Wikipedia:WikiProject Merge

For proposing article mergers {{merge}}, see WP:PM. For proposing category mergers {{cfm}}, see WP:CFD. For proposing template mergers {{tfm}}, see WP:TFD.

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Articles to be merged
Subtotals October 2011 45 November 2011 80 December 2011 77 January 2012 175 February 2012 169 March 2012 161 April 2012 119 May 2012 130 June 2012 162 July 2012 165 August 2012 167 September 2012 149 October 2012 99 November 2012 91 December 2012 104 January 2013 230 February 2013 216 March 2013 245 April 2013 215 May 2013 211 June 2013 213 July 2013 183 August 2013 252 September 2013 238 October 2013 260 November 2013 260 December 2013 278 January 2014 329 February 2014 297 March 2014 317 April 2014 340 May 2014 369 June 2014 296 July 2014 355 August 2014 283 September 2014 337 October 2014 313 November 2014 478 December 2014 423 January 2015 501 February 2015 416 March 2015 663 April 2015 569 May 2015 621 June 2015 66 Undated articles 0
All articles	11,667

Articles to be merged after an Articles for deletion discussion
All articles	233

Welcome to WikiProject Merge.

Several Wikipedians have formed this collaboration resource and group dedicated to improving the merging process. This page and its subpages contain their suggestions and various resources; it is hoped that this project will help to focus the efforts of other Wikipedians interested in the merge process. If you would like to help, please join the project, inquire on the talk page and see the to-do list below.

The main project focus at this time is reducing the articles to be merged backlog!

Scope

• All articles in Category:Articles to be merged, categories, subcategories and Category:Articles to be merged after an Articles for deletion discussion. These categories are populated by templates (show Wikipedia:Template messages/Merging below).
• The information and help pages, WP:Merging, Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia and Help:Merging.
• Wikipedia:Proposed mergers backlog.

Goals

• Reduce the 3-year backlog at Category:Articles to be merged to a point where all merge proposals are dealt with within a reasonable time period.
• Begin community process to address issues that have lead to such a big backlog.
• Provide a noticeboard where problems with individual mergers and proposed changes to processes can be raised.
• Keep notice of the related information pages and articles needing to be merged.

WikiProject Merge needs your help! You can assist by merging a random article from the backlog, by clicking the icon below.

Progress

This section shows our progress in clearing the backlogs of articles tagged on or before December 31st, 2012.

87% complete

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Current collaboration

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Guidelines

_{From Help:Merging and Wikipedia:Merging}

A merger is a process by which the content of two pages are united on one page for one or more of the following reasons:

• Unnecessary duplication of content

• Significant overlap with the topic of another page

• Minimal content that could be covered in or requires the context of a page on a broader topic.

A copy paste merger creates "attribution dependency". To license the content from the originating article you must, at minimum, provide a direct link to the original article in the edit summary of the page where content is being placed. You should also place the {{Copied}} tag on the originating article as well as the target article.

Merging should be avoided if the articles are sufficiently distinct to stand on their own and the resulting article will be too long or "clunky"; the separate topics could be expanded into longer standalone (but cross-linked) articles; the topics are discrete subjects and deserve their own articles even though they may be short.

If you need direction for making a new merge proposal see Wikipedia:Proposed mergers. On Wikipedia, articles may be boldly merged without any proposal taking place, though it is recommended where the merge is expected to be controversial. If you boldly merge an article and it is reverted, this should be considered part of the BOLD, revert, discuss cycle and not undone until discussion takes place—do not edit war.

Project Merge Guidelines

Listing and Delisting

A merge is listed once a tag is placed on the article, such as {{Merge}} or {{Merge to}}. Removing the tag, delists the article. Never remove a proposed merge tag unless you are intending to delist the article and only do so when all issues have been addressed. If the proposer of the merge did not start a discussion for the merge, and it is not obvious why the articles should be merged, it is acceptable to remove the tags. If the reason for the merge is obvious, you can either merge the articles boldly, or start a new discussion.

Editors should always close a proposal uncontroversially. Complex cases can be referred to the project's talk page. Merging an article where there was a consensus-based decision to do so at an AfD discussion that has been closed by an administrator is not controversial, and may be undertaken with no further discussion or closing procedure. Local consensus should determine a merge with redirect if discussion is underway for even a very old merge proposal, however, content may still be boldy added to the target page if it is not already present, has context and has references. If content can be saved by taking the extra time to copy edit for original prose, references, formatting, etc. an editor is encouraged to do so.

