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 theold FHLC search page with this link: www.familysearch.org/#form=catalog
6. Remove the {{dead link}} template from after the link.

• Help links: Review the following about the how/where/why of adding links to an article.

• 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:
   
• Why fix:
   
• Help links:

• Article naming conventions

• How to report:
   
• Steps to resolve:
   

Requested moves (2)

• Pages that need to be renamed/moved
   
• Problem:
   
• Why fix:
   
• Help links:

• Article naming conventions

• How to report:
   
• Steps to resolve:
   

Duplication/merging (3)

• Pages that need to be merged
   
• Problem:
   
• Why fix:
   
• Help links:
   
• How to report:
   
• Steps to resolve:
   

Archive requests (3)

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

• Archiving a talk page

• How to report:
   
• Steps to resolve:
   

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:
   
• Help links:
   
• How to report:
   
• Steps to resolve:
   

Long pages (**)

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

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."