en Wikipedia talk:Moving a page Archive 1

This is an archive of past discussions on Wikipedia:Moving a page. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

Discussion

I renamed the page to 'Wikipedia:How to rename (move) a page', although normally I would not recommend having two synonyms in a title, it does not look very good.

I did it anyway because I think 'rename' is the best term, while 'move' is on the link and on the move page. - Patrick 13:11 Jan 11, 2003 (UTC)

Technical moving help please!!

Somebody has been moving pages from the encyclopedic namespace to the wikipedia space, the talk page was not moved with the subject page. I tried to move the discussion page from the encyclo to the wikipedia space. It was moved, and the talk page appear linked to the subject page. But when I go to the subject page, it shows an empty discussion page, and does not link to the discussion page moved. Hope I am clear...

So, what do I do to link the subject page to the talk page properly ? I can't figure it, and the only option I currently see is to copy paste all, but then history will be lost... Can somebody help me here ???

user:anthere

The equivalent of "Wikipedia talk:" namespace on fr.wiki is "Discussion Wikipédia:" -- if you put it in exactly, the move will work properly. It's a known problem/feature/bug/mysterious behavior that talk pages aren't automatically carried over when a page from one namespace to another. But there's no good reason why not; it could be changed. --Brion 13:22 Nov 27, 2002 (UTC)

ahhhh Discussion pas Discuter...yes, got it. Thanks Brion --anthere

Hi!! For accuracy, the Disneyland Paris article should be renamed to the new title Disneyland Resort Paris but, when I go into Edit for an article, there is no option to change the title. How do I do this?
Thanks Arpingstone 15:34 Feb 3, 2003 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:How to rename (move) a page. - Patrick 15:49 Feb 3, 2003 (UTC)

Sorry Patrick, the instructions on the page you gave me (How to rename (move) a page) don't make sense. I quote - "When you've got your article up, click on the "Move page" link in the sidebar. You'll be asked for a new name for the article, and given the option to also move the article's talk page.". The problem is I can't find anything called "Move Page", not on the article page nor the Edit page. Help, again! - Arpingstone 16:20 Feb 3, 2003 (UTC)

Yes, I just edited this page to correct an omission in it. Please check. - Patrick 16:26 Feb 3, 2003 (UTC)

Thanks, Patrick, all is well now.
I was on Nostalgic, now I've reset my prefs to give me a sidebar. Arpingstone 20:04 Feb 3, 2003 (UTC)

Rename to one character

Moved from Wikipedia:Village pump.

For some strange reason I got an error message trying to move Ess-tsett to ß, even though the target page didn't exist, but ß clearly is a valid page name as I was able to paste content there manually. Could a sysop please do the move? Having the page at Ess-tsett is inconsistent the way we handle other Latin-1 characters (e.g. Ä, Å.) Mkweise 17:34 31 May 2003 (UTC)

There was a weird little bug in the rename code that wouldn't let you rename a page to a one-character title. (!) Fixed now, page renamed. --Brion 20:22 31 May 2003 (UTC)

Thanks, I figured it had to be something weird since I was able to create an article by that name, just not move. Mkweise 20:31 31 May 2003 (UTC)

Move to redirect with history

Moved from Wikipedia:Village pump.

I can't seem to move power supply to power supply unit, even though the destination never had anything but a redirect in it. Weird, huh? What I think should be done is for power supply unit and electronic power supply - which essentially cover the same subject - to be merged, and I think the most logical place for this article to reside is at power supply unit. Comments, anyone? Mkweise 20:31 31 May 2003 (UTC)

It's because the redirect had a page history (albeit a history of different redirects). Anyway, I deleted it, then made it a redirect again, but now it has no history, so you can move a page there if you like. Evercat 21:12 31 May 2003 (UTC)

Move America's best Comics (sic)

Moved from Wikipedia:Village pump on Wednesday, June 4th, 02003.

(No idea if I'm doing this right... oh well.....) I created a page for 'America's Best Comics', but due to an irritating Shift key, it's come up as America's best Comics... is it possible to change this at all..? --ntnon 15:00 1 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Yep - from the article page in question, you should see a link to "Move this page" (it'll be one of the links down the side of the page and/or at the bottom). Click on that, follow the instructions, and there you go. More details are at Wikipedia:How to rename (move) a page --Camembert

How to move pages

Moved from Wikipedia:Village pump on Saturday, August 2nd, 02003.