If an article is original and has sufficient differences from the target article it can be retained and not be redirected or merged and delisted. A merge tag represents the efforts of an editor to gain consensus. If no other discussion is made it is an individual judgement call, whether or not to carry out a "Merge with redirect" from a proposal. If a MWR is reverted by another editor after being carried out by a project participant (or other editor) with no discussion we can assume opposition to the merge and delist as "no consensus".

Stale merge proposals

If there has been no discussion generated after a reasonable amount of time then the merge proposal is stale. Stale merge proposals more than one year should be immediately delisted if any of the following apply:

• The merge has been completed already.
• Either the target or destination article has been deleted.
• Either the target or destination article is a redirect to a different topic. (This does not include redirects for capitalization, spelling or formatting)
• The merge discussion doesn't name both articles to be merged. (Close the discussion as void due to confusion about what articles are involved)
• The tags propose a merge from a very narrow topic to a very wide topic, or vice versa (Example - merging Killdeer, North Dakota to United States)
• The tags propose merging a biography to another biography without justification. This almost never makes sense, and there is a strong burden of proof on the proposer.
• The article qualifies for speedy delete. Redirect it to a logical target if there is one, otherwise nominate for speedy deletion.
• The article faced an articles for deletion discussion while the merge tag was on the page and not a single user proposed the merge in the discussion. Be sure to check the article history to make sure the merge tag was there during the deletion discussion.

Stale merge proposals less than a year old

Once a reasonable amount of time has passed and no discussion is generated the proposal becomes stale. Stale proposals of less than one year may be delisted if any or all of above apply as well as additional standards for newer proposals:

• No AFDs/ANI or Dispute resolution is in process or about to begin. Do not remove the merge tag from the proposed article if the AFD is merge related. Tags are not removed during disputes. Any edit done during an AFD is subject to admin approval or decline but are generally allowed.
• Neither article would benefit from a straight merge with redirect. Examples may be articles that receive substantial expansion or are already large enough for C class when or since proposed or a target article already far too large.
• Unreasonable merge to destination/target. Either article does reasonably fit the other.
• The article qualifies for speedy deletion. Redirect it to a logical target if there is one, otherwise nominate for speedy deletion.
• The proposal has not been closed after no less than two weeks with no discussion or two weeks from last edit with no consensus reached.

If the articles listed for merge meet the above standards then you may simply remove the tags as a stale merge/old proposal no consensus. No merging takes place.

Merging content

If none of the above apply or it is your decision to carry out the merge, be sure and follow the steps as laid out by Help:Merging.

Editing and merging during disputes

Editors should not merge content during an AFD. AfD participants should not work "around" consensus by beginning a merge process on their own, before discussion. While preservation of content is a good consideration, copying may be contentious and may create additional steps and administrative work if undoing any copying is necessary. Such a merge also causes an attribution dependency breakage between articles that may require the merging of article history that would be lost if the source page is deleted. AFD participants may offer proposals and negotiate with the other participants during the discussion. If needed, editors may ask the closing admin how to rescue the content or what additional steps that need to be taken.

Using reference merge

Any editor may add contents and references if the prose used is completely original. In this manner the merged content is not merely copied and pasted but all original content makes use of the available references (see Wikipedia:EDITATAFD). Rather than merging, the content can be rewritten. In this case, there is no attribution problems as the content is new. However, one should exercise extreme caution BEFORE undertaking such a controversial merge. While it is not strictly prohibited, Wikipedia:WikiProject Merge recommends that all editors refrain from such tasks in the spirit of collaboration. Unless there is a strong case for the merger specified by deletion policy it is preferred that editors wait until the discussion period is complete.

Closing merge discussion

Closing Merger proposals to begin merging

_{From Help:Merging}

If there is clear agreement with the proposal by consensus, or if there is silence, after the debate has been open for at least two weeks, proceed with the merger. Before merging, it is recommended that you refer to this, which applies to merger targets as well as redirect targets.

