On 10/21/07, Gwern Branwen gwern0@gmail.com wrote:
Honestly, I'd disagree. Webb's right that a lot of the time it *is* just a copy-paste error - I've seen quite a few hand-copied sort of template things.
Yes, and a semi-automating tool, when used by people who create large numbers of redirects, would reduce the incidence of this error.
But based on my experience delinking hundreds of self-redirects using the Pywikipedia script I've already mentioned, most of the uses are far more sordid and pathetic: they self-link to get *bolding* on the name.
You're conflating two different issues here, and the latter has nothing to do with redirects.
Yes, that's right, instead of going '''Page name''', they go [[Page name]].
The matter being discussed is where instead of going "#redirect [[Title of correct target page]]" they go "#redirect [[Title of this redirect]]" (or redirecting [[Self-referential humor]] to itself as Bryan suggested — has somebody actually done that? hehehe)
It would be easy to run a bot to identify existing cases like this (a page redirecting to itself), but damn near impossible to determine editor intent. I think the best procedure for a bot would something like:
"If a previous version exists (regardless of whether it appears to be a different redirect, or a proper article) revert to that version. Otherwise delete. Notify user in either case."
—C.W.