Wikipedia talk:Shortcut

Shortcuts and disambiguation

Disambiguated shortcut is an oxymoron. Why would we DAB a shortcut if we have to go via an additional page every time? One of the suggestions in an Rfd for a shortcut was to DAB it, and I was surprised to know there are some 80 shorcuts that are DABs. Can we not ensure that shortcuts lead the editor to one and only one target? Anything else, can be a WP page DAB, but not a shortcut. Jay ^(Talk) 11:42, 3 July 2021 (UTC)

• In my mind, there are similar considerations to the mainspace concept of WP:PRIMARY topics. If there are multiple candidate targets for a name like WP:FLAG and there's no agreement about what it should point to, because there are multiple candidate pages that are approximately equally popular and salient, then it makes sense to make it a dab. Basically, it's better to send 100% of people who search for it to a short directory from which they can quickly access the page they want, rather than sending 25% of users directly to the page they want, leaving the other 75% to struggle to get to their intended destination. (It's not a perfect analogy, since I imagine users are somewhat less likely to navigate meta namespaces by title search compared to mainspace. But it still happens - e.g. if I want to know whether the MoS has rules on whether I should write "17" or "seventeen", I'll take a leap of faith to MOS:NUMBER and hope it's an extant shortcut pointing to the guideline I'm looking for.) Colin M (talk) 22:11, 3 July 2021 (UTC)

Shortcut overkill

A couple of months ago, an editor wrote an essay. The same editor also created five slightly different ALLCAPS shortcuts for it. Could we suggest to editors that a multiplicity of shortcuts is not a desirable outcome? WhatamIdoing (talk) 22:18, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

@WhatamIdoing: See #RFC: Remove recommended numerical limit for amount of shortcuts on a page above. I am sure that there was a similar discussion a year or two earlier than that, in which I was involved (as was RexxS). --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 22:41, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

Yes, I saw the recommendation not to (necessarily) limit the shortcuts box to one or two, but I'm asking about telling people not to create a bunch of shortcuts/redirects in the first place. WhatamIdoing (talk) 22:52, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

Show shortcut name as parent name?

Hello, I created a shortcut Template:UZAE as a shortcut for Template:Use South African English. The problem is if I use UZAE directly in an article, it isn't very descriptive of what it means to an editor. Is there a way for the UZAE template to show its parent's name, or a description of what it is? Currently, I search for the quicker to search "UZAE" but insert the Use South African English template. Thank you, Maqdisi (talk) 06:47, 10 May 2023 (UTC)

What do you mean? These templates just categorize articles and indicate the preferred English variant to anyone reading the source; they don't display anything in the page itself, so there's nowhere to show a name or description.

If you really want to save time typing, you could change {{UZAE}} to transclude rather than redirect to {{use South African English}}, and then writing {{subst:UZAE}} will leave {{use South African English}} in the source. You only need to write this once per new page, though, so it doesn't seem like a very important time-saving measure. jlwoodwa (talk) 20:47, 9 June 2023 (UTC)

Shortcut in a user page

Can a shortcut be used to redirect a user's page sandbox other than WikiProjects, guidelines, essays, and manual of styles? Dedhert.Jr (talk) 04:05, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

@Dedhert.Jr: Where would you want to do this? --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 08:42, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

@Redrose64 In a user's page sandbox, as I mentioned recently. For example, a sandbox that might be contain an essay or anything. Dedhert.Jr (talk) 15:08, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

Are you saying that you want to create a shortcut to e.g. User:Dedhert.Jr/sandbox/1? Shortcuts are just redirects, so you could create User:Dedhert.Jr/S1 just like you created User:Dedhert.Jr/1st sandbox. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 17:16, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

@Redrose64 Oh, so I cannot use a shortcut for my sandbox as in WP:DJR9 like other essays or guidelines commonly do? Dedhert.Jr (talk) 03:06, 11 September 2024 (UTC)

Essays and guidelines are not kept in user sandbox pages, and guidelines are not normally kept in any part of user space. In any case, the sandbox in question does not appear to be either an essay or a guideline. If you create that redirect, you would need to ensure that it doesn't fall foul of WP:CSD#R3, and may need to justify its existence at WP:RFD. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 16:39, 11 September 2024 (UTC)

@Redrose64 With all due respect, I wishfully was trying to comprehend all of your explanations. Still, these led me to two questions: What does it mean when the shortcut does not fall foul of WP:CSD, even though it states the implausibility of a redirect so that it can be deleted? If we are talking about essays and guidelines that are not kept in user sandbox pages, then what it has to do with these sandboxes, and how do they keep exist? Dedhert.Jr (talk) 05:31, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

A good-faith editor can have all sorts of thoughts in their user pages but a shortcut to those thoughts would be in the Wikipedia namespace. That means the shortcut will be subject to the views of other people. I don't recall seeing an example, but it is likely that making a WP shortcut to a user page would result in the shortcut being nominated for deletion at WP:RFD. That would be on the basis that a WP shortcut carries a suggestion of at least some degree of community approval. Also, it may be undesirable to set a precedent for the idea that everyone can have a dozen shortcuts. Exceptions such as WP:OWB exist for a user page that has a lot of history and wisdom. Johnuniq (talk) 06:46, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

@Dedhert.Jr, a Wikipedia:Glossary#Sandbox is a page used for test edits. (More information at Wikipedia:About the sandbox.) It sounds like you're talking about Wikipedia:Subpages in the Wikipedia:User namespace. User:WhatamIdoing/Sandbox is a sandbox. So is User:WhatamIdoing/Sandbox 3.

User:WhatamIdoing/Fundraising is not a sandbox. User:WhatamIdoing/Fundraising is a Wikipedia:User essay. Anyone can write a user essay.

A Wikipedia:Shortcut is a Wikipedia:Redirect to a page. A shortcut looks like this: WP:NOT, WP:SHORTCUT, WP:UPPERCASE. Shortcuts to user essays are possible but less common. Some examples of shortcuts to user essays include WP:1AM, WP:BELLYBUTTON, and WP:OBSTACLE. WhatamIdoing (talk) 07:26, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

@Johnuniq, @WhatamIdoing. Thanks for the explanation. Before I end this discussion, some questions appear in my head: How do essays on the user namespace page have their own shortcuts? Is it because they do have some agreement on background-problematic discussion? Should WP:SHORTCUT have an explanation of how shortcuts should not be used in the user namespace page, or why some of them do not have it? Dedhert.Jr (talk) 09:22, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

A lot of Wikipedia works on the "I know it when I see it" principle. Re the four users-space shortcuts mentioned above, it's likely that someone made the shortcut and other editors thought it was a good idea. However, it others don't like a shortcut, they might try to get it deleted. I just stumbled across Category:Redirects to user namespace which claims there are 1,092 redirects to user pages from outside user space. Amazing. It has some horrors, for example, WP:BEATLESS. Johnuniq (talk) 09:57, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

LOL. The WP:BEATLESS sounds fun. Maybe I'll try to make a new shortcut for mine, though it will be risky to do so, and many users will hate it. So, let's see. :D Dedhert.Jr (talk) 12:44, 12 September 2024 (UTC)