Wikipedia:Merging

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Main page: Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia

For the WikiProject, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Merge.

This page is about merging of articles. For merging and splitting of categories, see WP:Category intersection.

"WP:DA" and "WP:Duplicate article" redirect here. For articles with duplicated content, see WP:Content forking. For the list of articles that have not been edited in the longest time, see Wikipedia:DUSTY.

This information page describes the editing community's consensus on some aspect or aspects of Wikipedia's norms and practices. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines.

Shortcut: WP:MERGE

This page in a nutshell: Merging means performing a non-automated procedure by which the contents of two or more pages are united within a single page. For uncontroversial mergers, no permission is needed to merge; just do it. If your merger is reverted, it's controversial and you need to discuss it. To start a merger discussion, follow the instructions below.

A merger is a non-automated procedure by which the contents of two or more pages are united within a single page. Merging creates a redirect from the source page(s) to the destination page, with some or all of the content copied and pasted into that page. Editors should use their discretion to decide whether or not a discussion should occur before spending the time to merge articles.
Do not use the discussion procedure described below to propose:

• Category mergers: Category mergers should be requested at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion, which uses the separate {{cfm}} template.
• History mergers: History mergers cannot be proposed using this procedure. See Wikipedia:How to fix cut-and-paste moves#Parallel versions for details.
• Template mergers: Template mergers should be requested at Wikipedia:Templates for discussion, which uses the separate {{tfm}} template.

Contents

• 1 Reasons for merger
• 2 Proposing a merger
  • 2.1 Step 1: Create a discussion
  • 2.2 Step 2: Tag the relevant pages
  • 2.3 Step 3: Discuss the merger
    • 2.3.1 Caveats
  • 2.4 Step 4: Close the merger discussion and determine consensus
  • 2.5 Step 5: Perform the merger
• 3 Special cases
  • 3.1 Tagging multiple pages
  • 3.2 Controversial mergers
  • 3.3 Merger as a result of a deletion discussion
  • 3.4 Merger proposed after a deletion discussion
• 4 How to merge
  • 4.1 Full-content paste merger
  • 4.2 Selective paste merger
• 5 Pages to merge
• 6 List of merger templates
• 7 See also
• 8 Notes

Reasons for merger

Shortcuts:

• WP:MERGEREASON
• WP:OVERLAP

There are several good reasons to merge pages:

1. Duplicate: There are two or more pages on exactly the same subject, with the same scope.
2. Overlap: There are two or more pages on related subjects that have a large overlap. Wikipedia is not a dictionary; there does not need to be a separate entry for every concept. For example, "flammable" and "non-flammable" can both be explained in an article on flammability.
3. Text: If a page is very short and is unlikely to be expanded within a reasonable amount of time, it often makes sense to merge it with a page on a broader topic. For example, parents or children of a celebrity who are otherwise unremarkable are generally covered in a section of the article on the celebrity (and can be merged there).
4. Context: If a short article requires the background material or context from a broader article in order for readers to understand it. For example, minor characters from works of fiction are generally covered in a "List of characters in <work>" article (and can be merged there); see also Wikipedia:Notability (fiction).

Merging should be avoided if:

1. The resulting article is too long or "clunky"
2. The separate topics could be expanded into longer standalone (but cross-linked) articles
3. The topics are discrete subjects warranting their own articles, even though they might be short

Merging—regardless of the amount of information kept—should always leave a redirect (or, in some cases, a disambiguation page) in place. This is often needed to allow proper attribution through the edit history for the source page. Superfluous redirects do not harm anything, and they can be helpful in finding articles, e.g. from alternative names.
You may find that some or all of the information to be merged is already in the destination page. That is fine; you can feel free to delete the redundant information and only add new material. If there is no information to be added to the destination page, you can simply redirect the other page there, but please make this clear in the edit summary.