I've rewritten a stub at Siena College at Loudinville NY. The problem is, a) it's spelled Loudonville, and b) I see no reason why it shouldn't be titled Siena College. How does renaming take place? I'm new enough that I haven't seen how this is done. Jwrosenzweig 20:47 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

The move this page is for renaming. Moving a page also leaves a redirect to the new name behind. כסיף Cyp 21:12 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Plan to move most of this page to meta soon

We need one place to develop MediaWiki documentation so I'm starting a project-neutral MediaWiki User's Guide in meta and think it would be a good idea to move most of this page to meta:MediaWiki User's Guide: Renaming (moving) pages as soon as I'm done with the conversion. Only the Wikipedia-specific part of this page will remain and that will follow a short description and a link to the corresponding user's guide page on meta. --mav 03:50, 7 Sep 2003 (UTC)

From Village Pump 7 September

Creating disambiguation pages

When someone replaces an existing page with a disambiguation page, they should make sure to follow the directions in Wikipedia:Disambiguation:

Before creating a disambiguation page, click on "What links here" to find all the pages that link to the page you are about to change. Make sure those pages are fixed or that they won't be adversely affected before you do the split.

Also (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong), the old page should be moved to the new name, instead of just moving the text - that way the edit history goes with it. If a duplicate page already exists at the destination (because someone created it not realizing that the other page already existed), you'll need to get an admin to help you, by using the procedure outlined here.

Now that I'm done saying that, can someone more expert than me help with sorting out the edit histories on ITS and Incompatible Timesharing System? Thanks... Noel 22:53, 1 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I've had a go. Incompatible Timesharing System now has a full history, but ITS has none. It looks like I created the page. Is this ok or is there a way to keep the history of both of them? Angela 16:52, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Alas, I think it's going to take some major wizardy (i.e. above and beyond the procedure I referenced above) to sort this out, since the edit histories of the two different pages (the disambig page ITS, and the OS page Incompatible Timesharing System) were mixed together (originally on the disambig page, now on the OS page), due to the error on the part of the person who set up the disambig page (who didn't follow the guidelines reproduced above).

If anyone can grovel directly, the following versions of the OS page are for the disambig page:

and belong in its edit history; the rest are for the OS and can stay where they are. Noel 17:26, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC)

If you want to swap two pages but maintain the edit history of both pages, you can do it by using a temporary third page. i.e. If you want to swap A and B.

move A to C (a newly created page)
delete A, (which is a redirect to C)
move B to A
delete B (which is a redirect to A)
move C to B
delete C (which is a redirect to B)

Mintguy

That doesn't solve the problem that only one of them has an edit history currently. The Incompatible Timesharing System has the edit history of both documents, whereas ITS has no edit history. I just did the move A to B to C thing before realising this. :) Angela

Can you create a copy of Inc Timesh Sys somehow, and then paste the text of ITS into it as a standard edit? CGS 18:19, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC).

If I'm understanding you properly, that's basically what the person who did the original (incorrect) creation of the disambig page did, and it left the edit history of the OS page on the disambig page. Noel 18:24, 2 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Looks like you've merged page histories. That can't be undone except by a developer. Add an appropriate explanation and author credits to the talk page of both pages. Martin 10:04, 4 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Renaming when only captitalization is changed?

Id Software would be more properly named id Software but when I try to move the page, it thinks that the page "id Software" already exists. How do I perform this simple renaming when only the capitalization is being affected? Bevo 16:55, 25 Nov 2003 (UTC)

I'm afraid that isn't actually possible. Under the current software, all titles will begin with a capital letter. See Wikipedia:List of pages with capital first letters that should be lowercase for a list of pages affected by this problem. Angela 20:23, 25 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Is there a significant reason why the software cannot be changed to accommodate titles beginning with lowercase characters? Bevo 21:50, 25 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Is there a log of "rename-events"?