Archive a proposed merger

To provide clarity that the merger discussion is over and that a consensus has been reached, it may be important to close and then archive the proposal discussion. To close a merger proposal discussion, indicate the outcome at the top. If the merger is particularly controversial, one may take the optional step of requesting closure by an uninvolved administrator at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Requests for closure.

To archive a merger proposal discussion, a {{Discussion top}} template is generally placed between the header and the top of the discussion and a {{Discussion bottom}} template will need to be placed at the bottom of the discussion.

Here is an example of how to archive a merger proposal discussion:

== Header ==
{{Discussion top|1=The result was '''merge''' into DESTINATION PAGE. -- ~~~~}}
Hi, I would like to discuss...
{{Discussion bottom}}

You can also place the {{oldmergefull}} template at the top of the talk pages of the articles proposed to be merged.

AFD consensus to merge/redirects have been Admin closed and do not reguire further closing procedure. These may be merged and redirected with no further tasks required or associated with the merger.

Performing the merger

Performing the merger

_{From Help:Merging}

For information on moving pages, see Help:Moving a page.

There are two basic types of merger; which to use depends on how much content of the source page you want to keep:

• Full-content paste merger - most content, clean and fast
• Selective paste merger - some content, clean but slow

Also remember that almost all article pages have a talk page. To avoid losing quick access to that historical discussion, a link to the source article's talk-page should be placed at the top of the destination article's talk-page, such as:
Article merged: See old talk-page [[talk:PAGENAME|here]]
or use Template:Copied:
{{Copied|from=source|from_oldid=source|to=destination|diff=|date=}}

Actions which must be performed for both merger types

See also: Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia

1. After copying the content, save the destination page with an edit summary noting merge content from [[SOURCEPAGE]] (This step is required in order to conform with Wikipedia's licensing requirements. Do not omit it nor omit the page name.)
2. Delete all the text from the source page and replace it with #REDIRECT [[DESTINATIONPAGE]] {{R from merge}}, save the source page with an edit summary noting merge content to [[DESTINATIONPAGE]]

Full-content paste merger

Full-content paste merger

_{From Help:Merging}

1. Open the source and destination pages in two separate edit windows/tabs.
2. Cut/paste the entire content from the source page into the destination page and remove the {{mergefrom}} tag.
3. Save the destination page, with an edit summary noting "merged content from [[article name]]" (This step is required in order to conform with Wikipedia's licensing requirements. Do not omit it nor omit the page name.)
4. Delete all the text from the source page and replace it with #REDIRECT [[PAGENAME]] {{R from merge}}, note the merger (including the page name) in the edit summary, and save the page.
5. Edit the destination page again and delete the redundant content, editing until it looks good and consistent. The destination can be tagged with {{In use}} temporarily to prevent edit conflicts.
6. Save the destination page. (Edit summary of "cleanup after paste/merger" is appropriate.)
7. Optional: Check "What links here" on the source page for double-redirects.
   • Double-redirects will fail to link, and must be renamed to redirect to the current page name.
   • This is only necessary if an old redirect needs to be retargeted. If you do not to do this, a bot will usually fix it in a day or two.
8. Add {{Copied|from=source|to=destination|diff=permanent diff}} onto the talk pages of both articles. This not only helps clarify attribution at the destination, but helps prevent inadvertent later deletion of the source history. This step is optional but recommended.
9. Afterwards, DO NOT ask for a history merger between the two articles. See this link for the reason

Performing a merger in this manner is beneficial when you want to include all the content from both articles in the article history of the final article.

Selective paste merger

Selective paste merger

_{From Help:Merging}

1. Open the source and destination pages in two separate edit windows/tabs.
2. Cut/paste the non-redundant content from the source page into the destination page.
3. Be sure to remove the {{mergefrom}} tag from the destination page before previewing
4. Preview and edit the destination page until it looks good and consistent.
5. Delete all the text from the source page and replace it with #REDIRECT [[PAGENAME]] {{R from merge}}.
   • Note that PAGENAME in the code above should be the title of the destination page.
6. Save both, and note the merger (including the page names) in the edit summaries. (This step is required in order to conform with Wikipedia's licensing requirements. Do not omit it nor omit the page name.)
7. Optional: Check "What links here" on the source page for double-redirects.
   • Double-redirects will fail to link, and must be renamed to redirect to the current page name.
   • This is only necessary if an old redirect needs to be retargeted. If you do not to do this, a bot will usually fix it in a couple of days
8. Add {{Copied|from=source|to=destination|diff=permanent diff}} onto the talk pages of both articles. This not only helps clarify attribution at the destination, but helps prevent inadvertent later deletion of the source history. This step is optional but recommended.
9. Afterwards, DO NOT ask for a history merger between the two articles. See this link for the reason

Performing a merger in this manner is beneficial when the source document includes a great deal of material that is not needed in the final article.

