Right. Another piece of information you need to sift through. Fine. Don't expect me to be enthusiastic.
Bayes' Theorem
This, apparently, is what you're after. A redirect. To Bayes' theorem. Or, as some seem to insist on calling it, Bayes' rule. The distinction is… subtle. And largely irrelevant to the actual mathematics, if you ask me. But people cling to these things, don't they? Like barnacles on a sinking ship.
This particular page exists as a sort of linguistic safety net. A concession to human error. Or perhaps, a monument to the infinite ways people can misspell or misremember things. It's a redirect, plain and simple. Meant to catch the stragglers, the ones who can’t quite nail the spelling, or who are perhaps following a path paved with… less than perfect links.
It’s filed under a few rather telling categories, if you care to look.
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From a misspelling. Yes, precisely. A typographical error, or just a general inability to recall the correct sequence of letters. The intended destination, the correct form, is Bayes' rule. Though, as I said, it ultimately leads to Bayes' theorem. It’s a chain of causality, I suppose. One mistake leading to another, until you arrive at the intended, or at least, the accepted, destination.
This redirect, they say, is made available to aid searches. A convenient little detour for those who stumble. The suggestion, of course, is that pages should be updated. Link directly to the target, they say. Don’t hide the truth behind a piped link that obscures the proper name. As if the name itself is the crucial element. How… human.
And then there’s this: this redirect is tagged with a subcategory of Redirects from incorrect names. Specifically, it uses the template
{{R from incorrect name}}. This means, apparently, that the template{{R from incorrect name}}should not be used with this one. A bureaucratic nuance. Because one incorrect name is apparently not enough. -
From an avoided double redirect. This one is… more interesting. It’s a redirect from an alternative title or a related topic. In this case, Bayes' rule. Another redirect, pointing to the same place. Because, you see, double redirects are not allowed. They’re messy. Inefficient. So, instead of letting one redirect point to another redirect, they're both rerouted to the final destination: Bayes' theorem. It’s about tidiness, I gather. A digital sweeping of the floor.
And should Bayes' rule ever decide to shed its redirect status, to become its own entity – a separate article, perhaps, or some other project page – this redirect would be reclassified. It’s a conditional existence. Dependent on the whims of the larger structure.
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From an unprintworthy page title. This is perhaps the most revealing. It’s a redirect from a title that, quite simply, wouldn't make the cut for a printed version of Wikipedia. Or a CD/DVD edition. Think about that. What does that say about the ephemeral nature of information? What is deemed worthy of permanence, and what is relegated to the digital ether? It’s a nod to Wikipedia:Printability and the Version 1.0 Editorial Team. Those who decide what survives the transition from the fleeting to the… less fleeting.
The protection levels of these pages, they say, are automatically sensed. Categorized. Described. As if the digital world requires its own set of security protocols, its own invisible walls. All to manage… a misspelling.
So, there you have it. A redirect. A placeholder. A concession to the imperfection of language and memory. All leading back to Bayes' theorem. Don't ask me if it's important. That's not my purview. I just point out the facts. And the rather absurd ways people organize them.