Wikipedia:Redirect, DAB entry or hatnote needed

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There are certain circumstances where a redirect, DAB entry or hatnote may be needed.

Redirect, DAB entry or hatnote needed[edit]

A redirect, DAB entry or hatnote is generally needed in the following cases:

See also: Wikipedia:Redirects are cheap

Redirect may be needed[edit]

A DAB entry is generally needed in these cases though a redirect may not be. Such redirect may be considered harmless but it may be pointless to create them.

  • Topics without definite articles but the topic uses the article as an independent modifier (and readers are very unlikely to expect its part of the name) such as The United Kingdom>United Kingdom, those like The Netherlands>Netherlands where there is a higher likelihood of readers expecting the articles to be part of the name are generally helpful.
  • Alternative/incorrect capitalization such as Donald trump>Donald Trump and LONDON>London, in some cases where a trademark owner uses a capitalization (such as all caps) consistently in running text and the others only use the variant in the logo it may be appropriate to make the stylized version redirect to the only company that commonly uses it per MOS:TMSTYLE. Generally its not necessary to create redirect from incorrect capitalization since search goes to the best capitalization match if a perfect one isn't found namely if you typed "Donald trump" or "LONDON" into the search box and the redirect didn't exist it would take you straight to the correct title, see Wikipedia:Naming conventions (capitalization).
  • Common misspellings. If a DAB entry is needed generally these are put in the "See also" and if a hatnote is needed generally {{distinguish}} instead of {{about}} or {{for}} is used.
  • Redirects from unnecessary disambiguation.

Redirect generally not needed[edit]

A DAB entry is generally needed in these cases though a redirect may not be. Such redirect may be kept if they have substantial edit history or were the former location of an article for a reasonable amount of time.

See also: Wikipedia:Redirects are costly

Redirects v search[edit]

If a term has a particular target that would be more useful than the search results such as a proper noun going to a broader topic (like a WP:1E to the event or a NN song going to an album or the artist) or a plural going to its singular its often better to have a redirect rather than readers getting a list of articles that contain the term/who's content contains the term, if a term is vague/ambiguous/generic its often better not to point these to any article or sometimes even to have a DAB page as the search results are often more helpful however if there is a specific topic that would otherwise be located at the title a DAB page may be needed at the base name to prevent a WP:PRECISION error even though if the specific topic didn't exist a red link may be more helpful, a red link that takes the reader to search results is far less of a WP:SURPRISE than an obscure article at the base name which can also be a mislink magnet as it shows up blue when WP:OVERLINKED instead of showing up red which would be more likely to be noticed thus avoiding an WP:EASTEREGG link.

Redirect better than red link[edit]

Red link better than redirect[edit]

See also[edit]

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