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PathfinderWiki uses redirects to direct people from one article on the wiki to another. For example, if somebody follows a link to LG, then they will end up at the page lawful good instead, and the top of the page will include a notice of redirection that looks like this: (Redirected from LG).

What do we use redirects for?

Redirects on PathfinderWiki should help readers and editors find and link to relevant subjects that might go by multiple names in canon works.

As a rule of thumb, assume that if a reader sees any term or name in a published Pathfinder canon work, they should be able to search for it on PathfinderWiki and find a related article, even if Paizo's usage of that term or spelling of that name across or within works is inconsistent. Redirects allow PathfinderWiki to facilitate that without duplicating content for each usage.

Examples of useful redirects include:

• Abbreviations: LG redirects to Lawful good
• Alternative spellings: Armour redirects to Armor
• Alternative names: Aiudara redirects to Elf gate, Alchemy lab redirects to Laboratory
• Alternative capitalizations: Aldori Swordlords redirects to Aldori swordlords
  • However, do not make redirects to cover potential typos.
• Alternative punctuation: A’shadieeyah bint Khalid redirects to Ashadieeyah bint Khalid
  • However, do not make redirects for alternatives that do not appear in canon works.
• Irregular plural forms, mid-title plurals, tenses, etc.: Elves redirects to Elf, Hounds of Tindalos redirects to Hound of Tindalos
  • Redirects for basic plural suffixes are often unnecessary.
• Pseudonyms and nicknames: Pillbug redirects to Aliver Podiker
• Former names: Azer redirects to Munsahir
• Animal companions, familiars, and other bonded companions: Droogami redirects to Lini, Mathias redirects to Vreva Jhafae
• Synonyms: Barge redirects to Ship
• Variants: Greater herexen redirects to Herexen
• Sub-topic redirects
• Avoiding broken links

Each new redirect can create maintenance for editors and administrators should the target article ever be moved, merged with another article, or split into multiple articles. Creating unnecessary redirects might not be immediately harmful, but they can add unnecessary work for others later.

Abbreviations

The abbreviation LG redirects to the article Lawful good

Editions of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game abbreviate many terms, such as alignments. PathfinderWiki articles should typically be named after a subject's full formal name, and redirects from abbreviations to those names help readers who search for the abbreviation find the information they're looking for.

Not every abbreviation requires a redirect. Abbreviations should generally be avoided in the body of articles. Ensure there is a reason to redirect an abbreviation.

Alternative names

The alternative name Rough Beast redirects to the formal name Rovagug

The elf-specific name Aiudara redirects to popular name Elf gate

The specific term Alchemy lab redirects to the general term Laboratory

Certain terms or subjects might be sufficiently equivalent to one another that they can all refer to the same PathfinderWiki article. Redirects can help reduce obstacles to editors adding content by allowing them to link to a related term (also referred to by editors as an "alternate name", or "altname" for short) instead of manually entering a link target.

Include all altnames redirected to an article in the target article, and format the altnames in bold to help identify them to a reader who arrives to an article from a redirect. Not all terms can or should be redirected in this manner, particularly ambiguous terms that might need disambiguation.

This is subjective, and alternative names can change over time. For example, Positive Energy Plane was once the formal name for one of the planes, and Creation's Forge redirected to it as an alternative name. The Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster Project retroactively changed Creation's Forge to be the primary formal name, and Positive Energy Plane now redirects to it as an alternative name.

Synonyms and variants

The ship types Barge, Galleon, Sloop, Frigate redirect to Ship

The dog types Hound, Mastiff, Riding dog, Erutaki husky redirect to Dog

Several subjects on PathfinderWiki can be referred to by multiple terms that do not warrant separate articles or their own sections in a larger article. This can include a subject that has many classes or types that are fundamentally similar, such as ships, or variants of creatures that are fundamentally similar.

This can be highly subjective. If enough information exists to warrant a standalone article for a variant, it's often OK to create a new article (or convert a redirect to a full article) for that variant without doing so for all of them.

