SmashWiki:Redirects

This page documents an official SmashWiki policy, a widely accepted standard that all users should follow. When editing this page, please ensure that your revision reflects consensus. If in doubt, consider discussing changes on the talk page.

Redirects are pages that automatically transfer users to their targets. To create a redirect, one need only use the following code: #REDIRECT [[<target article>]]. They can be accessed and used either by using the search bar or by links.

Redirects need to be used constructively, not haphazardly or unnecessarily. They may be cheap in general, but they still provide clutter should they be used in excess.

Good redirects

Redirects should be used...

• When the article's subject is also known by other names (officially or otherwise): When something is known by more than one name, the most common name should house the content, and the other name(s) should redirect to that article. While alternative official names should always get a redirect, unofficial names should get a redirect only if they are sufficiently well-known.
• When the article's subject's Japanese name differs from its English one: As Super Smash Bros. is a natively Japanese series, the Japanese names for its elements are much more common than any other language. This is especially the case if non-simultaneous news reveals the name of an element in Japanese before it is revealed in English.
• When the article's subject's internal name (if applicable) is known: If a character, stage, move, item, technique, etc is known by its internal name (via debug menu or data mining) that name should be redirected to the subject.
• When the article's subject's name has a popular shortening, abbreviation, or acronym: Good examples: SSB, PM, DI, KB, ICs, DK; Bad examples: RttF (Race to the Finish), TS (Title Screen), SIC (Squirtle Ivysaur Charizard).
• When the article's subject has a section that makes sense to search for or link to: In this case, use the following code: #REDIRECT [[<target article>#<section>]]. The redirect's title should usually be the same as the section's title, though this depends on the nature of the section.
• When the article's subject is a smasher: They should have a mainspace redirect to the smasher space, plus redirects from any previous name the smasher may have had in both smasher namespace and mainspace.

Bad redirects

Redirects should not be used...

• For misspelling and capitalization redirects: Redirects are not for idiot-proofing. If redirects were produced for all common misspellings, the quantity of redirects would increase dramatically, and as such outside of extreme cases they are not allowed. Additionally, capitalization redirects are generally pointless because the search feature will automatically fix any capitalization mistake made if a match is found.
• For simple plurals: Simple plurals are generally not typed into the search box and have their own wiki syntax for links ([[egg]]s), so there is no need to create redirects for them. Conversely, it is appropriate to have redirects for complex plurals, such as having "trophies" redirect to "trophy". Additionally, commonly or officially used plurals, such as "stickers", are allowed.
• When the article's subject's name has an obscure or previously unknown alternate term: If you don't think too many people know the article's subject by a certain name, that probably means that you shouldn't create a redirect from that title.
• When the article already has many similar redirects: The goal is not to over-saturate articles with pointless redirects that no one will use. Creating different "versions" of redirects to the same article is generally not helpful.
• When the redirecting title could apply to more than one article: In this case, a disambiguation article is the correct choice, where all articles that the subject could be referencing are listed out and linked to.
• For non-articles: Images, templates, talk pages, and so on should generally not have redirects made to them, although there are a slew of exceptions.
• On other redirects: Called a double redirect, usually this is a mistake or a result of moving an article. For technical reasons, double redirects do not function, leaving the viewer stuck between the two. They can usually be rectified by simply pointing the first redirect directly to the target article.

Redirects and moving pages

When a page is moved, the old name is automatically changed into a redirect to the new name. This prevents a move from significantly impacting anything that links to it, though double redirects may still be an issue. Usually, these automatic redirects should stay as-is, but in some cases should be marked for deletion after the move; this is primarily reserved for when the old name was inappropriate (such as an image called "CoolPicture.png"). Administrators and bots are capable of moving pages without leaving automatic redirects behind.