Redirect (Wikipedia)

In the Wikimedia ecosystem, a redirect is a special type of page that automatically sends visitors to another designated page. This mechanism serves as an essential navigational tool within the Wikipedia project and its sister sites. Redirects address common variations in terminology, spelling, capitalization, and grammatical forms to create seamless user experiences. This article focuses specifically on redirects handling plural noun forms.

Types of Redirects

Plural-to-Singular Redirects

The Category:Redirects from plurals contains pages that redirect from a plural noun form to its corresponding singular form. These redirects solve a frequent issue in encyclopedia navigation: users often search for concepts using plural terminology (e.g., “actors” instead of “actor ”), even when the canonical article title uses the singular form.

Implementation Guidelines

1. Mainspace Application: This category tag exclusively applies to redirects within the main namespace (i.e., standard article space). When encountering plural forms in other namespaces – such as User pages , Talk pages , or Template documentation – editors should use the {{R from modification }} template instead. This distinction maintains organizational clarity in Wikipedia’s categorization system.

2. Link Handling Philosophy: Per WP:NOTBROKEN , editors should generally retain existing plural redirects unless actively improving or repurposing the page. While directly linking to the singular form with appended text (e.g., [[actor]]s) is technically possible, preserving plural redirects offers these advantages:

   • Maintains link integrity when articles undergo title changes
   • Captures search engine traffic using plural queries
   • Accommodates non-native speakers’ grammatical preferences

Extended Usage Context

When to Create Plural Redirects

Editors should consider creating plural redirects when:

• The singular article title represents a broad conceptual category (e.g., tree → trees)
• Plural search terms significantly outnumber singular searches (Google Trends data may inform this)
• Cultural or regional language variations favor plural usage (e.g., “maths” in British English vs. “math” in American English)

Maintenance Considerations

The Wikipedia:Redirect guideline details best practices for managing these pages. Plural redirects require monitoring for:

• Unnecessary Duplication: When both singular and plural versions develop substantive content (e.g., river vs. rivers ), editors should implement disambiguation protocols
• Capitalization Conflicts: Proper nouns may require special handling (e.g., Apple vs. apples )
• Cross-Namespace Conflicts: A plural redirect in mainspace shouldn’t collide with existing pages in other namespaces

Technical Implementation

Creating a plural redirect involves:

1. Establishing a new page with the plural title
2. Inserting the redirect code:
   #REDIRECT [[Singular page name]]
3. Adding the category tag:
   [[Category:Redirects from plurals]]

Related Redirect Types

• R from alternative spelling
• R from alternative capitalization
• R from other disambiguation

Controversies and Alternatives

Some editors argue that excessive redirects create maintenance overhead. The Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion process addresses contentious cases. Automated tools like WP:AWB help manage redirect networks efficiently.

See Also

• Help:Redirect
• Wikipedia:Template index/Redirect templates
• Special:DoubleRedirects (maintenance tool)