Wikipedia:Avoid using wikilinks

WP:AUW WP:AUW

This page contains material that is kept because it is considered humorous .
Such material is not meant to be taken seriously .

Wikilinks allows an article to be pointed to by enclosing the article's title in square brackets . This allows the editor to link to another article without having to type in the URL of the article or enclose it in HTML anchor tags .

This article is an attempt to gather information supporting the assertion that wikilinks are harmful to Wikipedia . Convenience is often cited as the reason for using wikilinks . Certainly , it offers a useful shortcut to creating links and allows the links to point to the same article regardless of article moves . This helps to tie many articles of similar interest together .

Why wikilinks are considered harmful

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Every time a page is moved , all the wikilinks that incorrectly point to the old site will now point to a redirect , making the servers pull up two pages in a row .
All of these actions waste valuable server resources .
True Wikipedians never need links anyway . That is what the search bar was invented for .
- And all of that scrolling is good for their fingers .
Wikilinks create many problems for readers using smartphones or other touch screen devices , as they make it difficult to scroll through an article without accidentally clicking on a link . This can be frustrating if pages load slowly on readers' devices .

Somewhat ironically , this page is a perfect example of the harms of wikilinks . ^{[among whom? ]}^{[according to whom? ]}^{[attribution needed ]}^{[by whom? ]}^{[from whom? ]}^{[like whom? ]}^{[to whom? ]}^{[who? ]}^{[with whom? ]}^{[ambiguous ]}^{[clarification needed ]}^{[timeframe? ]}^{[needs context ]}^{[expand acronym ]}^{[incomprehensible ]}^{[key needed ]}^{[non sequitur ]}^{[sentence fragment ]}^{[which calendar? ]}^{[Chinese script needed ]}‹The template Copyright violation is being considered for merging.› ^{[copyright violation? ]}^{[infringing link? ]}[data missing ]^{[disambiguation needed ]}^{[inappropriate external link? ]}^{[improve caption ]}^{[needs IPA ]}^{[original research? ]}^{[pronunciation? ]}^{[native script needed ]}^{[spam link? ]} Remove all and change^{[improper synthesis? ]}^{[under discussion ]}^{[spelling? ]}^{[whose translation? ]}^{[buzzword ]}^{[compared to? ]}^{[editorializing ]}^{[fact or opinion? ]}^{[opinion ]}^{[peacock prose ]}^{[neutrality is disputed ]}^{[promotion? ]}^{[unbalanced opinion? ]}^{[weasel words ]}^{[by how much? ]}^{[when defined as? ]}^{[definition needed ]}^{[example needed ]}^{[further explanation needed ]}^{[how? ]}^{[how often? ]}^{[misquoted ]}^{[quantify ]}^{[specify ]}^{[vague ]}^{[when? ]}^{[where? ]}^{[which? ]}^{[who else? ]}^{[why? ]}^{[year needed ]}^{[excessive detail? ]}^{[importance? ]}^{[relevant? ]}^{[undue weight? – discuss ]}^{[globalize ]}^{[infobox clutter? – discuss ]}^{[anachronism ]}^{[timeframe? ]}^{[may be outdated ]}^{[is this date calibrated? ]}^{[needs update ]}^{[needs update ]}^{[contradictory ]}^{[disputed – discuss ]}^{[dubious – discuss ]}^{[inconsistent ]}^{[needs independent confirmation ]}^{[speculation? ]}^{[bare URL ]}^{[bare URL non-HTML file ]}^{[bare URL AV media file ]}^{[bare URL PDF ]}^{[bare URL image file ]}^{[bare URL DOC/DOCX file ]}^{[bare URL plain text file ]}^{[bare URL spreadsheet file ]}^{[author incomplete ]}^{[author missing ]}^{[date missing ]}^{[dead link ]}^{[edition needed ]}^{[episode needed ]}^{[full citation needed ]}^{[incomplete short citation ]}^{[ISBN missing ]}^{[moved resource? ]}^{[page needed ]}^{[permanent dead link ]}^{[place missing ]}^{[publisher missing ]}^{[season and episode needed ]}^{[time needed ]}^{[title incomplete ]}^{[title missing ]}^{[unused reference ]}^{[volume & issue needed ]}^{[year missing ]}^{[additional citation(s) needed ]}^{[better source needed ]}^{[better source needed ]}^{[check quotation syntax ]}^{[chronology citation needed ]}^{[circular reference ]}^{[citation needed ]}^{[citation not found ]}^{[close paraphrasing ]}^{[conflicted source? ]}^{[deprecated source? ]}^{[excessive citations ]}^{[failed verification ]}^{[image reference needed ]}^{[irrelevant citation ]}^{[medical citation needed ]}^{[not specific enough to verify ]}^{[not verified in body ]}^{[obsolete source ]}^{[page range too broad ]}^{[non-primary source needed ]}^{[promotional source? ]}^{[This quote needs a citation ]}^{[need quotation to verify ]}^{[scientific citation needed ]}^{[self-published source? ]}^{[non-tertiary source needed ]}^{[independent source needed ]}^{[unreliable fringe source? ]}^{[unreliable medical source? ]}^{[unreliable source? ]}^{[verify ]}^{[verification needed ]}^{[buzzword ]}^{[colloquialism ]}^{[needs copy edit ]}^{[idiom ]}^{[neologism? ]}^{[jargon ]}^{[tone ]}

