Ah, you want me to distill the essence of Wikipedia's organizational minutiae into something… palatable. Fine. But don't expect sunshine and rainbows. This is about redirects, specifically the ones that funnel you from a common noun to its proper destination. Think of it as the underbelly of information, the necessary scaffolding that keeps the whole pretentious edifice from collapsing.
Category: Redirects from Common Nouns
This particular corner of Wikipedia is where the mundane meets the digital. It’s a collection of pages that are, in essence, signposts. They point you from a word you might use in everyday conversation – a common noun, as the pedants call it – towards a more specific, often more encyclopedic, topic. These aren't articles themselves; they're the whispers that guide you to the main event.
To get a redirect into this category, you need to perform a specific ritual. It's not exactly arcane, but it requires a certain… adherence to protocol. You place a template, {{Rcat shell}} with {{R from common noun}} nested inside, on the second new line, after you've already established the redirect itself with #REDIRECT [[Target page name]]. It's a bit like leaving a breadcrumb trail, only instead of crumbs, it's code. And for the love of whatever you hold dear, never substitute these templates, nor should they ever grace soft redirects. The system, in its infinite, unfeeling wisdom, demands precision.
For those who crave deeper knowledge, or perhaps just more rules, the complete list of redirect templates and the redirect style guide are available. They’re probably as thrilling as watching paint dry, but then again, so is categorizing redirects.
Maintenance, Not Memorabilia
Let's be clear: this is a maintenance category. It’s about keeping the machinery of Wikipedia humming, not about curating a museum of linguistic curiosities. These pages are for the internal workings, the gears and levers behind the scenes. They’re not part of the actual encyclopedia content, the articles you might actually read. They group pages by their status, not by their subject. So, no, you won't find this category nestled amongst articles about ancient civilizations or obscure scientific theories.
This is what they call a tracking category. Its primary purpose is to build and maintain lists. It’s about the process of organization, not the result of knowledge dissemination. They aren't integrated into the encyclopedia's categorization scheme in the way you might expect. It's like a ledger, meticulously recording entries for its own sake.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: These categories are hidden on their member pages. You'd have to actively seek them out, or adjust your user preference to "Show hidden categories," to even notice they exist. They operate in the shadows, much like certain… artistic endeavors.
- Systematic Scrutiny: They serve as a tool to track, build, and organize pages that require broad "attention en masse." Think of it as a digital janitorial service, identifying pages with deprecated syntax or those that simply need a once-over. It’s about efficiency, about tackling issues on a grand scale.
- Aggregation and Classification: These categories also act as a hub, pulling together members from various lists and sub-categories. They create a larger, more manageable overview, allowing for a more streamlined approach to maintenance tasks, all sorted and classified with ruthless efficiency.
Related Categories: A Glimpse into the System
If you're particularly enamored with this system of categorization, or perhaps just morbidly curious, you might also want to cast an eye over:
Each of these serves a similar purpose, just with a different grammatical lens. It’s a taxonomy of redirection, a complex web designed to ensure that no word, no matter how common or how specific, gets lost in the digital ether.
Contents: A Catalog of the Alphabetical Abyss
The actual content of this category is presented as a sprawling, alphabetized list. It’s a testament to the sheer volume of common words that might, for one reason or another, need to be redirected. The structure is predictably rigid, broken down by the initial letter of the redirected term.
Contents: Top 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
This alphabetical breakdown, from # and 0-9 right through to Z, is where the real work is done. Each letter then subdivides further, with entries like Aa, Ae, Aj, Ao, At under A, and so on. It’s a meticulous, almost agonizingly detailed system. You have Ba, Be, Bj, Bo, Bt under B; Ca, Ce, Cj, Co, Ct under C. This pattern continues relentlessly through every letter of the alphabet, down to Za, Ze, Zj, Zo, Zt under Z.
It’s a stark reminder that even the most seemingly straightforward aspects of information organization are built upon layers of intricate, often invisible, structure. Much like the silence that underpins my jacket, or the shadows in my art, these redirects are the unseen forces that shape how you find what you're looking for. Whether you appreciate it or not.