need redirects!

[madpeople]

the wiki needs more redirects.

i've been adding s couple in the past few days, but we need many more.

did you know there were no search results for "lag", and the only way they would have got to this page is a link from tech support or searching for "Allegiance is extremely laggy! My ship jumps all over the place!"

yeah, basically lots of redirects and links help people find stuff /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

so when editing a page try and think of things people might search for that should take them to that page

if you don't know how to make a redirect, make a page with the name of the thing you want to redirect, and make it's content:

Code: Select all

#REDIRECT [[page title]]

where page title is the target of the redirect link

e.g. if i wanted to make "test" redirect to a page http://www.freeallegiance.org/FAW/index.php/Hello_World
then i would make a page called test http://www.freeallegiance.org/FAW/index.php/test
and change it's content to be
#REDIRECT [[Hello World]]
i believe
#REDIRECT [[Hello_World]]
would also work

[badpazzword]

Yeah, I've done a lot of redirects e.g. for squad names, and I think redirects for the people in Individuals should be done too.

REMEMBER: Double redirects don't work.

[juckto]

The problem with redirecting to individuals is that it doesn't work. That is, directing to a sub-header doesn't work.

#REDIRECT [[Individuals#Thalgor]]

is the same as

#REDIRECT [[Individuals]]

If I'm adding a name into an article, I'd rather take the extra time and type in [[Individuals#Thalgor|Thalgor]] and have the link actually go to Thalgor; than have it as [[Thalgor]] and have the link go to the top of the individuals page. But that's just me.

[badpazzword]

Yes, but what about the people that type Thalgor in the address bar and find a "This page doesn't exist?"

[madpeople]

i have to agree

http://www.freeallegiance.org/FAW/index.ph...=thal&go=Go

no one is called thal

how about making a page which simply says

see [[Individuals#Thalgor|Thalgor]]

and have out redirects point to that?

[juckto]

Okay. You're just talking about having stuff crop up when someone does a search, right? I'm getting confused, thinking you want to put them in articles which would mean people clicking on the link would have to click two links to get one piece of information.

QUOTE how about making a page which simply says

see [[Individuals#Thalgor|Thalgor]]

and have out redirects point to that?[/quote]
If you're going to do that, prefix them search so it doesn't clutter up the wiki please. So Search/Thalgor, Search/Pook, etc.

And have, thal, thalgor, thal@HQ, super admin, etc all be
#REDIRECT [[Search/Thalgor]]

[madpeople]

yes, we want people to find what they are looking for.

we know that a page exists, they don't, when the search doesn't yeild a result, they assume it doesn't and the wiki has failed in it's purpose.

i've actually spent quite a while trying to find a page i knew existed simply because i wasn't spelling it's title exactly like it is in the page's title (i think i missed out a hyphen).

it was frustrating because i knew the page existed but no matter what i searched for, i couldn't find it. anyone else would simply assume there was no such page.

[juckto]

I just knew you were going to reply before I finished editing that.

[madpeople]

meh, we like to be efficient /tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" />

so should we go with the search/name pages or just link to the individuals page?

also, do we have any pages on who our admins are?

http://www.freeallegiance.org/FAW/index.ph...dmins&go=Go
http://www.freeallegiance.org/FAW/index.ph...admin&go=Go
http://www.freeallegiance.org/FAW/index.ph...ation&go=Go

slightly different
http://www.freeallegiance.org/FAW/index.ph...wners&go=Go (ok, i just did this one)

[juckto]

Any search that should result in a page can redirect straight to the page. e.g. the page "admins" can be #REDIRECT [[@Alleg]] (Or would Zone Leads be a better match?).

But any search that should result in a section of a page can redirect to a /search page. e.g. "newbie boots" can be #REDIRECT [[search/newbie booting]] and "search/newbie booting" can be Information on newbie booting is [[Enforcement FAQ#Newbie boot protection|here]].


That'll have the bonus that if you follow a link and end up at a /search page you know you need to fix the link (the original editor was lazy) - the only way you should end up at a /search page is by using the search box. (And then only if you're searching for something that is a subsection).


We can also use it for searches that may be for different pages. eg allegplus vs @alleg (I'm covering this atm).