Redirecting

Once the content is merged do not forget to blank the originating page and add:

• #REDIRECT [[PAGENAME]] {{R from merge}}

Attribution of originating content

For more details on this topic, see Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia.

At minimum, attribution must be provided in the edit summary of the page into which content is placed. This step is required in order to conform with Wikipedia's licensing requirements. Do not omit it nor omit the page name. It is important to remember, once a merge has been made and the redirect set or even when a redirect is not set in place, to add this template on both the target and originating article talkpage and fill out completely:

{{Copied |from= |from_oldid= |to= |diff= }}

This code, when filled, out produces the name of the two articles and the original diff from your action of adding the material in full or in part and is needed to attribute the work of the authors. Below is this example for the Merge guidelines copied in full or in part from Help:Merging.

Participants

Please feel free to add yourself here, and indicate any areas of particular interest.
Please post new entries at the end of the list.

1. Quasihuman (talk · contribs) (I plan on working on closing merge discussions and doing simple merges. Also interested in working out new ways of streamlining the system.) 23:03, 25 February 2012 (UTC)
2. Markvs88 (talk · contribs) (I am going to start with all merges beginning with the letter "M"... for no particularly good reason!) 20:28, 27 February 2012 (UTC)
3. Ebe123 (talk · contribs) Overpopulated backlog. ~~Ebe123~~ → report 20:40, 27 February 2012 (UTC)
4. Intwizs (talk · contribs) Badam.. tsss (drum sounds)
5. Dondegroovily (talk · contribs) still grinding thru them 21:34, 27 February 2012 (UTC)
6. Mark Miller (talk · contribs) This user has merged 1 article from the February articles for merger list Drakula (1920 film)
7. Extra999 (talk · contribs) going to help and keep this project going 03:32, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
8. Northamerica1000 (talk · contribs) 00:50, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
9. Cerebellum (talk · contribs) - Working on AfD merges. --Cerebellum (talk) 01:02, 8 March 2012 (UTC)
10. Wikishagnik (talk · contribs) - Working Merge and wikify tags
11. OlEnglish (talk · contribs) - Certainly support this project and will try to help when I have time.
12. The_mobot (talk · contribs) - Working on merge - going to try and get as much of it done as I can
13. Khatie Lou (talk · contribs) - Will work on random articles to merge.
14. DoctorKubla (talk · contribs) - I'll do what I can.
15. Karl.brown (talk · contribs) - I'm still learning... 05:27, 5 April 2012 (UTC)
16. Thegreatgrabber (talk · contribs) - Work on some random things, applying templates, just help along.
17. Kelpso1 (talk · contribs) - I'll do as much as I can starting right now. 05:47, 11 April 2012 (UTC)
18. Gsingh (talk · contribs) - I have begun merging articles starting from Feb 2009, will work on articles of any topic. Gsingh (talk) 04:28, 25 April 2012 (UTC)
19. Dark Silver Crow (talk · contribs) - Working on random articles to merge when able.
20. Coastside (talk · contribs) - Interested in working on scientific articles
21. BDD (talk · contribs) I like working on the full backlog rather than the AfD one, where there are many simple fixes, including stale tags and discussions just waiting to be closed.
22. Wbm1058 (talk · contribs) I operate User:Merge bot, which updates Wikipedia:Proposed mergers/Log; Longer term project: analyzing procedures in search of improvements to alleviate the backlog here.
23. GenQuest (talk · contribs) I have been working on mergers (through the PM noticeboard) since October 2012. I have been doing a bunch of the Afds also, since the backlog has grown to over 125. I try to do a copyedit on the finished product whenever my editing time allows. GenQuest ^{"Talk to Me"} 22:52, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
24. --NickPenguin_(contribs) 01:22, 25 February 2013 (UTC)
25. Skr15081997 (talk · contribs) I had done more than 50 mergers last year, and I am already a member of Mergist Association . Skr15081997 (talk) 17:16, 15 January 2014 (UTC)
26. Iamozy (talk) 02:29, 6 February 2014 (UTC) Interested in science, especially, biology, neurology, and medicine.
27. P199 (talk · contribs) (Working on long-overdue dead or stale merges. Have been working on this sporadically for the last few years already...) 21:16, 3 March 2014 (UTC)
28. Logical1004 (talk · contribs) Working on dead, or Indian election related or Physics related merges. Logical1004 (talk) 17:40, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

Open tasks

Collaborations

• Eliminate Category:Articles to be merged from October 2011.

