Wikipedia:Categorization: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:08, 9 February 2025

Revision as of 18:23, 9 February 2025

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{{see also|Wikipedia:Redirect#Category redirects|Category:Wikipedia soft redirected categories}}

<section begin=CATREDIRECT />Do {{em|not}} create inter-[[Help:Category|category]] redirects, by adding a line <syntaxhighlight inline lang="wikitext">#REDIRECT [[:Category:{{var|target category}}]]</syntaxhighlight> to a category page. Unlike when [[Help:How to move a page|renaming articles]], categories cannot be [[Help:Redirect|redirected]] using "hard" redirects (i.e. <code><nowiki>#REDIRECT[[''target'']]</nowiki></code>). SoAlso, aarticles formadded ofto a "'''[[Wikipedia:Softredirected" redirect|softcategory redirect]]''do not show up in the target category, preventing proper categorization. What's worse, since redirected categories do not become "red maylinks", editors won't be usedaware even when they add an article to a redirected category.<ref>For an attempt to fix this issue in limited[[MediaWiki]], circumstances{{crossref|pw=y|see {{Phab|T5311}}}}.</ref>

Instead, a form of "'''[[Wikipedia:Soft redirect|soft redirect]]'''" may be used in limited circumstances. You can create a [[Wikipedia:Category redirects|category redirect]] by adding {{tlx|Category redirect|target}} to the category page. [[Wikipedia:Bots|Bots]] patrol these categories and move articles to the "target" of the redirect.

If you need to add an [[WP:RCAT|rcat]] to a {{t|Category redirect}}, use the template's second parameter. For example, <syntaxhighlight inline lang="wikitext">{{Category redirect | Years of the 19th century in Ceylon | {{R from category navigation}} {{R from template-generated category}} }}</syntaxhighlight>

Category redirects are [[WP:COSTLY|costly]]. While placing a page in a category redirect is not a ''big'' problem, it <em>is</em> a problem. There are [[Wikipedia:Category redirects that should be kept#Category redirects that might be useful|plenty of helpful uses of category redirects]], but category redirects are not as [[WP:CHEAP|cheap as regular redirects]]. Links to article redirects are [[WP:NOTBROKEN]]: click on the link and you are automatically redirected to its target. However, links to category redirects <em>are</em> broken and need to be fixed. Placing a page into a category redirect makes it show up in the category redirect — not its target — until a bot comes along and fixes the link.<section end=CATREDIRECT />