When a users renames (moves) an article, that change is not listed under the article's page history. How then are we to know who renamed (moved) the article and when it occurred? Is there a log (something akin to Wikipedia:Deletion log) that I don't know about? Kingturtle 10:22, 11 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Not yet. Maybe you should sumbit it to SourceForge. Angela . 11:01, 2 Jan 2004 (UTC)

I am out of the loop. What is SourceForge? Kingturtle 21:53, 2 Jan 2004 (UTC)

See SourceForge. --mav 04:17, 3 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Sorry, I meant use this link to submit a feature request to sourceforge so the developers will see it. Angela . 08:32, 3 Jan 2004 (UTC)

I have submitted a feature request to SourgeForge. --Minesweeper 01:48, Mar 17, 2004 (UTC)

Merging pages - technicalities

Hi everyone - I was involved in a thorough rewrite of baseball, done at baseball/temp. The new text is now ready to be moved, but I'm not sure about the technicalities involved. Methinks it would be best to follow the procedure given at Wikipedia:How to rename (move) a page#Fixing cut and paste moves, however the original page was edited in between, so that might not work. Any suggestions? Thanks, Kosebamse 07:30, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)

If you do merge the pages, the five edits that occurred on baseball will look strange when you view the dif. As it's only five edits, perhaps that isn't a huge issue. I'm not sure. Most people tend to avoid merging histories, preferring a redirect, but, personally, I would rather see all the author attributions in one page history, even if it does make the dif look funny on five edits. Angela . 02:14, 20 Dec 2003 (UTC)

How to move a page?

I want to move the Dark tranquillity page to Dark Tranquillity but there is a redirecting page there and it won't let me. How can I do this?

You cannot: a sysadmin has to delete the second page :-( Anárion 12:24, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Fixed. Was fairly awkward as the two pages had overlapping histories, so the usual (admin only) trick of delete target, move source to target and undelete old target would've screwed up the page history diffs. Instead I moved DT to Talk:Dark Tranquillity/Old duplicate version and then deleted DT, moved Dt to DT and wrote a note on the talk page explaining where the remaining history could be found, covering all our GFDL obligations, I hope. Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 14:03, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

There's an equally elaborate workaround procedure to merge page histories which might have been used here, and could perhaps now be used to tidy the results. But it's to be used with extreme caution as it's irreversible, unlike most sysop actions, see the page for details. I'm not game, it's for experienced hands only IMO and I'm not completely sure it will work in this instance. Andrewa 17:19, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

That is not the right solution in this case, as you rightly suspected. That is the "usual (admin only) trick" I refered to. It wouldn't work in this case because both page histories overlapping dates, so although I could merge that way, I would be left two mixed page histories for which diffs are nearly useless. Thus I went to the fallback option described above. This is the boring stuff that adminship was intended for :-). Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 18:38, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

AHA! OK, understood. I didn't recognise the similarity between the procedures described before, I do now. Yes, that would make a very nasty mess! Andrewa 02:17, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Sort of related: How do you move an Image? I want to move this image to a new, more specific name, such as [[Image:DefenderOfTheCrown_AmigaBoxCover.jpg]], but the utility won't let me. Is there a special process for moving images? —Frecklefoot 17:40, Apr 28, 2004 (UTC)

You can't. You have to reupload it with the new name, and get someone to delete the old one. Dori | Talk 17:46, Apr 28, 2004 (UTC)

Question about subpages

If you have a page, say Foo, which has a subpage of Foo/Bar, and you move Foo to Baz, will the subpage Bar be located at Baz/Bar after the move? -℘yrop (talk) 00:15, Dec 5, 2004 (UTC)

Redirect policy?

I have a question about moving pages and redirects. An anonymous user was trying to redirect the page Cleveland (which lists many Clevelands in the world) to Cleveland, Ohio, with a brief note on the latter page directing you Cleveland (disambiguation). This didn't seem kosher to me, especially from an anonymous user, so I reverted the change to Cleveland while leaving the other changes. Surely the English Wikipedia is not assuming an American audience? What is Wikipedia policy on this? Thanks! -- Planders 19:55, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)

It's not assuming an American audience. The best known and largest city named Cleveland in the world is the one in Ohio. Using UK Google, the first several pages of results seem to entirely consist of references to the one in Ohio. Same deal with Australian google. Similarly, Melbourne is the article on the Australian city, with links to the American cities of that name at Melbourne (disambiguation). York is a page on the city in England, despite the fact of their being numerous Yorks elsewhere. This has nothing to do with US-centrism. It has to do with the fact that Cleveland, Ohio, is by far the best known place called Cleveland. The change seems perfectly appropriate to me. I would suggest moving the current Cleveland to Cleveland (disambiguation), and then making Cleveland redirect to Cleveland, Ohio. john k 20:31, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I agree with pretty much everything you said, except it seems like Cleveland should redirect to Cleveland (disambiguation). (They currently have the same text.) And Cleveland, Ohio would be left in place, with a mention of Cleveland (disambiguation) as it currently has. I would be fine with either way, just trying to clarify what that "official policy" is, if there is one. It does seem like the most common usage is to make Cleveland talk about Cleveland, Ohio. In that case I guess Cleveland, Ohio should then be a redirect to Cleveland. Thanks! -- Planders 21:36, Jan 25, 2005 (UTC)

