misleading.

Normal ("hard") [[WP:Redirect|redirects]] should be placed in one of several [[Wikipedia:Template messages/Redirect pages|maintenance categories]] specifically for redirects.  This should be done using categorization templates (rcats) such as {{tl|Wikidata redirect}}.

[[WP:soft redirect|Soft redirect]]s usually should ''not'' be categorized by rcats.  Use of {{tl|Wikidata redirect}} and {{tl|R category with possibilities}} to tag soft-redirected categories are presently the only exceptions.

These categories are only intended to contain redirects, and are helpful in keeping track of redirects and further subcategorizing them as needed. They include both redirects within main namespace and in other namespaces. They are often applied using templates, though such categories can also be created and populated directly. This categorization is intended for Wikipedia editors, not readers.

For tables of redirect category templates, grouped both alphanumerically and by function, see [[Wikipedia:Template index/Redirect pages]]. For the categorical list of such templates, see {{Cat|Redirect templates}}. All the redirect categories are subcategories of {{Cat|Wikipedia redirects}}, which is ''not'' meant to contain any redirects directly and is purposely kept empty except for subcategories.

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Alternative names should not look out of place on a category page.  This is often a way to satisfy disagreements over renaming an article when more than one name seems equally valid.  The alternative name(s) becomes a redirect and gets categorized the same way as its target. Another example is when a single article covers things known by multiple names, such as a person who is known in multiple fields of endeavour under different names, a merged article about three different newspapers, or a sketch comedy television show whose name exists on Wikipedia as a redirect to the comedy troupe that created it. In such a case, consideration needs to be given to which title should be reflected in an individual category.

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A redirect may be categorized in the same way as for any other page; however, when it is possible to use '''[[Wikipedia:Template messages/Redirect pages|redirect category templates]]''' (rcats), then these should be used. For clarity, ''all'' category links should be added at the end of the page on their own lines, after the redirect target link and rcat(s). Use of a blank line between the redirect target link and all rcats and category links promotes readability of the code.  

:When the title being redirected is a person's proper name, consensus is to modify the [[WP:SORTKEY|sort key]] from its default action, (usually sorted by {{code|<nowiki>{{PAGENAME}}</nowiki>}}, the redirect title in this case), to instead sort it by [[surname]]. The {{code|<nowiki>{{DEFAULTSORT:}}</nowiki>}} [[WP:PF#Behavior switches|behaviour switch]] is used for this; for example, on the edit page of the {{noredirect|George Walker Bush}} redirect, use {{code|<nowiki>{{DEFAULTSORT:Bush, George Walker}}</nowiki>}}, so that the page will appear alphabetized in the B's and not the G's of the various categories.  Similarly, for titles beginning with a definite or indefinite [[article (grammar)|article]], such as "the" or "a" – for example in redirect {{noredirect|The President of the United States}}, use {{code|<nowiki>{{DEFAULTSORT:President of the United States, The}}</nowiki>}}, so that the page will appear alphabetically in the P's (see [[Wikipedia:Categorization of people#Ordering names in a category]] for more information). As with non-redirect pages, it should be positioned [[WP:FOOTERS|immediately before the article content categories]]:

:# {{code|<nowiki>{{PAGENAME}}</nowiki>}} is one of several "[[Help:Magic words|magic word]]s" (magic words are different from [[WP:template|template]]s) in wikimarkup language.  It fills in the pagename (without the namespace) of the redirect ''unless'' the pagename of the target page (without namespace) is entered as its first parameter.  The first category parameter represented by {{code|<nowiki>|{{PAGENAME:Xxy Yzz}}</nowiki>}} (note that the colon ( ''':''' ) is used to pass parameters in magic words rather than the pipe ( '''|''' ) symbol that is used in templates) above is in fact the sort key used to group pages together in a category list.

:# As shown above, [[WP:printworthiness|printworthiness]] is an important type of sort.  We are told in the style guide, "The ultimate goal of the guide is to have every redirect categorised in a standard format, as well as to have every [[WP:mainspace|main-namespace]] redirect categorised as either printworthy or unprintworthy."  It is important to note that this only applies to main article namespace redirects ''and not to redirects in any other namespace''.

: ALL the {{code|<nowiki>{{R from...}}, {{R to...}}</nowiki>}}, etc., templates have as their main purpose to populate a redirect subcategory (see {{cat|Wikipedia redirects}}) to aid in maintenance.  A second goal is to help editors with concise explanations for such sortings. Generally speaking, one such template categorizes redirect pages to the subcategory, though that template may be "aliased" by use of several alternative phrasings, themselves redirects to the template.  Common alias choices are: other vs. alternative, capitalization vs. capitalisation and other such spelling/phrasing variants like "R to singular" vs. "R from plural" and "R from singular" vs. "R to plural".</div>

* [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Redirect/Style guide]]

* [[Wikipedia:Template messages/Redirect pages]]

* [[Wikipedia:Printability]]

* [[User:Wugapodes/Capricorn|Capricorn]], a [[Wikipedia:User scripts|user script]] to assist in categorizing redirects

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[[Category:Wikipedia categorization]]

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