Legality of Cannabis by U.S. Jurisdiction

Main pages: Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia and Help:Merging

A merger is a non-automated procedure by which the contents of two pages are united within a single page. Merging two pages creates a redirect from the source page to the destination page, with some or all of the content copied and pasted into that page.

Do not use this procedure to propose:

Contents

[edit] Reasons for merger

There are several good reasons to merge a page:

  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 in the universe. 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.

[edit] Proposing a merger

Main page: Help:Merging#Proposing a merger

Users may determine whether pages should be merged. In most circumstances, a local discussion should be started to attract sufficient input. This will usually occur on the proposed destination page's talk page,[1] but it is recommended not to start discussion on a talk page that is regularly archived. This should include the proposal itself, the list of the affected pages, and a merger rationale.

Perform the following steps:

I. Create a discussion on the proposed destination page's talk page. For 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. You may also use the following standard templates on the users' talk pages:

{{subst:Mergenote | <source page> | <talk page on which merger proposal is being discussed> }}
II. Tag the relevant pages. Add the appropriate merger template to the very top of each involved page. (When proposing that an article's content be merged into a specific section of another article, the merger template may be placed at the top of that section instead.) All tags' Discuss links should point to the new discussion section.

On the source pages(s), add the following template:

{{Merge to|<destination page>|discuss=Talk:<destination page>#Merger proposal|date=July 2012}}

Then, add the appropriate merger template to the very top of the destination page or section:

{{Merge from|<source page>|discuss=Talk:<destination page>#Merger proposal|date=July 2012}}

If the "date" parameter is not used, a bot will add it in a day or two. If the "discuss" parameter is accidentally omitted, the Discuss link on the template will lead to the top of the destination page's talk page.

For mergers involving more than two pages, see the "Tagging multiple pages" subsection below.
III. Discuss the merger: Discuss the merger proposal on the destination article's talk page; make sure to follow proper decorum and standard talk page guidelines, which includes staying focused on the content, not on the involved editors, using threaded discussion formatting, not biting newcomers, and being clear and concise.

In many cases, a hybrid discussion/straw poll is used, but remember that polling is not a substitute for discussion. Example formatting:

*'''Support''' - <insert reason for supporting merger here> ~~~~

*'''Oppose''' - <insert reason for opposing merger here> ~~~~
IV. Close the merger discussion and determine consensus: After a period of time when discussion has ceased, a rough consensus to proceed with the merger may emerge. If enough time (normally one week or more) has elapsed and there has been no discussion or is unanimous consent to merge, any user may close the discussion and move forward with the merger.

In more unclear, controversial cases, the determination that a consensus to merge has been achieved is normally made by an editor who is neutral and not directly involved in the merger proposal or the discussion. If necessary, one may request that an administrator who is not involved close the discussion and make a determination as to whether consensus has been established; such a request may be made at the Administrators' noticeboard.

To close a merger proposal discussion, the {{Discussion top}} and {{Discussion bottom}} templates are used in the following manner:

== Merger proposal ==

{{Discussion top|1=The result of this discussion was to ... ~~~~}}

<discussion>
.
.
.
{{Discussion bottom}}

After closing the merger proposal discussion, place the following template on the source page's talk page:

{{Old merge full|otherpage=<destination page>|date=<date merger was proposed>|result=<result of discussion>|talk=<page on which merger proposal was discussed>}}

[edit] Tagging multiple pages

When proposing that more than two pages be merged, it helps to be as informative as possible.

Add the following template to the top of each source page:

{{Merge|OtherPage1|OtherPage2|OtherPage3|target=<destination page>|discuss=Talk:<destination page>#Merger proposal|date=July 2012}}

Add the following template to the top of the destination page:

{{Merge from|OtherPage1|OtherPage2|OtherPage3|discuss=Talk:<destination page>#Merger proposal |date=July 2012}}

[edit] Mergers as a result of deletion discussions

While mergers are generally not proposed from the onset of Articles for Deletion (AfD) discussions (also see Wikipedia:Deletion policy#Alternatives to deletion), it is not uncommon for editors, in an effort to mediate and/or compromise, to suggest that the article(s) nominated for deletion instead be merged to a parent article. If there is a rough consensus for a merger at the end of a deletion discussion, the following template is placed at the top of the nominated article:

{{Afd-merge to|destination article|debate name|debate closure date}}

Similarly, the following template is placed on the destination article's talk page:

{{Afd-merge from|nominated article|debate name|debate closure date}}

This informs users involved in those pages that content is to be merged as a result of a deletion discussion. It is the involved editors' job, not the closing administrators' job, to perform the merger. Proceed in the manner described above and at Help:Merging.

[edit] How to merge

Main page: Help:Merging#Performing the merger

A merger may be full or selective. While some mergers can be done boldly, most others (as described above) require a rough consensus.

Perform the following steps to merge an article into another article:

  1. Copy all or some of the content from the source page(s) and paste the content in an appropriate location at the destination page. Save the edit, leaving the following edit summary (as required by the Creative Commons Share-alike 3.0 license):
    Merged content from [[<source page>]] to here. See [[Talk:<destination page>#<merger section>]].
  2. Redirect the source page whose content was just merged by replacing everything with the following:
    #REDIRECT [[<destination page>]] {{R from merge}}
    If the content was merged to a single section within the destination page, it is recommended that the source page be redirected directly to that section. In that case, replace everything with the following:
    #REDIRECT [[<destination page>#<section name>]] {{R from merge}} {{R to section}}
    Save the page, leaving the following edit summary: (also required by the CC-BY-SA):
    Merged content to [[<destination page>#<destination section, if applicable>]]. See [[Talk:<destination page>#<merger section>]].
  3. Tag the destination page's talk page with {{merged-from|source page|date}}, and the source page's talk page with {{merged-to|destination page|date}}. Place these tags at the top of the talk pages.
    As an alternative, experienced users can add {{Copied|from|from_oldid|to|to_diff|to_oldid|date}} to both talk pages. Place at the top of the talk pages.
  4. Check Special:WhatLinksHere for the source page and fix any double redirects. Otherwise, a bot should fix any such problems within a day or two.
  5. Provide further attribution by using the {{Copied}} template, if not already done in step 3. See the template's documentation and Help:Merging#Performing the merger for more details. If the source page has any merged or copied templates, for example, you will need to copy those tags to the destination page.

[edit] Pages to merge

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ 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.
source: https://web.archive.org/web/20120727055836/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Merging
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