This would make sense, except that our current policy is for US cities (except New York, due to the absurdity of New York, New York as being the article on New York City) should always have the state in the title. I think this is silly, but we had a long debate about it some months ago, and there was no consensus to change over. john k 23:17, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Is there any reason not to move the current Cleveland to Cleveland (disambiguation) and have Cleveland redirect to Cleveland, Ohio? - EurekaLott 15:36, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Images

Why does the move tab appear on images if they cannot be moved? - Omegatron 17:09, Mar 6, 2005 (UTC)

It's been removed. Why can't images be moved, anyway? That is lame. - Omegatron 15:20, Jun 8, 2005 (UTC)

Is there a way to move images? Or is it just a matter of creating a new image page and marking the old for speedy delete? —Jwanders 15:00, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

See Bug 709: Cannot rename/move images and other media files for details on this issue. Short answer is "not yet", as of the current version of the site software. -- RobLa 06:07, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

I don't get the page merge.

Pray tell, why do we have to merge this page if it's updated pediorodically from the metawiki? I'm removing the merge notice on this side, and I'm updating the content. Ambush Commander 18:17, Jun 15, 2005 (UTC)

Categories Can't be Renamed?

I changed "Spiderman villains" to "Spider-Man villains" on the Kraven the Hunter page, and I think I broke something, because I can't rename the "Spiderman villains" category. DarkSoldier 09:29, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Someone has fixed this.Art LaPella 18:10, August 27, 2005 (UTC)

How to cancel a redirect and replace it with an article?

Vegetation was redirected to Plant 2 years ago. I don't agree with this (conceptually) and want to write a separate article on vegetation. I've read this page (How to rename (move) a page) but it's still not clear to me how to abolish the redirect and write the article. Help...Jeeb 00:04, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

Someone has fixed this too.Art LaPella 18:10, August 27, 2005 (UTC)

Moving pages?

how does it work?

whenever I hit the button to move a page, it says I have to be logged in/have ufficent privillages to to do this..

How do I get sufficent privillages?--205.188.117.5 00:54, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

You need to sign up to get a Wikipedia user name. Click the log in/sign up link at the top of any WP page. Elf | Talk 23:19, 6 September 2005 (UTC)

Is there a way for anons to request that pages be moved, similer to the Wikipedia: Articles for creation process?--67.169.212.172 06:33, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

Redundancy

We have:

Wikipedia:How to rename (move) a page (shortcut: WP:Move) -> meta:Help:Moving a page
Help:Moving a page (shortcuts: WP:MV, WP:MOVE) -> meta:Help:Moving a page

Number 2 contains an extra section "Wikipedia-specific information", otherwise the content appears to be the same.

And Wikipedia:Merging_and_moving_pages#Renaming_.2F_Moving describes the moving of pages once again. Rl 16:53, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Trying to move and disambiguate page Dno

There is no move tab on the page. How to do it?

My idea is to move the current Dno page to Dno (city) and then make the Dno page a disambiguate page, with links to 'Dno (city)' and DNO ASA, and then update all links to the existing Dno page to point to 'Dno (city)'.

Any suggestions?--Heidu 03:48, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

DNO already disambiguates DNO ASA (and other meanings), so I added a note to Dno. Not sure why you're not seeing a move tab at the top of the page, but there may a delay of several days as with new page creation. Rl 07:01, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

I noticed two things. There is an older article about Dno, Russia than the one we are discussing here, Dno. Also wikipedia does differenciate capital letters, so when i write dno and DNO i get two different pages. Isn't it a good idea to use Dno, Russia, update it and links and remove Dno? Also DNO the company is not a acronym but the actual company name. --Heidu 13:36, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

Good catch. Dno and Dno, Russia should be merged, of course (instructions if you want to give it a try). The article about the town should probably be at Dno, but it could also be at Dno, Russia with Dno redirecting to it. – As for DNO, the company: are you talking about DNO ASA? The named at least used to be an initialism, that's good enough for me. What do you propose we change? Rl 14:20, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

Well, my proposal is to keep Dno, Russia and merge with Dno. Then use a DNO disambiguate page with links to all others (Dno, Russia, DNO ASA etc.). The reason for this is that DNO is the name of an international company, and ASA is just to distinguish from other DNOs (ASA is norwegian and similar to Inc. in english).