Proposing a merger

Shortcuts:

• WP:MERGEINIT
• WP:MERGEPROP

Need help? List your articles at the bottom of Wikipedia:Proposed mergers, and someone will list the suggested merger for you.

Users may determine whether pages should be merged. If the need for a merge is obvious, individual editors can be bold and simply do it. This might be appropriate and easy where, for example, there are two stubs with nearly the same title with slightly different spellings. Bold edits might be reverted, so if a merge is going to take a lot of work to implement, that is something to consider if there is any room for doubt. Articles that have been separate for a long time, especially on controversial topics, may have editor support for remaining separate; these are the best candidates for discussing before merging.
In most circumstances, a local discussion conducted on an article talk page should attract sufficient input. This should include the proposal itself, the list of the affected pages, and a merger rationale. To start a discussion, perform the following steps.

Step 1: Create a discussion

This is usually done on the proposed destination page's talk page, but exceptions exist:

• If the intended destination is a combination page that does not exist, do not create its talk page, as it may be speedily deleted (WP:CSD#G8) or nominated at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion.
• Having a discussion on the source page is acceptable. Don't move an existing discussion to another page.
• It is recommended not to start discussion on a talk page that is regularly archived.

Example: if suggesting that Foo be merged into Bar, create a proposal to merge Foo into Bar in a new section at Talk:Bar. Start a new section at the bottom of that talk page and include the proposal itself, the list of the affected pages, and a merger rationale. A good example is the following section:

== Merger proposal ==

I propose that [[Foo]] be merged into [[Bar]]. I think that the content in the Foo article can easily be explained in the context of Bar, and the Bar article is of a reasonable size that the merging of Foo will not cause any problems as far as article size or undue weight is concerned. ~~~~

Notify involved users (optional): As an optional step, it may be necessary to notify users involved in the affected pages, who might not be watchlisting them. Simply go to those users' talk pages and start a new section, leaving a neutral invitation to participate in the merger discussion. Make sure to provide a link to the discussion page. Please ensure that the notification of involved users does not breach WP:Votestacking; that is, canvassing support by selectively notifying editors who have or are thought to have a predetermined point of view or opinion.
You may also use the following standard templates on the users' talk pages:
{{subst:Mergenote|<source page>|<merger discussion talk page section>}}
Example:
{{subst:Mergenote|Foo|Talk:Bar#Merger proposal}}

Step 2: Tag the relevant pages

Do not use "subst" on these templates.
To propose a merger of two or more pages, place the template {{merge|OTHERPAGE|discuss=Talk:THIS PAGE#Merger proposal|date=April 2017}} at the top of each page or section. The date parameter is used to add the article to a subcategory of Category:Articles to be merged. If the date parameter is not used, a Wikipedia bot will add it in a day or two.
Please use the discuss parameter to direct to the same talk page. Otherwise, two separate discussions could take place in each of the respective talk pages. If the discuss parameter is not specified, the "Discuss" links lead to the top of each article's Talk page.
If you know which page should be removed, use {{mergeto|DESTINATIONPAGE|discuss=Talk:DESTINATIONPAGE#Merger proposal|date=April 2017}} on that page, and {{mergefrom|SOURCEPAGE|discuss=Talk:DESTINATIONPAGE#Merger proposal|date=April 2017}} on the page that will remain and will receive the contents of the source page. Unless a discuss parameter is specified in these templates, all "Discuss" links to lead to the talk page of the destination page, avoiding the two separate discussions problem that may occur with {{merge}}. It may still be preferable to link direction to a section on the talk page; this is useful for directing the reader to a specific section of a long talk page, when it may not otherwise be obvious where the discussion is located.
If multiple articles are proposed to be merged, their titles can be separated with a vertical pipe. For example, {{merge|OtherPage1|OtherPage2|discuss=Talk:Destination1#Merger proposal|date=April 2017}} proposes that the tagged page, as well as OtherPage1 and OtherPage2, be merged.