Help:Soft redirect



What is a soft redirect?
A soft redirect is a very short page that essentially tells the user to look at another to obtain the information they were seeking.

The technique is most often used when redirecting users across wikis, especially where cross-wiki redirects are disabled. On such a wiki, the text of a hard redirect will be displayed, but will not actually take the user to the other wiki.



How do I create a soft redirect?

 * Hard redirect example
 * #redirect LasVegas:Food


 * Soft redirect example
 * See LasVegas:Food

If a page is relevant to more than one Wikia, it may be best to place the page on just one wiki, and make a soft redirect to it from the other wiki. Advantages of this are that it brings the two projects closer together and prevents duplication of effort.



Why should I soft redirect?
On some wikis, interwiki redirects are disallowed.

Normal or "hard" redirects are undesirable in these circumstances because the page containing the redirect cannot be easily edited, because there's no "Redirected from [title]" message on the destination page, and so there is nothing to click on to take you back to the redirect page, and clicking on a link to the redirect page takes you straight to the redirect's target. The correct URL must be handcrafted to reach the page.

There are also infinite loop security considerations.



What about soft redirects to categories?
Since redirecting to a category does not currently work, a soft redirect must be used instead. For example, Wikia policies includes a soft redirect to the policies category.



What about using Dynamic Page Lists instead of soft category redirects?
If the category is located within the same wiki, an alternative to redirecting to the category may be to use the MediaWiki 1.5 DynamicPageList extension to include a list of the category's contents inline in the current page.

The introductory text from the category page may be included as while the list of items in the category may be included with DynamicPageList codes:


 * 
 * category=whatever
 * 
 * 

This approach will not work if the desired content is on another wiki or on an external site. In that case, it is best to use a soft redirect.



What can I see for more help?

 * Help:Interwiki links
 * Soft redirects at Wikipedia, on which this page was based.
 * Redirects at MetaWikipedia