I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at, so I suggest you just do what you proposed and we'll see how it looks. Rl 18:39, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

Can't find "move" button

Hey I just created an "International manager" page and needed it changed to "International Manager" (Bolding only for emphasis). The skin that I have selected is NOT nostalgic, but I still can't find the Move button in the quickbar. Can someone please tell me how to find it, OR change the name for me? Thanks! Deb shaw13 05:40, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Hello, I think you might be looking in the wrong place. It's not on the quickbar (except in the nostalgia skin). For all other skins, first of all, make sure you're logged in and you should find the "move" tab on top between the "history" tab and the "watch" tab.--William Thweatt ^Talk | ^Contribs 06:14, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

What if it's not there? I have an account that's a couple of weeks old, and I don't see any tabs at the top that say "move", even in between the "history" and "watch" tabs (which I do have). I am using the default skin. I want to rename the "M Type Kinesins" page to "Kinesin 13", as the former is an archaic name no longer in use.Kinesin-8 (talk) 17:35, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Moving over a redirect which DOES have history

The section "Moving over a redirect" does not cover the case of moving over a redirect which DOES have history. How do I move A to B, when B already has history (only 2 edits, but 2 is still more than 1)? I could simply request to delete B, but there doesn't seem to be a procedure for nominating redirect pages for deletion. (If I put a deletion notice on a redirect page, the redirect won't work, according to the documentation on redirect pages). Rocksong 01:18, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

If you require the assistance of an administrator

It's extremely difficult to find where to go for help when the Move is impossible w/o an Admin.'s assistance. This issue needs immediate addressing. --Ludvikus 14:07, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Hello?? Where do I find help? SharkD 02:40, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Requested moves or {{db-move}}. --ais523 11:38, 14 November 2007 (U T C)

Talk page redirects

I performed a move and sometime later noticed that someone had deleted the redirect from the old talk page. I hadn't seen any reference in the instructions for moving, etc. but it makes sense since all the history is with the renamed old page. Is this a normal procedure that should always be done when the Talk page has nothing linking to it? I don't see this on WP:SPEEDY.--Doug.^{(talk • contribs)} 06:44, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

A note about history

For anyone who's wondering why this page is now at Help:Moving a page and what on earth was going on with the history, deletions, etc.: I've done a three-way merge between the former Wikipedia:How to rename (move) a page, Help:Moving a page, and m:Help:Moving a page, because three substantially identical but subtly different versions of the same page isn't a particularly useful thing to have. I've merged together all the useful content (which took a while). Note that this page is now in the Help namespace, not the Wikipedia namespace, so apart from the Wikipedia-specific help section at the end the page is written generically to apply to any MediaWiki wiki, but that didn't require major changes. --ais523 12:26, 14 November 2007 (U T C)

Red link

The "How to" section contains a redlink to MediaWiki:Pagemovedtext. Does that link need to be changed to something else? DH85868993 (talk) 02:39, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

It's been fixed. DH85868993 (talk) 09:17, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

How do I undo a move?

The intructions on this help page are useless. Can someone please explain how to do it properly? Observatorr (talk) 00:02, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Correct Page

It says with the correct page displayed, the move tab will be there, what is "the correct page displayed." DF2799 16 September 2008, 4:54 —Preceding unsigned comment added by DF2799 (talk • contribs) 23:54, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Cut-and-paste moves

It really seems to me that there should be a section that describes cut-and-paste moves, and explicitly prohibits them, not just how to fix them. There is a line at the bottom of the page that states "Do not move or rename a page by copying/pasting its content, because doing so destroys the edit history. (The GFDL requires acknowledgement of all contributors, and editors continue to hold copyright on their contributions unless they specifically give up this right. Hence it is required that edit histories be preserved for all major contributions until the normal copyright expires.)", but this should really go in the section about the moves. It would be helpful if we had a place to point (policy/guideline-wise) that was clear and unambiguous when explaining to new users why cut-paste moves are bad. We really need some stronger language for something that voids the GDFL. Thoughts? Parsecboy (talk) 17:00, 28 December 2008 (UTC)