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→Notes: Moving an article over a redirect requires that the redirect points at the page being moved. |
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It is useful to copy the message "Page ... moved to ..." to the new talk page, especially if there has been discussion about the name of the page. |
It is useful to copy the message "Page ... moved to ..." to the new talk page, especially if there has been discussion about the name of the page. |
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Moving an article over a redirect requires that the redirect points at the page being moved. |
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== Other known bugs == |
== Other known bugs == |
Revision as of 13:18, 20 October 2004
- The rest of this page is deprecated but will be updated periodically.
- Please direct edits to the Meta-Wikimedia version of this page
There are several possibilities for why you will want to rename a page (one that you have found or created):
- The title has been misspelled.
- The title does not follow the naming conventions.
- The scope of the article has been reduced, extended or otherwise changed.
The terms "rename" and "move" mean the same in this context. They just refer to different models for picturing the operation:
- rename: keep the page but give it another name; the page history is now attached to the new name; a new page with the old name is created which redirects to the new name and which page history records the renaming.
- move: move the contents and the page history to a new page; change the old page into a redirect; change the page history into one that only records the renaming.
Since the system marks the page with the old name as new page, it applies the first of the two models. This model avoids "changing the history", a kind of "historical revisionism". An oddity is that the renaming itself, which can be considered an important event in the history of the page, is not recorded as such; it is recorded indirectly, namely in the history of the redirect page.
It is not possible to rename an image or image description page. Instead, upload it again under the new name.
How to
Note that you have to be logged in to rename a page this way; regarding the set preferences:
- there is no button for this in the nostalgia skin;
- the button is in the quickbar, so this must be on (oddly, only sysops have additionally a link at the bottom of the page).
When you've got your article up, click on the move link at the top of the page. You'll be asked for a new name for the article, and given the option to also move the article's talk page. (Unless you know what you're doing, it's safest to say yes.) Click the "move page"and the page will be renamed to the new title. The old title will become a redirect page, so any links to the old title will still go to the new page. However, note that double redirects (pages that redirect to the original article), will not automatically follow to the new article, so you will have to refer them manually. (as explained below)
Notes
The "move page" function keeps the entire edit history of the article, before and after the move, in one place, as if the article were always named that way. So, it's preferable to use this method over just cutting text out of one article and pasting it into a new one; old revisions, notes, and attributions are harder to keep track of it you do that. (But you may have to if, for instance, you're splitting a page into multiple topics. If you do, please include a note in the new article's summary and talk page of where you took the text from.)
The move itself is shown in the edit history of the page with the old title. However, if the page is moved back, the edit history of the page with the intermediate title shows the latest move only, with the corresponding user name, but with the date and time of the first move(!), see also Talk:PETA. Accordingly, the name of the user who moved the page the first time and the date and time of the second move are lost (except that they appear in the Recent Changes).
If the new title already exists and isn't just a redirect with no history (and sometimes even then), the wiki will tell you that you can't rename the article. You'll either have to manually merge the two pages together, or—only if there's no real content in the page—ask to have it deleted to make room for moving the page.
Another thing to remember is that redirects to redirects aren't automatically followed (this prevents infinite loops and spaghetti linking). After moving, be sure to check the What links here for your page and fix the links for any multiple redirects to point to the new location. But this can be troublesome because your new moving might be undone (see below) soon. Take some time to make sure there is no objection to your moving.
It is useful to copy the message "Page ... moved to ..." to the new talk page, especially if there has been discussion about the name of the page.
Moving an article over a redirect requires that the redirect points at the page being moved.
Other known bugs
If a page is moved while someone has that page, or its talk page, open for editing, then weird stuff can happen. We reckon this is all fixed now, but keep an eye out.
Sometimes moves leave the talk page behind, even when you've asked for the talk page to be moved, and you can see no reason for this. Weird, no? If you care about this, see wikipedia:bug reports.
Undoing a move
Sometimes we move things and regret it later. Normally, to undo a move from page A to page B, simply:
- move page B back to page A
- list page B (now a history-free redirect) on redirects for deletion, or (admins only) just delete it.
However, if page A has subsequently been edited, or the move software is behaving weirdly, only an admin can sort things out:
- delete page A (make sure it has no useful history - you may wish to add an explicit author credit on a talk page to compensate)
- move page B to page A.
- delete page B (should be a history-free redirect to page A)
"Move wars" are highly unproductive, and leave vast numbers of pointless redirects littering the place, which some poor soul will have to fix. Keep cool: don't engage in move wars.
Requesting moves
If you cannot complete a move yourself, please ask an admin at Wikipedia:Requested moves. (note: this is currently under development)
Fixing cut and paste moves
Main page: How to fix cut and paste moves
See also
- How to edit a page
- Redirects
- The Wikipedia sandbox, where you can practice editing pages.