Talk:Uncle Fred in the Springtime

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Links to characters at List article

Wikipedia links to characters about whom an article has been written seem to work fine. If the character is mentioned in the List article only, the link gets to the List article but not directly to the character. It seems not to matter if the character’s name is simply a section title or is inside an anchor template. I changed one link that confused Lord Bosham with his son George Threepwood, in the article. The son is not mentioned in this book. Lord Bosham’s name before he got his title was also George Threepwood. Are the links working as expected? I am not well-versed in the anchor template, so I cannot rightly tell when it is working as intended. - - Prairieplant (talk) 19:45, 30 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Prairieplant, I don't believe the link was confusing Lord Bosham with his son, since his full name is "George Threepwood, Lord Bosham". He didn't lose his name when he acquired his title. It seems to me that both links George Threepwood, Lord Bosham and Lord Bosham were correctly linking directly to List of minor Blandings characters#Lord Bosham before your change to the anchor for that section, so I think that anchor should be changed back if that is all right with you. The other links for characters appear to be working as intended. I am not sure why the links would not be working for you, but we can figure it out. Please try these three links: Alaric, Duke of Dunstable, Ricky Gilpin, and Polly Pott. For me, each of these links goes directly to that character's section. Do any of these links work for you? Miles26 (talk) 21:25, 30 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Miles26, when I first went to the article, before I changed anything, the link gave me a Redirected to George Threepwood and took me to the entry for the son of Lord Bosham. This was confusing, as at that moment I did not know he had sons. The change I made stopped the redirect to his son's entry, but did not succeed in getting directly to the entry for Lord Bosham.

When I clicked on Polly Pott, using my phone, I was taken to the List page, with a brief message box saying I was being redirected on the page. It was not the exact place where Polly Pott is on the List page. Oddly, the same happened with Lord Bosham, after I changed his title in the List article to simply Lord Bosham, matching his wife, Lady Bosham. Now, the link does not go to the wrong person, but goes to no particular person. When I do the same clicking of links on my laptop computer, it goes straight to the name in the List page, unless there is an article for that character, except for Lord Bosham. In that instance, I am taken to the top of the List article, where the message below the title says, Redirected from Lord Bosham. Is there a redirect set up somewhere, separate from the anchor template?

So, putting aside the differences in using my phone as a computer, and my laptop, it seems that the issue is with the link for Lord Bosham.

Why is the anchor template used? The others, the 3 you listed, sometimes have the anchor template (Duke of Dunstable and Alaric "Ricky" Gilpin) and sometimes do not have the anchor template (Polly Pott), but they all work on my laptop. I think it is okay, clearer, to have Lord Bosham that way, not putting his family name in the title, but in the text about him. I am confused, and do not know how to get the link to Lord Bosham to work from this article to the List article. --Prairieplant (talk) 22:13, 30 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Prairieplant, the page Lord Bosham is indeed a redirect which was set up separately from the anchor template, though it does link to an anchor. You can click on "Lord Bosham" in the "Redirected from" message to see the redirect page. I will change the anchor template in the Lord Bosham section now, which should fix this link, at least for your laptop.

The anchor template is useful for sections that have been renamed. For example, a section was titled "Alaric, Duke of Dunstable" but was renamed "Duke of Dunstable", so an anchor was added containing the old name. This allows links using the old name to find the renamed section. The Polly Pott section hasn't been renamed, so there's no reason to use the anchor template there. A link using the section name "Polly Pott" will find the correct section without help from an anchor.

I've asked around and it seems that in the mobile version of Wikipedia, a link to a section initially goes to the correct section, but then any sections that were previously open get reopened and move the page. Please try this: in your phone, close any sections you opened on the Blandings character list page, and then see if a section link such as Polly Pott works. Miles26 (talk) 01:36, 31 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Miles26 thank you, that works quite nicely now! Thank you also for explaining the anchor template more simply than it is explained at the page about the anchor template. I did read that, and ended up as ignorant as when I started, alas. Now I get it. --Prairieplant (talk) 22:41, 31 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Prairieplant, good to hear that it's working now. I'm glad I could help. Miles26 (talk) 12:53, 1 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]