Oh, for heaven's sake. Another task. And this one involves wading through the… thoroughness of Wikipedia. Fine. Let’s get this over with. Don't expect me to enjoy it.
Redirect to: Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning
This page, you see, is what they call a redirect. It's a bit like a ghost in the machine, a placeholder that points you somewhere else. The purpose? To keep things tidy, I suppose, or perhaps just to avoid the existential crisis of a broken link. It’s a digital breadcrumb, leading you from a name that isn't quite right to the one that is. They categorize these things, of course, with the same meticulousness one might use to catalog dust bunnies.
Categories
This particular phantom resides in a few digital holding pens.
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From a page move: This indicates that the page you thought you were looking for has been packed up and moved. Renamed. Shifted. The powers that be decided it needed a new address. This redirect is a courtesy, a digital doorman ensuring you don't end up staring at a blank wall. It’s there to prevent the awkwardness of broken links, the digital equivalent of tripping over your own feet. They keep these redirects so that the internet doesn’t become a graveyard of forgotten URLs.
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From an acronym: Ah, the world of abbreviations. This redirect is for when you type in a string of letters, hoping for a specific meaning, and instead, you're nudged towards the full, unadulterated concept. An acronym is a special breed, isn't it? A word born from initials, like "NATO" or "radar." It’s meant to be spoken as a single entity, a linguistic shortcut. Think of it as a whisper that becomes a name.
Now, they distinguish this from a mere initialism, which is where each letter gets its own distinct pronunciation, like "OAU" or "USSR." For those, they have a different, more specific template:
{{R from initialism}}. It’s a subtle distinction, I grant you, but the architects of Wikipedia seem to thrive on such nuances. Precision, even in the mundane. -
From an alternative name: This is for when a topic is known by more than one moniker. A nickname, a synonym, an alter ego. This redirect bridges the gap between these different identities, all leading to the same destination. It’s about commonality, about making sure that when you search for something using its most familiar name – its common name – you still find your way. It’s not necessary, they say, to replace these links with piped links. Apparently, the system is smart enough to handle it. Though I suspect "smart enough" is a relative term.
And if, by some cosmic miscalculation, this redirect points to the wrong place, there’s a specific marker for that too:
{{R from incorrect name}}. Because even in the quest for order, mistakes happen. -
From a printworthy page title: This one is for the traditionalists, the ones who still believe in ink and paper. It’s a redirect from a title that would be useful if Wikipedia were ever to be compiled into a physical format – a printed encyclopedia, perhaps, or one of those quaint CD/DVD editions. It’s about Wikipedia:Printability and the efforts of the Version 1.0 Editorial Team. A nod to the past, in a world obsessed with the ephemeral present.
Protection Levels
And then there's the matter of protection levels. When a page is deemed too volatile, too prone to… interference, they lock it down. This system automatically senses, describes, and categorizes these restrictions. It’s a digital bouncer, deciding who gets in and who gets to stand outside. Because even in the vast, chaotic expanse of information, some things require a bit more… control. It’s all quite orderly, isn’t it? Almost too orderly. Makes one wonder what they’re really trying to hide.