See also: Help:Redirects, Wikipedia:Redirects, wikipedia:Help:Redirects, mw:Help:Redirects, meta:Help:Redirects, and Scratchpad:Redirects are cheap
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This essay contains the advice or opinions of one or more Scratchpad contributors. Essays may represent widespread norms or minority viewpoints. Consider these views with discretion. While essays are not Scratchpad policies or guidelines, they nevertheless should be kept in mind when dealing with the issues on which they focus. Where policies/guidelines are inconsistent with this page, please defer to those. |
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This page in a nutshell: Redirects take up minimal system resources, so it doesn't really hurt things if there are a few of them scattered around. |
To restate the above nutshell: Redirects are cheap. Redirects take up minimal disk space. Redirects use very little bandwidth. Thus, it doesn’t really hurt things if there are a few of them scattered around. In fact, a redirect page may even avoid the creation of duplicate articles on the same subject, and thereby actually save data space.
- Deleting a redirect actually adds very slightly to the size of the database (since deleted pages are not really purged from the database, just hidden from public view). Unless a redirect is actively misleading or gets in the way of a pagemove, there is little point in deleting it.
- However, this does not mean we should preemptively create redirects for their own sake. (See Help:Redirect for more.)
- On the other hand, cross-namespace redirects make processing Scratchpad content more complex for bots and scripts.
- Creating redirects from existing articles can be valid alternatives to pursuing deletion discussions, saving discussion time where a redirect is a legitimate and likely outcome. Consensus should still be sought via discussion (or the BOLD, revert, discuss cycle, for less contentious topics).
Notes
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This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Wikipedia:Redirects are cheap. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Scratchpad, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Licence. |