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I've made this tool for creating suggested redirects. It's still in beta, just looking to see if anyone wants to test it out. —  Qwerfjkl talk 16:39, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

@ Qwerfjkl Interesting. I've had a go, though found the instructions easy to misunderstand/misread. Because people tend not to read instructions carefully, it would be helpful to have more instruction on the action screen: it wasn't obvious to me that I had to click on my chosen redirect target, rather than just amend the text in what I now see is the edit summary box, if I wanted to opt for a different choice from the one suggested.

It might be useful to offer a link to the full list of rcats at {{ R template index}}, to help those not very familiar with the range of choices there.

It would be useful to be able to click through to the candidate target articles, to see whether the proposed redirect looked useful, and what Rcat to give (eg "is that pair of names really someone's two-part surname, or is it middle name plus surname?").

I'm not sure about redirects of the form "initial surname" (like "Z Smith"): I doubt that they should ever be created unless there is one notable person very commonly known as "initial [fullstop] surname". If "Z Smith" is redirected to a "Zoe Smith", someone creating "Zillah Smith" will be unlikely to check for it. I'm not sure whether "Z Smith" is best "dismiss"ed, or redirected to the surname page for "Smith (surname)". (That's just a demo - the examples I came across weren't Smiths).

Another category I worried about were "date place", mostly sporting events. I suspect most of these should not be redirects, but I think skipped them on the grounds that sport is not my specialist subject.

I can see it being quite an addictive time-sink, a danger to wikignomes who really ought to be getting on with other jobs in real life!

How did you choose the set of potential redirects? Was it terms which are piped in articles? Pam D 18:28, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

PamD:

1. How could I make the instructions / edit summary clearer?
2. A link where?
3. How would you differentiate between selecting the option and going to the Wikipedia page? Perhaps the title would select it, and the snippet take you to the article?
4. Not really sure it's possible to filter these.
5. Ditto.
6. I got the potential redirects based on piped links. The code is based off of User:Nickj/Redirects PHP code (though I had to rewrite it to run on Toolforge).

—  Qwerfjkl talk 18:35, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

@ Qwerfjkl Perhaps the instructions need to be more "What process you go through" rather than "what you do with each of the buttons"? I'll have a go:

====

This system creates redirects from suggested terms, which have been listed because they appear in piped links in en.wiki articles.

• A proposed redirect and its suggested target will be shown. Five articles found by searching on the term will be displayed, as possibly appropriate targets for the redirect.
• If the suggested redirect appears to be appropriate:

• (Optionally but preferably) Select a Redirect Category from the dropdown menu (eg "R from short name", "R from diacritic" or "R from surname": see the full list at {{ R template index}}
• Click "Save"

• If one of the other targets seems appropriate, click on it. The text displayed as "Redirected to ..." will change. Select a Redirect Category, and click "Save".
• If the term should not be made into a redirect, click "Dismiss"
• If you are unsure, or do not want to decide on this redirect, click "Skip".
• You may find that on investigating the term and potential targets, it is more useful to create a disambiguation page or take other action.

====

And there could usefully be a note about some of the more common terms which are unlikely to be appropriate redirects: to my mind the ones like "Z Smith" (initial plus surname) and "Paris 1974" (place plus date), both common in detailed tables of results in sports articles. There may be some other groups, which people testing the system might be able to discover and add.

Perhaps beside each snippet there should be a button saying "Open article in a new tab" or similar? Or as a popup? Something platform-neutral, which might be complicated ... but there must be a way, and I suggest it would be useful.

Is there any point in having that "redirected to ..." box as editable? I edited it a couple of times, misunderstanding that as the way to change the target of the redirect from the suggested one. Perhaps it shouldn't be editable?

But anyone else who tests the system may be able to come up with a quite different set of comments. Pam D 22:07, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

@ Qwerfjkl And just one oddity: FM 50 already exists as a redirect, created October 2010, but it appeared in the system. Pam D 22:17, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

@ Qwerfjkl And I wanted to redirect O 8 to O8, a disambiguation page, but using {{ R from alternative spacing}}, as instructed at the documentation for {{ R from alternative spelling}}. It wasn't in the dropdown menu, I typed it in manually, but that didn't work!

