CZ:Redirects

Background

A redirect is a page that — when opened — is not shown but automatically opens another page — the target page — instead.

This is achieved by the following wiki markup

#REDIRECT [[Name of target page]]

where "Name of the target page" is the name of the page to which the wiki software will automatically redirect the reader who typed in the name of the redirect page.
However, this only works if the redirect markup is on top of the page.

There are two signs from which the user can recognize that a redirect has taken effect:

• The title of the page is different from the title of the page searched.
• On top of the page a (blue) link is shown: "(Redirected from SomePage)".
  Clicking this link will carry back to the page originally searched. (The redirect will not take effect in this case.) The page will show only the redirect, even if the page contains more text.

Remarks

• Technically, there is no harm in having many redirects (e.g. from pages with common spelling or even mis-spelling variants) to one target page.
  Nevertheless, redirects should be used with care and usually be put only on pages with legitimate titles.
  One reason is that an author using an incorrect link will not be warned by a red link if a redirect is present.
  Another reason is that targeted use of redirects helps users to learn (by practice) the naming conventions of the site (e.g., singular vs. plural). Foreign names come with a great potential for confusion in terms of English spelling, and often several variants are common. In such cases, having a good number of redirects tends to improve the user experience of both readers and writers.

• In most cases, it is not necessary to redirect uppercase/lowercase variants of a title since "Go" is not case sensitive and will find them (at least for not too long titles). Wiki links, however, are case sensitive, except for the first letter, and so is "Search".

• Instead of using a redirect, it is often possible to contextualize these pages by turning the redirect page into a CZ:Lemma article which briefly explains the relationship between the two different page names. This may be particularly useful in cases where the reason for the redirect is not obvious.

• Redirects to sections of other pages are technically possible but discouraged, since there is no way to propagate changes in those section titles back to the redirect.

Examples

Redirects with definition

The page fMRI redirects to Functional magnetic resonance imaging, which can be visualized via the {{r}} template:

{{r|fMRI}}
{{r|Functional magnetic resonance imaging}}

gives

• FMRI [r]: Add brief definition or description
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging [r]: A neuroimaging technique used to monitor task-specific blood oxygenation, primarily in the brain. ^[e]

Lemma article with redirect functionality

The page Haber-Bosch process provides a new perspective on Haber process, which can again be visualized via the {{r}} template:

{{r|Haber-Bosch process}}
{{r|Haber process}}

gives

• Haber-Bosch process [r]: An alternative name for industrial uses of the Haber process, crediting both Fritz Haber (who invented the process together with his co-worker Robert Le Rossignol) and Carl Bosch (who scaled it up for industrial production). ^[e]
• Haber process [r]: A chemical process used to produce ammonia — a compound important in many branches of organic chemistry — from the elements nitrogen and hydrogen. ^[e]