![]() | This page documents aprocedural policy of Wikipedia. It documents various processes by which the English Wikipedia operates. |
![]() | This page in a nutshell:
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Thepage moveruser group (extendedmover) assigns rights that allow trusted users to perform more advancedpage moves. These rights include moving without leaving behind aredirect (which allows moving page over a redirect with history (among others) using around-robin page move), movingsubpages when moving parent pages, movingcategories, and overriding thetitle blacklist.
At their discretion, any administrator can grant these rights toexperienced and trusted users who regularly move pages and demonstrate familiarity with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines regarding page moving andnaming. Users are expected to have at least six months of editing history and at least 3,000 edits. Users should also have experience with therequested moves venue and know how page moving works.
If you wish to request page mover rights for yourself or another user, please seeWikipedia:Requests for permissions/Page mover. Administrators are automatically granted these rights, so they do not need to request it.
There are currently429 users with page mover rights, which together with Wikipedia administrators makes for a total of 1,268 users with these permissions.
The page mover user group includes the following user rights:[1]
suppressredirect
(move a page without creating a redirect)move-subpages
(move a page and all its subpages in a single action)move-categorypages
(move pages in the Category namespace)tboverride
(override theTitle Blacklist; move, edit, or createeditnotices)delete-redirect
(move pages over existing single revision redirects regardless of target)oathauth-enable
(enabletwo-factor authentication)The page mover group also allows editors to move pages at an increased rate.
Page moves create redirects by default. This is undesirable in some cases, such as when reverting pagemove vandalism or when a page name needs to be made available for a different page. With thesuppressredirect right, page movers can move pages without leaving a redirect by unchecking the checkbox "Leave a redirect behind" in the move interface.
Page moves that do not leave a redirect will still belogged, but with a note ("without leaving a redirect"). These moves are not recorded in thedeletion log. However, if the source page remains empty, logged-in users will still see the "A page with this title has previously been deleted" message displayed along with the deletion and move logs for the page, as in the case of any other deleted page, and IP editors will still see the "Wikipedia does not have a page with this exact name" error message.
Withmove-subpages, a page mover can move a page and all its subpages in a single action. For example, a user could renameTalk:Foo toTalk:Bar, and also moveTalk:Foo/Archive 1 toTalk:Bar/Archive 1 in a single action. This becomes useful when moving a page with a lot of archives. In the move interface, this is done by checking the checkbox "Move subpages (up to 100)".
On some occasions, one might inadvertently move a talk page incorrectly assumed by the MediaWiki software to be a talk subpage of a different article. For example,Talk:A/B testing is the talk page forA/B testing, but technically a subpage forTalk:A. If a mover usesmove-subpages onTalk:A, the move operation wouldincorrectly moveTalk:A/B testing. (This is not an issue for the article mainspace, as it does not have subpages enabled.)
Page movers have the technical ability to movecategory pages, but this should only be done if there is consensus for the move at eitherWikipedia:Categories for discussion (CfD) orWikipedia:Categories for discussion/Speedy (CfD/S). Categories should not be movedboldly. This means that unless you are helping to close CfD discussions, you should almost never be moving categories directly.
After consensus for moving a category is reached, note that all of the pages in that category must be updated to use the new category name. This does not happen automatically. Therefore, do not move a category unless you are planning to update the pages yourself. Alternatively, you can ask for admin help atWikipedia talk:Categories for discussion/Working. Admins can list categories atWikipedia:Categories for discussion/Working, which instructs a bot to both move the category and update the pages in it.
Note thatcategory redirects arenot usually kept after category renames. For an essay on this topic, seeWikipedia:Category redirects that should be kept.
By default, a move cannot be carried out if there is already a page at the target title, unless that existing page is a single revision redirect pointing to the title that is being moved to replace it. If that page is a single revision redirect with a different target, thedelete-redirect
right may be used to eliminate the need for round-robin page moves by allowing page movers to delete the redirect, regardless of the redirect's target. This will generate a deletion log entry for the target page.[2]
If moving the associated talk page also requires deleting a redirect going elsewhere, then both must be moved separately. Selecting "Move associated talk page" will not applydelete-redirect
to both pages.
For confirmed users, the MediaWiki software limits the number of page moves that can be performed to eight per minute. Theextendedmover group raises this throttle to allow 16 moves per minute, enabling page movers to handle larger jobs more efficiently.
Page movers can suppress a redirect during a page move if the redirect would be eligible for one of thecriteria for speedy deletion. Page movers are expected to exercise discretion when suppressing redirects for the purpose of moving pages.G3,G6,R2,R3, andU1 are the criteria most commonly applicable to aspects of the page move process. These are the nine recognized rationales for suppressing redirects:
No. | Criteria | Shortcut |
---|---|---|
1 | Revertingpage move vandalism (WP:CSD#G3) | WP:PMRC#1 |
2 | Moving pages within a requester's own userspace to another location if a desire for deletion is expressed (WP:CSD#U1) | WP:PMRC#2 |
3 | Moving pages from a title unambiguously created in error or in the incorrect namespace (WP:CSD#G6) | WP:PMRC#3 |
4 | "Round-robin" page moves (see below) when moving is blocked by a redirect with non-trivial page history (WP:CSD#G6) | WP:PMRC#4 |
5 | For page movers in thefile mover user group only: Moving files perWP:FNC#9 (WP:CSD#R4) Note: Currently, such moves can be undone only by administrators. | WP:PMRC#5 |
6 | Moving a page from the mainspace to another namespace when appropriate (WP:CSD#R2) | WP:PMRC#6 |
7 | Moving pages from a title that is an implausible typo or misnomer,only when the page is a recent creation (WP:CSD#R3) | WP:PMRC#7 |
8 | Moving aneditnotice to asubpage of Template:Editnotices to marry the editnotice with its appropriate page. (WP:CSD#G6) | WP:PMRC#8 |
9 | Any other reason where the resulting redirect could be reasonably construed to meet thecriteria for speedy deletion | WP:PMRC#9 |
Suppressing a redirect that would otherwise be eligible for speedy deletion is considered the norm, and choosing to suppress redirects in other cases may result in the revocation of page mover rights (see below).