Pseudonyms and nicknames

The pseudonym Pillbug redirects to the formal name Aliver Podiker

but

The birth name Vera Jentis redirects to the adopted name Vreva Jhafae

In accordance with naming conventions, PathfinderWiki prefers that an article's title be a recently used, well-defined, unambiguous term, and to redirect looser colloquial terms to it, rather than to do the opposite.

Redirects from pseudonyms and nicknames to a subject's proper, formal name are often both allowed and encouraged in order to facilitate discovery by these alternate names, with a notable exception: do not create redirects that inherently constitute a major spoiler of a canon work.

This can be highly subjective. Rely on the context of the subject's background and story, especially when proposing that an article be moved. For example, articles prefer names that are adopted by a character over their birth names or deadnames, so Vreva Jhafae is the article title and target of a redirect from her birth name Vera Jentis.

Former names

The legacy content name Azer redirects to the Remaster name Munsahir

The legacy content name Half-orc redirects to the Remaster name Dromaar

Articles should generally use the most recent canon name for a subject, which might result in an article's name changing if its subject's name changed in subsequent works. This is common for subjects that were renamed upon the release for Pathfinder Second Edition or the Second Edition Remaster Project.

In most cases these redirects are created when an existing article on a subject is moved. However, if you're creating a new article about a subject that went by a different name in a previous edition, consider adding a redirect from the former name to the article at the current name.

Companions

The animal companion Droogami redirects to their druid Lini

The pet cat Mathias redirects to the owner Vreva Jhafae

but

The familiar Halmeni has its own article

Redirect the names of animal companions, familiars, and other bonded companions and mechanically defined class features to their associated character, where their bond can be described. Non-mechanical pets can also be redirected in this manner.

This is subjective guidance. Notable companions that have had their own standalone canon significance, such as Aroden's familiar Halmeni, can have their own article.

Alternative capitalization, spelling, and punctuation usage

The valid alternative spelling of the English word Armour redirects to the article Armor

The spelling Inebni Andebar appearing in some canon sources redirects to the consensus article title Inebni Andabar

The capitalization Aldori Swordlords appearing in some canon sources redirects to the consensus article title Aldori swordlords

The punctuated usage A’shadieeyah bint Khalid appearing in some canon sources redirects to the consensus article title Ashadieeyah bint Khalid

but

Dwarf does not have a redirect from "Dwarfs", which is both ambiguous and not used as a plural form in canon works

Aroden does not have a redirect from the typo forms "Ardoen", "Arodne", "Aorden", etc.

The formal name Eagle Knights does not have a redirect from the incorrect and ambiguous informal-case usage "Eagle knights"

The possessive title Eagle's Ring does not have a redirect from the non-possessive title "Eagles Ring", which is also not used in a canon work

The formal name Apocalypse Riders and informal name apocalypse rider (archetype) have distinct meanings and therefore have separate articles

Valid alternative spellings of a name or word, particularly those used in canon works, can be redirected. Formal and proper names should generally have redirects only for alternative usages that appear in canon works. Redirects for spellings specific to a version of English are also allowed, though not required.

However, unlike Wikipedia, this should not include redirects for typos or other common misspellings. Typo redirects can reinforce incorrect usage by allowing misspellings or incorrect usages to appear and function as valid links; red links are often more useful as indicators of an erroneous usage than the redirect itself would be.

This can be highly subjective. Not all alternative spellings and forms require redirects, especially if they do not appear in a canon work, and canon changes might retroactively change or necessitate the removal of some redirects over time to reflect the current state of canon.

It's often OK to not create redirects for these forms until or unless they are required, and to instead consistently apply the predominant usage of a term or name in canon to PathfinderWiki's content in order to avoid the need for redirects solely for capitalization, spelling, or punctuation usage. Different capitalizations and usages are also sometimes automatically resolved by the wiki's built-in search.