1. Arabic Letter Keyboard Intellark ⟶ Arabic keyboard (Discuss)
2. Australian mass murders ⟷ List of massacres in Australia (Discuss)
3. Valet#Famous fictional valets ⟶ List of fictional butlers (Discuss)
4. Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in the UK ⟶ Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (Discuss)
5. Computational journalism ⟷ Data driven journalism (Discuss)
6. Computer-assisted reporting ⟷ Data driven journalism (Discuss)
7. Datagram service ⟶ Datagram socket (Discuss)
8. Sufficiently large ⟶ Eventually (mathematics) (Discuss)
9. Financial future ⟷ Futures contract (Discuss)
10. Kaju barfi ⟷ Kaju Katli (Discuss)
11. Phoolka ⟷ Phulkian sardars (Discuss)
12. Pony bottle ⟷ Alternative air source and Bailout bottle (Discuss)
13. Che people ⟶ She people (Discuss)
14. Brazil income inequality ⟶ Social issues in Brazil (Discuss)
15. Strategic partnership ⟷ Strategic alliance (Discuss)
16. Striae_gravidarum ⟶ Stretch marks (Discuss)
17. Tembleque ⟷ manjar branco (Discuss)

Tagged articles

This section is updated by Merge bot.

• June 2008
• May 2010
• October 2011
• November 2011
• December 2011
• January 2012
• February 2012
• March 2012
• April 2012
• May 2012
• June 2012
• July 2012
• August 2012
• September 2012
• October 2012
• November 2012
• December 2012
• January 2013
• February 2013
• March 2013
• April 2013
• May 2013
• June 2013
• July 2013
• August 2013
• September 2013
• October 2013
• November 2013
• December 2013
• January 2014
• February 2014
• March 2014
• April 2014
• May 2014
• June 2014
• July 2014
• August 2014
• September 2014
• October 2014
• November 2014
• December 2014
• January 2015
• February 2015
• March 2015
• April 2015
• May 2015
• June 2015

Milestones

• 16,000 to be merged: March 2, 2012
• 15,000 to be merged: May 7, 2012
• 14,000 to be merged: June 16, 2012
• 11,500 to be merged: January 9, 2014

Templates

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User box templates

{{User WikiProject Merge}} produces:

	This user is a member of WikiProject Merge.

{{User merge}} produces:

mer	This editor is a mergist.

{{User mergist}} produces:

AMW	This user is a member of the Association of Mergist Wikipedians.

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Talk page templates

The following template should be used on the merging articles talkpage as part of the elimination drive for noncontroversial articles. This may be placed within the discussion first to draw attention to an upcoming merge and then placed on target article's project listings.

• {{WikiProject Merge}}

produces:

Another template can be placed along with other project banners. Rate the article for class and importance to project. This template also has the additional attribution template added to be used on each page after merge.

• {{WikiProject Merge Copied}}

produces:

which contains contents copied from:

{{Copied}}

This template goes on the merge article talk page and target article project listings

• {{Merge done}}

produces:

  Y Merger complete

If a nomination for deletion results in a merge with delete, add:

• {{afd-merged-from}}

For a list of all merge templates, go to Category:Merge templates or Wikipedia:Template messages/Merging.

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Barnstars for WikiProject

This barnstar could be given to a prolific merger or a user who has contributed significantly to the project. It is the official barnstar for this project.

{{subst:WikiProject Merge Barnstar|Message}}

produces:

		The Merging Barnstar
		Message

Assessment

For project assessment of articles go to Wikipedia:WikiProject Merge/Assessment.

Related WikiProjects

• Association of Mergist Wikipedians
• Mergers for discussion [failed]
• WikiProject History Merge