Author: creidieki+wikibugs
Description:
Mediawiki doesn't allow multiple redirects, even when they are appropriate and
reasonable. For example, on the English wikipedia, there is no page on the
[[Hydrogen bomb]]; it redirects to [[Nuclear weapon]]. The plural [[Hydrogen
bombs]] should redirect to the singular [[Hydrogen bomb]]; however, due to
technical limitations, it must *also* be a redirect to [[Nuclear weapon]]!
Redirects exist for multiple reasons; sometimes there is not yet an article on
the given topic (i.e., "hydrogen bomb"), and sometimes they exist because of
grammatical or spelling variants (the plural form). If multiple conditions
exist, there may be valid reasons for a string of several redirects. By forcing
writers to use semantically incorrect redirects ("hydrogen bombs" -> "nuclear
weapon"), we make things much more complicated whenever an article on the
singular form, "hydrogen bomb", is added. Furthermore, the Wikipedia contains
the fundamentally incorrect information that the "hydrogen bombs" article is
related to the "nuclear weapon" article instead of the "hydrogen bomb" article.
I think that a system more subtle than "don't allow double redirects" should be
used to detect self-loops, so that we aren't forced to work around valid redirects.
Version: unspecified
Severity: normal