Philosophy	Articles are more important than policy Articles must be written All Five Pillars are equally important Avoid vague introductions Be a reliable source Civil POV pushing Cohesion Competence is required Concede lost arguments Dissent is not disloyalty Don't lie Don't search for objections Duty to comply Editing Wikipedia is like visiting a foreign country Editors will sometimes be wrong Eight simple rules for editing our encyclopedia Explanationism External criticism of Wikipedia Five pillars Here to build an encyclopedia Large language models Leave it to the experienced Levels of competence Levels of consensus Most ideas are bad Need Not broken is ugly Not editing because of Wikipedia restriction Not every article can be a Featured Article The one question Oversimplification Paradoxes Paraphrasing POV and OR from editors, sources, and fields Process is important Product, process, policy Purpose Reasonability rule Systemic bias There is no seniority Ten Simple Rules for Editing Wikipedia Tendentious editing The role of policies in collaborative anarchy The rules are principles Trifecta We are absolutely here to right great wrongs Wikipedia in brief Wikipedia is an encyclopedia Wikipedia is a community Wikipedia is not RationalWiki
Article construction	100K featured articles Abandoned stubs Acronym overkill Adding images improves the encyclopedia Advanced text formatting Akin's Laws of Article Writing Alternatives to the "Expand" template Amnesia test A navbox on every page An unfinished house is a real problem Archive your sources Article revisions Articles have a half-life Autosizing images Avoid mission statements Be neutral in form Beef up that first revision Blind men and an elephant BOLD, revert, discuss cycle Build content to endure Cherrypicking Chesterton's fence Children's lit, adult new readers, & large-print books Citation overkill Citation underkill Common-style fallacy Concept cloud Creating controversial content Criticisms of society may be consistent with NPOV and reliability Dictionaries as sources Don't cite Wikipedia on Wikipedia Don't demolish the house while it's still being built Don't get hung up on minor details Don't hope the house will build itself Don't panic Don't "teach the controversy" Editing on mobile devices Editors are not mindreaders Encourage the newcomers Endorsements (commercial) Featured articles may have problems Formatting bilateral relations articles Formatting bilateral relations templates Fruit of the poisonous tree Give an article a chance How to write a featured article Identifying and using independent sources History sources Law sources Primary sources Science sources Style guides Tertiary sources Ignore STRONGNAT for date formats Introduction to structurism Link rot Mine a source Merge Test Minors and persons judged incompetent "Murder of" articles Not every story/event/disaster needs a biography Not everything needs a navbox Not everything needs a template Nothing is in stone Obtain peer review comments Organizing disambiguation pages by subject area Permastub Potential, not just current state Presentism Principle of Some Astonishment The problem with elegant variation Pro and con lists Printability Publicists Put a little effort into it Restoring part of a reverted edit Robotic editing Sham consensus Source your plot summaries Specialized-style fallacy Stublet Stub Makers Run an edit-a-thon Temporary versions of articles Tertiary-source fallacy There are no shortcuts to neutrality There is no deadline There is a deadline The deadline is now Try not to leave it a stub What is a reliable source Understanding Wikipedia's content standards Walled garden What an article should not include Wikipedia is a work in progress Wikipedia is not being written in an organized fashion The world will not end tomorrow Write the article first Writing better articles
Writing article content	Avoid thread mode Copyediting reception sections Coup Don't throw more litter onto the pile Gender-neutral language Myth vs fiction Proseline Turning biology research into a Wikipedia article Use our own words We shouldn't be able to figure out your opinions Write the article first Writing about women Writing better articles Reading in a Flow State
Removing or deleting content	Adjectives in your recommendations AfD is not a war zone Arguments to avoid in deletion discussions Arguments to avoid in deletion reviews Arguments to avoid in image deletion discussions Arguments to make in deletion discussions Avoid repeated arguments Before commenting in a deletion discussion But there must be sources! Confusing arguments mean nothing Content removal Counting and sorting are not original research Delete or merge Delete the junk Deletion is not cleanup Does deletion help? Don't attack the nominator Don't confuse stub status with non-notability Don't overuse shortcuts to policy and guidelines to win your argument Emptying categories out of proccess Follow the leader How the presumption of notability works How to save an article nominated for deletion I just don't like it Identifying blatant advertising Identifying test edits Immunity Keep it concise Liar liar pants on fire No Encyclopedic Use Nothing Nothing is clear Overzealous deletion Relisting can be abusive Relist bias The Heymann Standard Unopposed AFD discussion Wikipedia is not Whack-A-Mole Why was the page I created deleted? What to do if your article gets tagged for speedy deletion When in doubt, hide it in the woodwork Zombie page

