Draughts

Oh, this again. Another detour. You navigate the labyrinth of information, only to find yourself shunted off to a different corridor, a testament to humanity’s inherent inability to settle on a single designation. Fine. Let’s make this interesting, or at least less excruciating for me.

The Unavoidable Detour: Redirecting to Checkers

Apparently, you’ve stumbled upon a page that isn’t really a page at all. It’s merely a signpost, a digital finger wagging you in the direction of something else. Specifically, this particular digital shrug of a page points you directly to the article concerning Checkers . One might wonder why such an elaborate mechanism exists just to tell you to look somewhere else, but then, one might also wonder why people insist on using multiple names for the same thing. Life’s rich tapestry, I suppose, woven with threads of inefficiency.

This entire construct, as you may have surmised, functions as a redirect . A rather elegant term, isn’t it? It implies purpose, a deliberate re-routing. In reality, it’s often just a cleanup operation, a way to sweep linguistic clutter under a more canonical rug. It’s not a destination; it’s a polite, or perhaps entirely passive-aggressive, suggestion to move along. Nothing to see here, just the digital equivalent of a “Sorry, wrong number.”

The Bureaucracy of Redirections: Categorizing the Inevitable

Even these ephemeral digital signposts are meticulously categorized, as if their transient nature makes them more deserving of bureaucratic scrutiny. It seems nothing is exempt from the relentless human need to sort and label. These are the categories assigned to track and monitor this particular exercise in digital misdirection:

From a Printworthy Page Title

First, we have the rather quaint notion of a page being From a printworthy page title . Imagine, if you will, a time when the vast, sprawling, and ever-shifting landscape of Wikipedia was considered for the static, immutable confines of a printed book or a CD/DVD version. It’s almost charming, in a tragically anachronistic way. This redirect, apparently, originates from a title deemed “helpful” enough to be included in such a physical artifact. Because, of course, when one is flipping through a weighty tome of knowledge, one needs to be able to find the path to “Checkers” even if the title they’ve landed on isn’t precisely “Checkers.” For more on this curious historical artifact, one could consult Wikipedia:Printability and the ethereal remnants of the Version 1.0 Editorial Team . They had lofty goals, bless their hearts.

From an Alternative Name

Then there’s the more common, and frankly, more exasperating, scenario: From an alternative name . This category encompasses redirects where the original title is simply another way of saying the same thing. Think of it as a semantic shorthand, or perhaps a lack of commitment to a single, definitive label. It could be an alter ego , a common nickname , or a straightforward synonym of the target article. Or, as is often the case, it’s a name that is merely “associated” with the target, rather than being a direct equivalent.

This particular redirect, for example, is aligned with the naming conventions that prioritize common names . The idea, apparently, is to assist both casual searches and the more dedicated act of writing, ensuring that even if one doesn’t use the exact preferred title, one still eventually arrives at the correct destination. And, for the record, it is explicitly not necessary to meticulously replace these redirected links with a piped link . The system works, after a fashion, so don’t bother trying to “fix” what isn’t truly broken, unless you enjoy busywork.

However, a critical distinction must be made: if this redirect is merely an incorrect name for the target, a genuine misapprehension rather than a valid alternative, then the appropriate template, {{[R from incorrect name](/Template:R_from_incorrect_name)}}, should be employed. Because even in the realm of digital redirects, precision, however grudgingly applied, is still paramount. We wouldn’t want to accidentally endorse misinformation, now would we?

With History

And now, for the truly melancholic category: With history . This isn’t just a simple signpost; it’s a monument to vanished content. This redirect arises from a page that once contained “substantive page history.” It’s a digital ghost, lingering in the archives. The page is preserved as a redirect not out of convenience, but to safeguard its former textual contributions and, more importantly, the attributions of those who contributed them. It’s a way of acknowledging that something was here, even if it no longer is.

Therefore, one is advised, with the full weight of digital bureaucracy behind it, not to remove the tag that generates this text. Unless, of course, you have a truly compelling, demonstrated need to resurrect content on this very page. And certainly, one should not simply delete this page. It’s a tombstone, not trash.

A word of caution, however, to prevent further administrative headaches: this specific template should not be indiscriminately applied to all redirects with any minor edit history. It’s reserved for pages with genuinely “meaningful content” in their past iterations. Nor is it for redirects that arose from a straightforward page merge , for which the more specific {{[R from merge](/Template:R_from_merge)}} template exists. And it certainly isn’t for those redirects whose titles merely form a historic part of Wikipedia itself; for those, the equally specific {{[R with old history](/Template:R_with_old_history)}} template is the proper choice. Because apparently, even the reasons for a page’s historical demise must be cataloged with excruciating detail.

The Inevitable Oversight: Protection Levels

Finally, as if to underscore the sheer, unblinking vigilance of the system, the various protection levels are automatically sensed, described, and categorized. Because, naturally, even a page whose sole purpose is to point elsewhere might, at some point, become the target of vandalism or misguided editorial zeal. The system, ever-watchful, ensures that even the most unassuming digital detours are guarded, if only to prevent you from making an even bigger mess. Consider it a subtle reminder that even when you think you’re alone, someone (or something) is always watching. You’re welcome.