Plural forms

The irregular plural form Elves redirects to the singular article title Elf

The mid-title plural form Hounds of Tindalos redirects to the singular article title Hound of Tindalos

but

The regular plural form "Humans" does not need to redirect to Human

The singular form "Fang of Kazavon" does not need to redirect to the inherently plural item's article Fangs of Kazavon

Redirects for plural forms are most useful for irregular plural forms that change the end of a word, such as elves as the plural form of "elf", and for subjects that are pluralized in the middle of their article title, such as hounds of Tindalos as the plural form of "hound of Tindalos".

You should not create redirects for singular or plural forms of proper names when those names refer to an unique entity. For example, the nascent demon lord Treerazer is a unique creature, so a redirect from "Treerazers" is unnecessary. Likewise, the unique item Fangs of Kazavon cannot be separated, so a redirect from "Fang of Kazavon" is unnecessary.

(Notably, neither "Treerazers" nor "Fang of Kazavon" appear in a canon work. If in doubt, check the sources you have available to see if that usage exists in them, or ask another editor or in the PathfinderWiki Discord for feedback. If that usage appears in a canon source and is not a typo, such a redirect becomes considerably more valuable.)

MediaWiki automatically completes links that form part of a word. For example, the link [[human]]s automatically includes the trailing -s, as humans. Redirects to or from regular plural forms are therefore typically unnecessary.

Sub-topic redirects

The subject Whisky redirects to the "Whisky" section of the Alcoholic beverages article

The book title A Grand Tour of Absalom redirects to the book's listing in the List of written works article

but

The beverage Bramble-Sick Brandy and the work Account of Ostog the Unslain have their own articles

Sub-topic redirects point a reader to a sub-section of a longer article. For instance, whisky points to the part of the page alcoholic beverages that discusses this particular spirit. "Whisky" has yet to have a page of its own as the information about it is relatively small but, potentially, it could have one were Paizo to publish more relevant material, and this criterion is a useful guide as to whether a sub-topic redirect should be added.

Indeed, sub-topic redirects are often temporary, eventually being replaced by fully-fledged articles on the sub-topic in question. Be conservative when creating sub-topic redirects—they can sometimes be counter-productive, because they disguise the absence of a proper article from editors.

Sub-topic redirects should be used only where the main article has a section that covers the sub-topic.

How do I create a redirect?

If you're creating a new redirect, start a new page and write at the very top of it:

#REDIRECT [[pagename]]

Replace pagename in this context with the name of the target page.

If you're replacing an existing page with a redirect, for example after merging a duplicate page, edit the page you want to redirect and replace the existing text with #REDIRECT [[pagename]].

Use this button above the editing area to help create a redirect page.

A redirect page still redirects visitors even if there is additional text on the page after the #REDIRECT command and link, but this text is not normally seen. However, it will not redirect if there is anything on the page before the redirect. Also, there must not be any spaces between the hash sign (#) and the word REDIRECT.

Consider copying the #REDIRECT [[pagename]] text into the edit summary so that people know that you have created a redirect.

To form a sub-topic redirect use the following amended format:

#REDIRECT [[pagename#subtopictitle]]

Where pagename is replaced with the main article's title and subtopictitle is replaced with the precise, case-sensitive heading of the targeted article section.

Using the whisky example above, then, the redirect page would look like this:

#REDIRECT [[Alcoholic beverages#Whisky / Whiskey]]

To confirm that your redirect works, try going to the redirect, for instance, by typing the redirected title into the wiki's search bar, or by following a link to the redirected title.

Also, don't spend too much time creating redirects—often it's more important to spend time improving the quality of the target page. A piped link, such as [[Example page|a great example]], is another way to link to a specific article while displaying a different term in the article's text.

Renaming and merging

We try to avoid broken links because they annoy visitors. Therefore, if we change the layout of some section of PathfinderWiki, or we merge two duplicate articles, we often leave redirects in the old location to point to the new location. Search engines and visitors might have linked to that page at that URL, and if the page is deleted without a redirect, potential new visitors from search engines will be greeted with a confusing edit window and a page deletion message. The same is true for anyone who previously bookmarked that page, and so on.

