Help:Merging

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A merger is a non-automated process by which two similar or redundant pages are united on one page.


How to merge pages

Merging is a normal editing action, something any editor can do, and as such does not need to be proposed and processed. If you think merging something improves the encyclopedia, you can be bold and perform the merge, as described below. Because of this, it makes little sense to object to a merge purely on procedural grounds, e.g. "you cannot do that without discussion" is not a good argument.

If the merger is controversial, however, you may find your merger reverted, and as with all other edits, edit wars should be avoided. If you are uncertain of the merger's appropriateness, or believe it might be controversial, or your merge ends up reverted, you can propose it on either or both of the affected pages.

Proposing a merger

  1. Create one discussion section, typically on the destination article's Talk page.[1] This should include a list of the affected articles and a merge rationale.
  2. Tag each article with the appropriate merge tag. All tag Discuss links should be specified to point at the new discussion section.

Do not use "subst" on these templates. To propose a merger of two or more pages, place the template {{merge|OTHERPAGE|Talk:THIS PAGE#Merger proposal|{{subst:DATE}}}} at the top of each page or section. Using the template {{subst:DATE}} as it appears here will generate the correct text. It should appear like this:

The date parameter is used to add the article to Category:Merge by month. If the date parameter is not used, a Wikipedia bot will add it in a day or two.

Please use the second parameters to direct to the same Talk page. Otherwise, two separate discussions could take place in each of the articles' Talk pages. If the Talk page parameter is not specified, the "Discuss" links lead to the top of each article's Talk page - again, setting up a possible situation of two separate discussions.

If you know which page should be removed, use {{mergeto|DESTINATIONPAGE|Talk:DESTINATIONPAGE#Merger proposal|{{subst:DATE}}}} on that page, and {{mergefrom|SOURCEPAGE|Talk:DESTINATIONPAGE#Merger proposal|{{subst:DATE}}}} on the page that will remain and will receive the contents of the source page. If a Talk page parameter is not specified in these templates, all "Discuss" links to lead to the Talk page of the destination page, avoiding the two separate discussions problem possible with {{merge}}. It may still be preferable to link direction to a section on the Talk page; this is useful for directing the reader to a specific section of a long talk page, when it may not otherwise be obvious where the discussion is located. The {{mergeto}} and {{mergefrom}} templates will appear as:

and

If you are proposing that many pages be merged into one page, it is better to use a single template on the destination page rather than one for each source page. The above templates will only take one parameter for an article name, so use {{Mergefrom-multiple|SOURCEPAGEONE|SOURCEPAGETWO|SOURCEPAGETHREE|discuss={{TALKPAGENAME}}#Merger proposal|{{subst:DATE}}}} This template will take up to 20 article names and looks like this:

After proposing the merger, place your reasons on the talk page. You may be able to evoke a response by contacting some of the major or most-recent contributors via their respective talk-pages. If there is clear agreement with the proposal by consensus, or if there is silence, proceed with the merger.

Caveats

  • If you are unable to merge the pages, or you believe that the merger may be controversial, you might want to add a listing to Wikipedia:Proposed mergers.
  • When proposing a merger of pages within "Wikipedia" namespace (any pages that begin with the "Wikipedia:" prefix), do not include this prefix in the parameter.
  • Due to technical limitations, the above templates are incompatible with cross-namespace mergers (mergers between pages from both the article and Wikipedia namespaces). Such instances are rare, and should be handled via manual template substitution and editing.
  • Do not use the above templates to propose a category merger. This should be requested at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion, which uses a separate {{cfm}} template.

Closing/archive a proposed merger

To provide clarity that the merge discussion is over and that a consensus has been reached, it may be important to close and then archive the proposal discussion. To close a merger proposal discussion, indicate the outcome at the top. If the merge is particularly controversial, one may take the optional step of requesting closure by an uninvolved administrator at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard.

To archive a merger proposal discussion, a "top" template is generally placed between the header and the top of the discussion and a "bottom" template will need to be placed at the bottom of the discussion. Note that placing the "top" template above the section header may interfere with archival bots.

Here is an example of how to archive a merger proposal discussion: 

 == Header ==
 {{Discussion top|1=The result was '''merge''' into DESTINATION PAGE. -- ~~~~}}
 Hi, I would like to discuss...
 {{Discussion bottom}}

Performing the merger

There are three basic types of merge; which to use depends on how much content of the source page you want to keep, and how much time and skill you have to do the merge:

Also remember that almost all article pages have a talk page. To avoid losing quick access to that historical discussion, a link to the source page's talk-page should be placed at the top of the destination's talk-page, such as:
Article merged: See old talk-page [[talk:PAGENAME|here]]
or use a template like
{{merged-from|PAGENAME}}

Full-content paste merger

  1. Open the source and destination pages in two separate edit windows/tabs.
  2. Cut/paste the entire content from the source page into the destination page and remove the {{mergefrom}} tag.
  3. Save the destination page, with an edit summary noting "merge content from [[article name]]" (This step is required in order to conform with §4(I) of the GFDL. Do not omit it nor omit the page name.)
  4. Delete all the text from the source page and replace it with #REDIRECT [[PAGENAME]] {{R from merge}}, note the merger (including the page name) in the edit summary, and save the page.
  5. Edit the destination page again and delete the redundant content, editing until it looks good and consistent.
  6. Save the destination page. (Edit summary of "cleanup after paste/merge" is appropriate.)
  7. Check "What links here" on the source page for double-redirects.
    • Double-redirects will fail to link, and must be renamed to redirect to the current page name.
  8. Afterwards, DO NOT ask for a history merge between the two articles. See this link for the reason

Performing a merger in this manner is beneficial when you want to include all the content from both articles in the article history of the final article.

Selective paste merger

Shortcut
  1. Open the source and destination pages in two separate edit windows/tabs.
  2. Cut/paste the non-redundant content from the source page into the destination page.
  3. Be sure to remove the {{mergefrom}} tag from the destination page before previewing
  4. Preview and edit the destination page until it looks good and consistent.
  5. Delete all the text from the source page and replace it with #REDIRECT [[PAGENAME]] {{R from merge}}.
    • Note that PAGENAME in the code above should be the title of the destination page.
  6. Save both, and note the merger (including the page names) in the edit summaries. (This step is required in order to conform with §4(I) of the GFDL. Do not omit it or omit the page names.)
  7. Check "What links here" on the source page for double-redirects.
    • Double-redirects will fail to link, and must be renamed to redirect to the current page name.
  8. Afterwards, DO NOT ask for a history merge between the two articles. See this link for the reason

Performing a merger in this manner is beneficial when the source document includes a great deal of material that is not needed in the final article.

Text dump merger

Simply dumping the text from one page onto another is progress, because it puts all of the information on the same topic on the same page. This, however, seldom results in a smooth-flowing article. Fixing that may require a great deal of time and rewriting. If you can do that, terrific! Future readers will greatly benefit from your contribution. If you do not have the time or expertise to do so, please tag the article for attention; select a template from Wikipedia:Cleanup resources, such as {{cleanup}} or {{cleanup|date=August 2024}} (using the current month and year as the parameter).

List of merge templates

{{Top}} may refer to:

| class="col-break " |

Template:Bottom

See also

Notes

  1. ^ If the intended destination is a combination article that does not exist, do not create its Talk page, as it may be speedy-deleted WP:CSD#G8 or nominated at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion.
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