WikiFur:Merging

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Merging is a non-automated process by which the content of two pages is united on one page. Reasons to merge a page include the following: unnecessary duplication of content, significant overlap with the topic of another page, and minimal content that could be covered in or requires the context of a page on a broader topic.

Merging results in a redirect to the parent page(s) with some or all content cut-and-pasted into that page(s). A comment in the edit summary must be made in the pages being merged as to where they are being merged to, and it must be noted in the parent page(s)' edit summary where the content from other pages are being merged from; this is done to preserve attribution under the Creative Commons Share-alike 3.0 license.

Rationale[edit]

There are several good reasons to merge a page:

  1. Duplicate – There are two or more pages on exactly the same subject and having the same scope.
  2. Overlap – There are two or more pages on related subjects that have a large overlap. Or if a page is very short and is unlikely to be expanded within a reasonable amount of time.
  3. Context – If a short article requires the background material or context from a broader article in order for readers to understand it. For instance, a species someone created to be their fursona.

Merging should be avoided if

  1. The resulting article is too long or "clunky"
  2. The separate topics could be expanded into longer standalone (but cross linked) articles
  3. The topics are discrete subjects and deserve their own articles even though they may be short

Merging—regardless of the amount of information kept—should always leave a redirect or, in some cases, a disambiguation page in place. This is often needed to allow proper attribution through the edit history for the page the merged text came from. Superfluous redirects do not harm anything, and can be helpful in finding articles, e.g. from alternative names.

You may find that some or all of the information to be merged is already in the destination page. That is fine; you can feel free to delete the redundant information and only add the new stuff. If there is no information to be added to the destination page, you can simply redirect the other page there, but please make this clear in the edit summary.

Proposing a merger[edit]

Users may determine whether the pages need to be merged. This will usually occur on the discussion page of the article suggested to be merged.

Pages to merge[edit]

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