Angela wrote:
d) I don't see any reason for a merge but "merge and redirect" was the
outcome of an AfD so I'd better chuck a {{merge}} template on it.
Articles listed for reason (d) are rather likely to stay in the
backlog since they're on articles no one cares about which only
narrowly survived deletion. Before those templates existed, people
could [[WP:BB]] and redirect the page, but now it seems more common to
use a template than to "fix" the problem. I don't know if this is a
policy/guideline issue with people being obligated to add {{merge}}
before doing so or just a cultural change where many editors no longer
feel confident to "be bold in updating pages".
More likely just laziness and/or lack of time on behalf of the closing
admins. Some merges can be non-trivial, and determining whether a given
merge is trivial or not can itself take time. If you're already busy
clearing a backlog of AfD closures, the temptation to just slap a merge
tag on it and move on can be great.
The positive side here is that, since it's mostly an issue with admin
behavior rather than that of random editors, it can be solved by coming
up with a new recommended procedure and communicating it the admins
doing the closures (via [[WP:AN]], this list, personal talk pages etc).
The negative side is that any viable solution needs to ensure it
doesn't just turn the merge backlog into an even bigger AfD closure backlog.
Some possible solutions I can think of off the top of my head include:
a) Advise admins to always perform the merge when closing, if at all
possible. This could mean just cut-and-pasting the text and slapping a
cleanup tag on it, but at least the merge itself would get done.
b) Suggest that busy admins just redirect the page to be merged and put
a notice on the talk page of the target page with a link to the text to
be merged. We could even make a special template for this. This will
only take care of one half of "merge and redirect", but half done is
better than nothing at all.
c) Make a new "afdmerge" template (or templates), for use in cases where
the decision to merge has already been reached on AfD. This template
would state that consensus has already been reached and would strongly
recommend that anyone having the time to carry out the merge go ahead
and do it.
None of these are, of course, mutually exclusive. If anyone can suggest
other possible approaches, please do.
--
Ilmari Karonen