For that reason, it is always preferable to propose a deletion or merger by adding the {{Deletion}} and {{Merge}} templates to a page and notifying an administrator, and safer to leave a redirect than to completely delete a page.

Category pages—any page that starts with Category:—are a considerable exception, and should never use redirects. Categories serve a different purpose than articles by helping to organize them into related groups and are used by tagging articles with categories, not by editing the category pages. Redirecting category pages might then lead to articles being incompletely or confusingly split across multiple categories that should be consolidated.

How do I change a redirect?

Click on a link to the redirect page. Then look for the "(redirected from pagename)" link at the top of the page you've been redirected to and click it. This will take you to the page displaying the redirect code.

Then click "edit" in the redirect page. You can then either change the target of the redirect, or replace the redirect with a brand-new article.

Another way to do the same thing: go to the target page and click "What links here" from the wiki's main menu. This displays all of the back-links from that page, including redirects. To change a redirect, click on it, and then click on "edit" as above.

When should we delete a redirect?

To delete a redirect without replacing it with a new article, add the {{Deletion}} template after the #REDIRECT code and provide a reason why the redirect should be deleted. An administrator should then provide advice, suggest changes, or delete the article.

This isn't necessary if you just want to replace a redirect with an article. In that case, just replace the page's content with the article you want to write.

You might want to delete a redirect if one or more of the following conditions is met:

1. The redirect page makes it unreasonably difficult for users to locate similarly named articles via the search engine.
2. The redirect might cause confusion, such as by referring to the subject using a non-canon term or usage, or by redirecting an ambiguous term with other meanings to a specific article that lacks disambiguating context.
3. The redirect is offensive, such as a redirect from "James Jacobs is a Loser" to "James Jacobs".
4. The redirect is completely unrelated to its destination, such as [[Pink elephants painting daisies]] redirecting to [[Absalom]].

However, avoid deleting such redirects if:

1. They have a potentially useful page history. If the redirect was created by renaming a page with that name, and the page history just mentions the renaming, and for one of the reasons above you want to delete the page, copy the page history to the Talk page of the article it redirects to. The act of renaming is useful page history, and even more so if there has been discussion on the page name.
2. They would make the creation of duplicate articles less likely.
3. They aid searches on certain terms.
4. Someone finds them useful.

Hint: If someone says they find a redirect useful, they probably do. You might not find it useful—this is not because the other person is incorrect, but because you browse PathfinderWiki in different ways.

Avoiding circular and double redirects

Avoid self-links, including self-links through redirects ("loop links" or "circular links"). A visitor who clicks a link and is redirected to the page they're already on, without any reasoning or explanation, will be confused. To link to a section within the same page, use an anchor link (such as [[#Whisky / Whiskey]] to link to the section with the heading "Whisky / Whiskey").

Also, avoid having a redirect that points to another redirect ("double redirects"). These are inefficient for the wiki and potentially confusing, especially if future edits result in these double redirects interacting in unexpected ways. For a list of double redirects, see Special:DoubleRedirects.

Categorizing redirects

While most redirects that simply point alternative names or identities to relevant articles should not be categorized, in some cases categorizing a redirect can help contextualize the redirect and lead researchers to useful information.

For example, the page dagger includes descriptions of several distinct types of daggers, such as the punching dagger and kerambit, that do not yet warrant their own articles. Redirects point those terms to the dagger article, but because those terms also represent distinct types of daggers, the redirects themselves are also categorized with Category:Daggers.

Because redirects are also listed on the category page, people using the category to research daggers can more easily discover and read about other examples even though they don't have their own standalone articles. Category pages indicate redirects by italicizing them.

For variants of creatures and items, the categories on a redirect might be as detailed as a full article's, in which case the categorization guidance on Help:Writing an article about a creature or Help:Writing an article about an item will be relevant.

Related topics

• How to edit a page
• Practice editing pages in our sandbox
• Wikipedia's Help:Redirect, which describes its use of redirects
• Wikipedia:Redirect, its guidelines on its use of redirects