Steve Bennett wrote:
On 6/8/06, Timwi <timwi(a)gmx.net> wrote:
Nick Jenkins wrote:
You could have:
(Redirected from _Lyon metro_ - _create redirect_)
I don't understand. If it already redirects automatically, why would you
still want to create the redirect?
The "automatic redirection" only occurs if you happen to type the name
in the box at the left of screen and press the Go button. In any other
situation (linking to it, typing the name in the URL, searching) it
doesn't "redirect automatically".
Given that, your question comes down to "why create redirects at all?".
And of course, if the various Search options all got their "Do
you mean?" functionality just right, we truly would *not* need all
those redirects. Many of them exist not because a commandment on
a tablet said we had to create them, but rather, as a workaround
for the fact that readers do occasionally type in article names
spelled wrong, and we want to make it easier to find what they
want, and the software hasn't always been smart enough.
So yes, if the software can tell that a user who typed A probably
meant B, and if it can implicitly redirect from A to B, we don't
need an explicit redirect from A to B, after all. And having the
software do that automatically is obviously preferable to the
nuisance of creating and maintaining all those thousands of
explicit redirects manually.
The remaining case is that if the software is implicitly
redirecting from A to B, but there is some distinction between
A and B after all, such that a later editor wants to create a
distinct article on A, there must obviously be a way to do so
without being trapped by the same implicit redirect.
(Apologies if I'm belaboring the obvious here.)