Because the deletion of a redirect would ordinarily state the reason why the redirect was deleted, it can also be helpful to include the reason for suppressing a redirect in the edit summary for the move. For example, when reverting move vandalism, the edit summary could say something like:
However, since the first phrase implicitly identifies this criterion, the summary can just be "reverting move vandalism". If the reason is not obvious (or is not one of the first eight reasons listed above, but rather the final catch-all for all other criteria), then it is particularly helpful to state the specific criterion for speedy deletion.
You arer account isable to perform round-robin swaps. Most users arenot able to perform round-robin swaps. Please visitWikipedia:Requested moves/Technical requests if you would like help swapping pages.
Withsuppressredirect
, page movers are able to perform non-trivial swaps of two or more pages. Suppose an articleA is deemed to have a more appropriate title, occupied by its redirectB, butB has non-trivial revision history. A round-robin move to swapA andB proceeds as follows:
Note: Redirects are suppressed duringall moves in the round-robin page move process.
There is a redirect to this page,Draft:MoveDraft:Move, which can be used as a holding pen for asubpage used asC above. The subpage name that appears after theslash (/) can be any name as long as it is a red-linked, non-existing page when the round-robin procedure begins. When the round robin is finished, theC page will once again be a red link.
User scripts such asUser:Ahecht/Scripts/pageswap can help automate the first three steps outlined here.
Suppose you want to moveThe Adventures of Gromit the Hobbit toGromit the Hobbit, but the latter title already exists as a redirect, and has multiple intermediate edits which prevent a one-step move-over-redirect. Also suppose thatThe Adventures of Gromit the Hobbit has a talk page, andGromit the Hobbit does not. (Reasonable, since many article-namespace redirects do not have accompanying talk-space redirects.) Using the rights provided by this group, performing the move would be accomplished as follows:
It may reduce the chance of error to copy the above bullet points to a word processor and replace the "Gromit" article names with the actual names to be moved, then use those notes.
In the above example, the first round moved an article page to a draft page (holding page) that used the article's new title as a subpage. This is a good practice rather than to use the same page title, such asDraft:Move/my pet move page all the time. The reason for this is a side effect that involves user watchlists. If a user has a page on their watchlist that is renamed, then the page title to which the watched page is moved is automatically added to that user's watchlist without removing the original title. If the same holding page is used all the time, then all future uses of that holding page will add more pages to the user's watchlist. This results in an undesirable expansion of user watchlists. To minimize this, use a different page name for the holding page each time a new page is renamed using the round-robin method.
suppressredirect
can be useful when executing a series of moves that involve a change ofprimary topic. Imagine it was established there was no primary topic for "Berlin". The moves of the disambiguation page to the primary title and of the article about the German city to its new titleBerlin, Germany could be achieved using the following steps:
The moves in the first two steps would be carried out without leaving redirects. At the end of the process, all incoming redirects will need to be checked and retargeted if necessary (as is the case for any move involving a primary topic).[3]
The page mover rights should never be used as an advantage to gain an upper hand in titling disputes. Editors without the rights are sometimes unable to revert moves performed by page movers, such as in the case of "round-robin" moves. Therefore, unilateral decisions should be avoided, and moves should be reverted upon request if they prove to be controversial. Finally, neverwheel war with administrators or other page movers.
Page movers must have astrong password andfollow appropriate personal security practices. Optionally, page movers can enabletwo-factor authentication. Because a page-move vandal with the increased page move throttle would be able to quickly move many pages, a compromised account will be blocked and its privileges will be removed for site security. If you believe your account is compromised, notify asteward immediately so they can lock your account.
The above items are guidelines. An administrator may grant page mover rights to users they otherwise deem competent and may deny the requests if they do not see a need for the tools or have other concerns.
The user rights can be revoked for violating any of the above conduct standards and for other misconduct. Additionally, it can be revoked at any time by an administrator without any process or prior notice in any of the following circumstances:
Additionally, the rights may be removed immediately at the request of the editor.
If your page mover rights were revoked and you would like to appeal the decision, first discuss with the revoking administrator. If after such an exchange you still feel the matter is unresolved and requires outside input, you may post atWP:AN to appeal the decision. Request for the rights after a revocation for inactivity or self-requested removal may be made atWP:PERM.
tboverride
permissiondelete-redirect
permissiondelete-redirect
or an ordinarymove over redirect. However, uses of delete-redirect can can be queried via theAPI. For example, you canview the last 50 uses of delete-redirect (orselect other settings in the API sandbox). Neither the deletion log page nor the API shows where a redirect was targeted before being deleted viadelete-redirect
.