Wikipedia talk:Double redirects
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[edit] MediaWiki deficient?
If Wikipedia terminates a redirect as a precaution to infinite loops, they should come up with a better plan than that.
My plan is to improve the Wikiware to automatically detect a self-redirect to stop an infinite loop but allow a sequence to other redirects until it reaches the terminus. --SuperDude 05:54, 14 May 2005 (UTC)
- Is there anyone working on removing the restrictions on double-redirects? Where might I find more information? Ewlyahoocom 22:14, 8 February 2006 (UTC)
Er, yes, that's what I thought. Loop detection is a solved problem. All you do is remember every page you've redirected through and see if you hit one again. As a back-end check you would have a maximum hop count of some reasonable value (like 20)? Easy-peazy. Why should we have to compromise the logical structure of Wikipedia (or any wiki) for the sake of a few lines of code and a few CPU cycles? Duckbill 09:40, 20 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Page move
I propose that this be moved to Wikipedia:Double redirects. To my recollection, I never even saw the term "multiple redirect" before I stumbled onto this page a bit earlier. (Well, maybe I saw it once.) Even the page itself consistently uses the term "double redirect", except for the initial defining sentence. Eric119 04:59, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- I will implement this move. Eric119 16:50, 11 July 2005 (UTC)
[edit] prevention is better than cure
Whenever we move a page, we are reminded to check for double re-directs and fix them, if any. However, whenever we merge two articles, and convert one of them into a re-direct, we do not get reminded to check for double re-directs. We should probably be reminded whenever a re-direct is made so that this problem can be remedied by the initiator of the re-direct himself. --Gurubrahma 10:36, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
[edit] ...in order to prevent infinite loops.
I believe the phrase "...in order to prevent infinite loops" should be removed from this description. The limitation is simply a limitation (and there are better ways to avoid infinite loops than this kind of deficiency -- I even believe following double-, triple-, or whatever-number-of-redirects could be done within a single existing SQL statement without adding any additional looping in the software). Ewlyahoocom 22:27, 21 May 2006 (UTC)
- I prefer to keep the explanation about infinite loops. It's only a few words. I prefer to see an explanation of why a limitation is there, rather than just be told that there's this limitation. There may be better ways to do it; maybe the development team will change it when they have time. You could, if you want, start up a discussion perhaps at the technical section of the village pump or on Meta, or perhaps put in a bugzilla feature request, though I'm guessing the development team is already aware of the problem. If it's done with a single SQL statement there would be implicit or explicit looping within the SQL statement; perhaps the SQL interpreter automatically checks for and avoids infinite loops. I don't know the details and I'm guessing there's some reason the development team doesn't find it easy to change this, or they would have done it already. --Coppertwig 13:27, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Fix double redirects automatically
Would it be possible for the database to fix double redirects by itself, without relying on us to find them and edit them? --Smack (talk) 18:16, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Added section "Checking for double redirects"
I just added instructions on how to check for double redirects. These instructions may seem obvious and unnecessary; but let's just say that some of us are the type of people that if we write a program that handles linked lists we need to draw little diagrams with boxes and arrows, and if we write another similar program a few weeks later we need to draw the diagrams all over again. In other words, it may be obvious to some people but confusing for others. I hope these instructions will remain here so I can re-read them next time I move a page. --Coppertwig 13:19, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
