MarioWiki:Redirects

Redirects are used to forward the user from one page on the wiki to another page.

Main redirects
We use redirects to connect logical search phrases to helpful places. They don't cost us anything, so they're highly-encouraged. There are a few exceptions, but unless one redirects to a place to where someone wouldn't want to go, there's no downside to having them. In such a case where a phrase could have multiple meanings, a disambiguation page is used.

For example, let's take a look at the search phrase "luigis mansion 2". Without a proper redirect, users are taken to this results page. MediaWiki's built-in search is not great, and redirects allow us to make up for that by applying a human touch to point users in the right direction. If there's even a small chance that a redirect will help someone, it's not useless.

Unnecessary redirects
Due to MediaWiki's search irregularities, a proper-capitalization redirect and all-lowercase redirect may exist for each topic (for example, Afoot in the Foothills and afoot in the foothills). Redirects are only unnecessary when (1) they are completely nonsensical, (2) they are too general, and (3) the search function takes the user to the correct page without said redirect.

Examples
(1) We don't need the redirect Game with luigi and ghosts 2 because it's too silly.

(2) We don't want the redirect First mario game because we're not positive what page the user is looking for (you might say Donkey Kong (game), but maybe they're actually trying to find Super Mario Bros.), so the search page is the best place for them to be.

(3) We don't require the redirect Super mario galaxy or Super Mario galaxy because entering "super mario galaxy" in the search field takes the user to Super Mario Galaxy without any redirects.

Post-move redirects
If a mainspace article has existed for over a year and is moved for any reason, and unless a new page is created using the old title, then the old page title should remain as a redirect to the new title and protected. This helps preserve links to the wiki from external websites. Internal links to the article should be updated to the new title, as normal.

Spelling-mistake redirects
Spelling mistake redirects are a grey area. The general rule is: don't think about them too much. Don't worry about tagging them for deletion unless they break another rule because there's really no point, and don't go off creating as many spelling mistake redirects that you can think of. We suggest reasonable mistakes aimed at more-popular subjects, which is subjective but not 100% subjective. creates them based on our top search phrases, but everyone else has to either make some guesses or just not worry about them.

Non-mainspace redirects
Template, Category, and File redirects are discouraged. In the rare case that one of these types of pages is moved, it is necessary to update all links to the new name and delete the redirect page.

Smart apostrophe/quote redirects
Due to certain devices using smart quotes and apostrophes by default (“...” and ‘...’), searching a title that uses regular quotes and apostrophes won't direct those users to that page unless they use the correct type, so creation of smart apostrophe/quote redirects (for example, Bowser’s Castle for Bowser's Castle) is encouraged.

Linking to redirects
Linking to redirect pages is discouraged, so always try to link to the actual page name and use the piped-formatting to correct the name if necessary.