1

I am thinking of starting a new wikiProject because of the number of redirects that do not comply with the merge policy.  Who likes the idea?  I encountered two redirects that are not plausible in all cases:  https://wikihow.com/Search ->  https://wikihow.com/Search-Google and https://wikihow.com/Get-a-Passport -> https://wikihow.com/Get-a-U.S.-Passport , and I am pretty sure that there are more redirects on wikiHow from page moves that violate the redirect policy ( https://wikihow.com/wikiHow:Redirects ) and the merge policy ( https://wikihow.com/wikiHow:Merge-Policy ).  The goal is to retarget or delete such redirects so they do comply, or rewrite articles in place of those redirects.

2

Because redirects require a good understanding of the Merge Policy and it’s fairly uncommon to come across bad redirects that aren’t years old, I don’t really see a need for this project. Individual bad redirects can just be filed for deletion on the ANB.

3

Good idea! Whenever I find a non-interchangeable redirect, I request deletion in the Miscellaneous section of the Admin Notice Board, though I wish there could be a more convenient way. I think that boosters should be permitted to delete redirects (or have a delete redirect user group for non-Admin boosters)?

4

@Batreeq That would work I think… maybe we should have an RFD tag and RFD tool so that new article boosters can vote to keep, delete, or retarget redirects to other pages.  As well as a Rspeedy tag that can be applied for broken redirects.

And I wish they restarted the Find Duplicates tool so that boosters can find duplicate articles.

5

I wouldn’t stress about this too much… most redirects out there are either fine because the topics are interchangeable (either with the article they point to or with another existing article on the site) or are fine because they’re not viable how-to titles (including cases where the wording is very broad but a specific phrase would be better, like the ones you’ve created lately that we ended up retitling, Aasim). The only time one might worry is if the redirected title means something different from the target, can’t be worded in a better way, isn’t already covered by another existing article, and would make a helpful how-to… that combo is actually pretty rare, so it’s likely not worth spending a ton of your energy looking for those cases specifically. There’s no real need to set yourself up on a hunt to remove redirects just for the sake of it, when the title isn’t distinct from the target, unique, and viable; that’d just use up a lot of your energy without really benefitting readers. If you do happen to stumble upon a redirect that definitely needs removing, like Alex and Batreeq said, I’d report it on the ANB, or just put a regular speedy tag on it, in place of the redirect. I don’t see a big need to design a new system when it’s not creating problems the way it’s already being handled… just because Wikipedia has an rfd template doesn’t necessarily mean we need one. If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it - there are plenty of articles around here to fix instead, if you’re in the fixing mood:slight_smile:

6

@Anna thanks.  Please lock/close this thread now.