Essays on civility

The basics	Accepting other users Apology Autistic editors Being right isn't enough Contributing to complicated discussions Divisiveness Don't retaliate Editors' pronouns Edit at your own pace Encouraging the newcomers Enjoy yourself Expect no thanks How to be civil Maintaining a friendly space Negotiation Obsessive–compulsive disorder editors Please say please Relationships with academic editors Thank you Too long; didn't read Truce Unblock perspectives We are all Wikipedians here You have a right to remain silent
Philosophy	A thank you never hurts A weak personal attack is still wrong Advice for hotheads An uncivil environment is a poor environment Be the glue Beware of the tigers! Civility warnings Deletion as revenge Duty to comply Failure Forgive and forget It's not the end of the world Nobody cares Most people who disagree with you on content are not vandals On Wikipedia no one knows I'm a dog Old-fashioned Wikipedian values Profanity, civility, and discussions Revert notification opt-out Shadowless Fists of Death! Staying cool when the editing gets hot The grey zone The last word There is no Divine Right of Editors Most ideas are bad Nothing is clear Reader The rules of polite discourse There is no common sense Two wrongs don't make a right Wikipedia clichés Wikipedia is not about winning Wikipedia should not be a monopoly Writing for the opponent
Dos	Assume good faith Assume the assumption of good faith Assume no clue Avoid personal remarks Avoid the word "vandal" Be excellent to one another Be pragmatic Beyond civility Call a spade a spade Candor Deny recognition Desist Discussing cruft Drop the stick and back slowly away from the horse carcass Encourage full discussions Get over it How to lose Imagine others complexly Just drop it Keep it concise Keep it down to earth Mind your own business Say "MOBY" Mutual withdrawal Read before commenting Read the room Settle the process first You can search, too
Don'ts	ALPHABETTISPAGHETTI Wikipedia:Because I can Civil POV pushing Cyberbullying Don't accuse someone of a personal attack for accusing of a personal attack Don't be a fanatic Don't be a jerk Don't be an ostrich Don't be ashamed Don't be a WikiBigot Don't be high-maintenance Don't be inconsiderate Don't be obnoxious Don't be prejudiced Don't be rude Don't be the Fun Police Don't bludgeon the process Don't call a spade a spade Don't call people by their real name Don't call the kettle black Don't call things cruft Don't come down like a ton of bricks Don't cry COI Don't demand that editors solve the problems they identify Don't eat the troll's food Don't fight fire with fire Don't give a fuck Don't help too much Don't ignore community consensus Don't knit beside the guillotine Don't make a smarmy valediction part of your signature Don't remind others of past misdeeds Don't shout Don't spite your face Don't take the bait Don't template the regulars Don't throw your toys out of the pram Do not insult the vandals Griefing Hate is disruptive Nationalist editing No angry mastodons just madmen No Nazis No racists No Confederates No queerphobia No, you can't have a pony Passive aggression POV railroad Superhatting There are no oracles There's no need to guess someone's preferred pronouns You can't squeeze blood from a turnip UPPERCASE
WikiRelations	WikiBullying WikiCrime WikiHarassment WikiHate WikiLawyering WikiLove WikiPeace

About essays	Essay guide Value of essays Difference between policies, guidelines and essays Don't cite essays as if they were policy Avoid writing redundant essays Finding an essay Quote your own essay
Policies and guidelines	About policies and guidelines Policies Guidelines How to contribute to Wikipedia guidance Policy writing is hard

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Why wikilinks are considered harmful

See also