WikiDevi.Wi-Cat.RU:Cross-namespace redirects

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Cross-namespace redirects are redirects from one namespace to another. The term is most often applied to redirects from the Main (a/k/a "Article") namespace to the WikiDevi.Wi-Cat.RU (a/k/a "Project") namespace. Currently, the general consensus seems to be that most newly-created cross-namespace redirects from the Main namespace to the WikiDevi.Wi-Cat.RU namespace should be deleted, but that very old ones might retain their value due to external links that have accumulated in search engine results and other topical websites.

Overview

Many of the arguments against this practice are focused mainly on redirects from the article namespace to organisational namespaces, like WikiDevi.Wi-Cat.RU or Template; they may not be as applicable to redirects between other content namespaces such as Category. Also, while redirects from WikiDevi.Wi-Cat.RU namespace to, say, Template are technically cross-namespace, they do not break the division between topical content and organizational content, and therefore their existence does not generally raise objections.

Framing the debate

Arguments for deletion

  1. CNRs are bad because they result in average readers who are seeking out information of interest to them unknowingly falling through a "trapdoor" into largely "staff-only" content (WikiDevi.Wi-Cat.RU space) because a contributor/editor willfully left it exposed to the public, thinking it would be of use for them in the future to get around the wiki.
  2. Namespaces were created for a reason, namely so that the topical content could be kept separate from everything else that isn't. CNRs by their nature work at cross-purposes with this objective.
  3. The filters in the search function exist for a reason: to fine-tune search results. Some search results wind up featuring a large number of WikiDevi.Wi-Cat.RU namespace pages due to cross-namespace redirects, making the reader weed through them manually. Search filters should behave as intended and not return extraneous results. (For example, searching this site for the phrase "page update" (which is hardly a WikiDevi.Wi-Cat.RU-specific term) formerly returned CNRs as top four ranked results. We should not be requiring visitors to sift through non-topical background noise when they were explicitly searching for the kind of information this site exists to share.) For the reader who has deliberately chosen search options indicating they don't want to sift through WikiDevi.Wi-Cat.RU namespace results, it is unfair to return them anyway. Readers can always choose to search the WikiDevi.Wi-Cat.RU space by checking the box for it, but CNRs rob them of the option to fully keep it excluded.
  4. Some websites who mirror our main namespace opt not to do likewise with the WikiDevi.Wi-Cat.RU namespace (for obvious reasons). Thus, cross-namespace redirects end up creating an uncountable number of broken links there.

Arguments for retention

  1. For redirects which have been extensively used in discussions on Talk and User namespace pages, the cost of orphaning the redirect is high.
  2. They are often quite useful to the very people who add and update the topical content for which this site has become popular and one purpose of WikiDevi.Wi-Cat.RU is to explain obscure references.
  3. Many CNRs are very unlikely to be employed as search terms when looking for topical content. If someone searches for "pages for deletion," it's fair to assume that they are looking for WikiDevi.Wi-Cat.RU:Template messages/Cleanup or something similar that's not topical. This directly rebutts the first argument for deleting CNRs.
  4. New contributors to the site (for whom these redirects are arguably even more useful than for veteran editors) would be left "up the creek without a paddle." In most cases, users who type such queries intp the search box expect to be taken non-topical namespace targets and shouldn't be expected to "just know" to add "WikiDevi.Wi-Cat.RU:" (or its alias, "Project:") to their search terms.
  5. CNRs aid in accidental linking.
  6. They're easier to type.
  7. If they're acceptable, then WikiDevi.Wi-Cat.RU has no need for a policy on cross-namespace redirects, and simplifying site policy improves the odds that new visitors might start to contribute here themselves and that non-policy wonks are able to understand and follow our policies.
  8. Often, the redirect is a holdover from before the creation of the non-topical namespace page, and the redirect may be the most directly path for those who are curious to access the true history of the page.
  9. Redirects that are used exclusively on User, Talk, and other project pages do not create confusion. Readers who confine themselves to the main namespace (whether here or through a mirror that only copies our topical pages) are unlikely to encounter the "trapdoor" in the first place, because they link two pages in the maintenance areas far more frequently than they link topical pages to them.

Technical details

  • Currently, our default internal search page is set to return main namespace results only.
  • Absent any hyperbole, WikiDevi.Wi-Cat.RU has orders of magnitude more readers than it does editors.
  • Currently, many disambiguation links have entries that point to the WikiDevi.Wi-Cat.RU namespace, thus serving a nigh-indistinguishable function as cross-namespace redirects.
  • In some cases, a topical page may be created in the WikiDevi.Wi-Cat.RU namespace and only recently have been retaxonomized, resulting in a hatnote being left in the main namespace for the express purpose of directing them to visit it there.

See also

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