[Wikipedia-l] Server-side backlink redirects

[Tim Starling]

>On Tue, 2003-04-01 at 19:21, Tim Starling wrote:
> > After a discussion on wikitech-l titled "bot approval request", we 
>decided
> > that perhaps it would be better if my bot were implemented on the server
> > side, so that everyone could use it, and so that it would be relatively
> > efficient. I offered to do the coding, on the condition that someone 
>will
> > block me if I try to make any ordinary edits -- I don't want Wikipedia
> > totally taking over my life :)
> >
> > Anyway, here's my proposal. I originally posted it on wikitech-l, but it
> > drew no responses. What I'm suggesting is a significant extension to
> > Special:Movepage capabilities.
> >
>Another good question is how to change the links...
>
>say you are moving page "A" to "B".
>
>Is the wikitext on a page that has
>
>    See also [[A]]
>
>changed to
>
>   See also [[B]]
>
>or is it changed to
>
>   See also [[B|A]]
>
>?

It is indeed a good question, and the best answer is almost certainly 
[[B|A]]. In the application I'm interested in, almost all the links were 
already "see also [[A|B]]" and I want them changed to "see also [[B]]". In 
both cases, the visible text is unchanged. In Tarquin's application, the 
links would have to be changed from [[Image:A]] to [[Image:B]].

Specifically, I want to change [[Brisbane, Queensland|Brisbane]] to 
[[Brisbane]]. But someone might disagree with me, so later they use the same 
feature to change my [[Brisbane]] to [[Brisbane, Australia|Brisbane]]. 
Another link might have gone [[Brisbane, Queensland]] -> 
[[Brisbane|Brisbane, Queensland]] -> [[Brisbane, Australia|Brisbane, 
Queensland]].

Note that if there was already a link saying "for other uses of 'Brisbane' 
see [[Brisbane]]", such links would have to be first changed to [[Brisbane 
(disambiguation)|Brisbane]], again using the new feature. If a someone 
forgot to do this, an annoyed old hand could easily revert the naive 
changes.

-- Tim Starling.

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