FamilySearch Wiki:Maintenance/General Cleanup

Maintenance Home > General > Cleanup

Dead links (priority 2)

• Pages with dead links
  
  
• Problem: The articles in this report contain one (or many) broken or dead external links. 
   
• Why fix: A patron is not helped in their research by a broken link that doesn't take them to where they can learn more.
   
• Steps to resolve:

1. Find the text of [dead link] in the article. The link just before this text should be the problem link.
2. Double check to make sure the link is really a bad link. Sometimes websites are down temporarily, and the dead link could have been reported during such a time, but is now up again.
3. Review the text around the link to find out where the link should go.
4. Research to see if you can find a replacement for the old link.
5. Replace the bad link with the correct page, if you can find one, or remove the link if you can't find a replacement.
   • Note:As of January 2011, there are hundreds of links that need to be changed from the old FHLC search page to the new FHLC search page. Those should be easy to fix by replacing the old FHLC search page with this link: https://www.familysearch.org/#form=catalog.
6. Remove the {{dead link}} template from after the link.

• Help links:

• About linking in the Wiki
• Adding links
• Advanced linking

• How this problem is reported: If a broken or dead external link is found, users will add the {{dead link}} template directly after the bad link. (External links are those that go to web pages outside of the Wiki.)
   

Ambiguous page title (2)

• Pages with ambiguous page titles
   
• Problem: Shows pages with titles that do not accurately describe their subject matter.
   
• Why fix: The page titles come up as the main “focal” points of a search. If the page title doesn’t match the subject matter well, patrons will miss the articles that have the info they need in them.
   
• Steps to resolve:

1. Select a page out of the category Ambiguous page title.
2. Check the discussion page to see what comments have been made about this topic.
3. Read through the information on the page, evaluate the content, and decide on a new page title.
4. Scroll down under Toolbar on the right and click What Links Here. This gives you a sense of how popular the page is. If this is a popular page, there will be many links to the page. If you can, after you change the page name, change the links to this page to go to the new page.
5. Scroll down under the Views area on the right and click Move.
6. Enter in a new page title in the To new title box. Enter the reason why the move is needed.
7. Click Move Page.
8. Check for double or broken redirects, if necessary.
9. Add a note to the Discussion page about the changes.

• Help links:

• Article naming conventions

• How to report: Add the template {{Title}} to the very top of the page
   

Requested moves (2)

• Pages that need to be renamed/moved
   
• Problem: Pages with requests to be renamed to a different name
   
• Why fix: The page titles come up as the main “focal” points of a search. If the page title doesn’t match the subject matter well, patrons will miss the articles that have the info they need in them.
   
• Steps to resolve:

1. Select a page out of the category Requested Moves.
2. Check the discussion page to see what comments have been made about this topic.
3. Read through the information on the page, evaluate the content, and verify that it matches the suggested new title, or decide on a new page title.
4. Scroll down under Toolbar on the right and click What Links Here. This gives you a sense of how popular the page is. If this is a popular page, there will be many links to the page. If you have time, after you change the page name, change the links to this page to go to the new page.
5. Scroll down under the Views area on the right and click Move.
6. Enter in a new page title in the To new title box. Enter the reason why the move is needed.
7. Click Move Page.
8. Check for double or broken redirects, if necessary.
9. Add a note to the Discussion page about the changes.
   

• Help links:

• Article naming conventions

• How to report: Add the template {{Move}} to the page
   

Duplication/merging (3)

• Pages that need to be merged
   
• Problem:

• One or more articles on the same topic.
• Information in one article on the same topic not in the second.

• Why fix:

• All material on a topic should be in one article rather than in many others.

• Help links:

• Help Redirects.
• FamilySearch Wiki Redirects.

• How to report:

• Automatically reported.

• Steps to resolve:

1. Compare all the articles for content.
2. Decide which article to keep in Wiki into which to put the material in the other articles that is not in the target article.
3. Take content from the articles to be directed FROM and place in the target article to be directed TO.
4. Editing of the target article will probably be required to have a comprehensive article on the topic.
5. Place a Redirect link in the articles to be directed FROM to the article TO by the following steps.

1. Log in.
2. In the article/articles to navigate FROM, click on the "Edit This Page."
3. Click on "Wikitext." in tool bar.
4. Type #REDIRECT Title of page to be directed TO.
5. Save page.
6. Check to see that redirect link works.

Archive requests (3)

• Pages that need archives created
   
• Problem:
   
• Why fix:
   
• Steps to resolve:
   
• Help links:

• Archiving a talk page

• How to report:
   

External links that should be internal (4)

• Pages with links to be fixed
   
• Problem: Links to other pages that are inside the wiki have been formatted as external links.
   
• Why fix: Internal and external linking is done differently, and user expectations are set a certain way when they see a certain type of link (external links look like this with the box and arrow after them). It helps make for a cleaner Wiki to have the links formatted correctly.
   
• Steps to resolve:

1. On the list of pages with links to be fixed:
   • The first link in each row shows the link that is the problem.
     
   • The second link is the page the wrong link is on. (Note: Ignore Talk/Discussion pages. We generally don't edit contributors' comments on these pages.)
2. Make note of the first (problem) link, then right click and open the second link in a new tab (opening in a new tab allows you to keep the report open while you work on the individual pages). 
3. Find the problem link, then click to edit that section.
4. Fix the link so that it is formatted correctly as an internal link. When you are done, go back to the report, refresh the page, and you'll see the page you worked on disappear.
   
   Note: Following are a few differences in the ways that internal and external links are formatted:

Internal	External
Uses double brackets - [[....]]	Uses single brackets - [....]
Uses the name of the article inside the brackets	Uses the URL inside the brackets
Uses a pipe - | - to separate the name of the article and the "label" given to the link	Uses a space to separate the URL and the label given to the link

• Help links:

• Help:Adding Links
• Help:Advanced Linking

• How this is reported:The Wiki software identifies these problem links.
   

Miscellaneous (2-4)

• Pages with miscellaneous issues
   
• Problem:
   
• Why fix:
   
• Steps to resolve:
   
• Help links:
   
• How to report:
   

Long pages (**)

• Long pages that could potentially be reworked
   
• Problem:
   
• Why fix:
   
• Steps to resolve:
   
• Help links:
   
• How to report:
   

Resources for general maintenance
Type	Title (click for report)	Priority	#	How to fix
Cleanup	Dead links	2	0	How to
	Ambiguous page title	2	0	How to
	Requested moves	2	0	How to
	Duplication/merging	3	1	How to
	External links that should be internal	4		How to
	Miscellaneous	2-4	0	How to
Redirects (About Redirects)	Broken redirects	2		How to
	Double redirects	2		How to
	All redirects	**	**	How to

**These reports are lists of pages that meet a specific criteria; they don't mean that there is
a problem with all the pages in the report and don't need to be "cleaned up."