Next idea: How about a button to click to "Create dab page" which would open up a page creation with {{subst:refer}} at the top and {{ Disambiguation}} at the bottom? I've just had to go off and create Junqua as a dab, rather than a redirect, as there were two surname-holders and a light plane. Pam D 22:45, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

Israelite consistories is an example of one where the snippets aren't enough to work out which, if any, is the target, and it would be nice to be able to click a button to see one or more of those articles in full. I'll skip, as I'm getting tired. Pam D 22:47, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

PamD, I'm currently working on this, sorry for the delayed response. The thing with FM 50 is what I'm trying to fix - it's because the suggestion has some Unicode character in it (like a nbsp instead of a space) which means it is just slightly different from the title that exists.
Re {{ R from alternative spacing}}, it only list actual templates, not redirects. I could possibly allow you to add it by typing in manually, not sure about that.
The edit summary box was suggested by BD2412. —  Qwerfjkl talk 21:53, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

@ Qwerfjkl: More questions. If I skip a suggestion, it stays in the queue, and might be seen by another editor using the tool, yes? Conversely, if I dismiss, it is removed from the queue for everyone? If so, is there some record being kept of all the dismissed suggestions? Lastly, what is the total number of suggestions in the set at this point? By the way, now that the discussion is here, let's keep it here, as it is likely to get more eyes than my talk page. BD2412 T 22:14, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

BD2412, if you skip a suggestion it could be seen by another user. If you dismiss it, it won't. I record the titles of dismissed suggestions, but not the target.
At this point there are around 300,000 suggestions (which is why the page takes a few seconds to load initially). —  Qwerfjkl talk 07:05, 12 January 2024 (UTC)

I suggest that any redirecting Rcats which editors are advised to use, such as {{ R from alternative spacing}}, ought to be provided for in this system. See the documentation for {{ R from alternative spelling}} which says:

"At present, {{ R from alternative hyphenation}}, {{ R from alternative punctuation}}, and {{ R from alternative spacing}} all redirect to this template and feed into the same maintenance category. This is likely to change in the future, so please use the more specific template names."

Presumably all such are included in Category:Template redirects with possibilities, though that category may also include some Rcats whose use is not recommended. Pam D 08:05, 12 January 2024 (UTC)

PamD, that category helps a lot, thanks! I'll just include category members that start with "R ". —  Qwerfjkl talk 15:56, 12 January 2024 (UTC)

PamD, okay, I've implemented/fixed most of these. I've rewritten the instructions. added a link to the Wikipedia article, hopefully dealt with pages that exist appearing, and I've added the additional rcats.
@ BD2412, what would you think of removing the edit summary box/changing it somehow? It seems excessively prominent given its limited utility. —  Qwerfjkl talk 21:51, 12 January 2024 (UTC)

@ Qwerfjkl Having another go:

• The instructions are much clearer, but something is wrong with "If one of the search results appears more results..."
• How can I see the article to which the redirect is suggested, if it isn't one of the five below - Sir William Cameron being an example
• How can I redirect to an article which isn't either the one suggested or any of the five below - in this case William Cameron dab page? (I'll skip this one, with those two queries!)
• I'd appreciate a "Search" button to scan through for other uses of the term beyond the top five, especially for surnames where there may well be other nameholders so that a name page would be more appropriate than a redirect to the one person
• You say "If none of the search results are appropriate, but there is an appropriate target, then manually type that into the target field and save it.", but I can't type into that box (Using Firefox under Windows 11 in case that matters). I wanted to add a section, to redirect Village of Webster to Webster#Places rather than just to Webster
• It would be nice if "R from" appeared automatically in the dropdown menu so I didn't have to type it every time

Enough for today. It would be good if some other Redirect enthusiasts had a go at it too. Pam D 12:56, 14 January 2024 (UTC)

┌───────────────────────────┘
PamD,

1. Fixed.
2. Will fix.
3. You can manually type it into the target box. You seem to being having problems with this, is your browser supported? It appears Firefox is supported, so can you explain exactly what happens? Presumably you try to click on the target box and nothing happens.
4. You mean a link to the search results?
5. See 3.
6. You don't need to type in "R from", the results will filter by any match, not just at the start. Also not all rcats start with "R from".

