[Wikipedia-l] To redirect or not ?

[Larry Sanger]

Not knowing much about this stuff, I don't know if one could say a
significant amount about Vitamin C-qua-Vitamin C that would not be covered
in an ascorbic acid article.  *However*, in this case, I wouldn't use
redirects at all, and here is why: when you use a redirect for anything not
totally trivial (e.g., misspellings), you miss the opportunity to explain
then and there for the reader what the relationship between A and B, when
you want to redirect to A to B.  So, I'm guessing most of the relevant
information should go under "ascorbic acid," but at Vitamin C we should have
at least a line that says "''Vitamin C'' is the common name for [[ascorbic
acid]], q.v."  I (at the risk of irritating Jimbo) use "q.v." because this
expresses to the reader the author's intention that this isn't *all* we want
you to know about Vitamin C (I mean, it doesn't help much just to be told
that it's also called "ascorbic acid")--we really do want you to follow the
link, so "quod vide."

Larry

----- Original Message -----
From: "Krzysztof P. Jasiutowicz" <kpjas at promail.pl>
To: <wikipedia-l at nupedia.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2001 4:39 PM
Subject: [Wikipedia-l] To redirect or not ?


>
> Hello all,
>
> What do you think ?
> I am in a dilemma :
>
> We have 'Vitamin C' and 'Ascorbic acid' that are exactly the same thing
> so is it better :
>
> 1. to create entry for 'Ascorbic acid' and redirect 'Vitamin
> C' entry to the page
> 2. to create entries for both 'Ascorbic acid' and 'Vitamin C' and from the
> 'Vitamin C' page, which is just a note, link to 'Ascorbic acid'
> 3. the other way round
>
> It is open for debate what should be the fundamental entry -
> 'Ascorbic acid' is the chemical name but most people recognize the name
> of 'Vitamin C'. So...
>
> Regards,
> kpj.
> --
> Krzysztof P. Jasiutowicz, M.D | Lekarz leczy chorobę, a zabija pacjenta.
> Czestochowa, Poland ...       | Francis Bacon
> Więcej cytatów : http://www.cytaty.phg.pl
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