—  Qwerfjkl talk 18:38, 14 January 2024 (UTC)

Done 2. —  Qwerfjkl talk 19:28, 14 January 2024 (UTC)

And 4. —  Qwerfjkl talk 18:40, 15 January 2024 (UTC)

I have just discovered that Ethene redirects to ethylene Ethene should not redirect to ethylene. It should be the other way round. Ethene is the accepted IUPAC standard term. Its use should not be undermined by Wikipedia. That just adds to the confusion in nomenclature by students and other naive users, like journalists. The justification paragraph for this redirect says "In chemistry: 2-methyl-1,3-butadiene -> Isoprene" But isoprene is an accepted IUPAC synonym, so this is a false argument. Unless there is a good reason (and this isn't) for preferring an obsolete term, Wikipedia needs reflect current standards of terminology. By all means have a page on the history of the term "ethylene" for the luddites, but the main entry should reflect current technical standards as they change and achieve widespread acceptance. Cvhorie ( talk) 09:27, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

@ Cvhorie This isn't really the place for this discussion. The rules on choosing names for Chemistry articles are at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (chemistry). If the name of the article you're looking at doesn't comply with those rules, then please see WP:Requested Moves for how to suggest a move to the right title. If it does comply but you don't think the rules are sensible, you can discuss it at Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (chemistry). Thanks and Happy Editing. Pam D 09:56, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

And I see that in June 2007 the article was moved from Ethene to Ethylene but was moved back with the comment "Moved back; move was against naming guidelines and without consensus". Pam D 09:59, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Melodeon (accordian) was created almost 20 years ago and the word "accordion" is misspelled. Is there a reason to correct it, and if so, how would one go about correcting it? Matuko ( talk) 21:50, 10 February 2024 (UTC)

@ Matuko: You could nominate the redirect for deletion at WP:RFD. With that said, I don't see any harm in the redirect existing. I think that's a pretty common misspelling of accordion and, as such, could be considered a useful redirect. Hey man im josh ( talk) 21:54, 10 February 2024 (UTC)

Thanks. I was more curious about whether there were other remedies than deletion. Question answered. Matuko ( talk) 02:43, 11 February 2024 (UTC)

If this came to RfD I'd recommend keeping it as a very plausible misspelling. It's not caused any harm in the nearly 20 years it has existed, so the likelihood of it causing any in the future is infinitesimal so we'd gain nothing by deleting it. Thryduulf ( talk) 22:47, 10 February 2024 (UTC)

Ok, thanks. I'm not sure what a "plausible misspelling" is, but I'm fine with it. I'd only noticed because I've adopted the typo "accordian". I also play the accordion, so it grates a bit to see it memorialized, but I shall move along. Matuko ( talk) 02:41, 11 February 2024 (UTC)

I'm not sure what a "plausible misspelling" is,

There are more than 52,000 redirects from misspellings in the category. Perhaps one or two can help? And please note that Melodeon (accordian) is actually not a redirect from misspelling, because the page title, "Melodeon", is not misspelled. That is a {{ redirect from incorrect disambiguation}}, since it is the qualifying word in parentheses, the disambiguation, that is incorrectly spelled. Best to you! P.I. Ellsworth ,  ed.  ^{put'er there} 03:05, 11 February 2024 (UTC)

 You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia talk:Criteria for speedy deletion § Improper disambiguation redirects. 74.80.182.75 ( talk) 21:13, 14 February 2024 (UTC)

Should this be a subcategory of Category:Redirects from alternative names? I was going to add it myself (my thought process being that a personal name would be an alternative name for a person best known under a different name), but then I thought I'd ask for a second opinion beforehand. All the best, ‍—‍ a smart kitten_{[ meow} 01:56, 26 February 2024 (UTC)

Yes, I would call this a good catch. We see that the closely associated Category:Redirects from birth names is a subcategory of Category:Redirects from long names, which itself is a subcategory of the Redirects from alternative names category. So I agree that the Redirects from personal names category should also be in the category tree under Category:Redirects from alternative names. Makes sense and is something I missed and overlooked. Thank you very much, editor A smart kitten for catching this error! P.I. Ellsworth ,  ed.  ^{put'er there} 04:48, 26 February 2024 (UTC)

 Done in Special:Diff/1210345781 - and no problem :) ‍—‍ a smart kitten_{[ meow} 04:58, 26 February 2024 (UTC)