Template:Merge/doc

Which merge template should I use?
Do not use this tag on a Wikipedia WP:template or WP:category—instead see below for instructions.


 * To merge at least two articles together at an unspecified location, use
 * To merge the contents of the tagged article into another article, use
 * If the contents of another article should be merged into the tagged article, use – the opposite of ;
 * To suggest merging only some material from one article to another, use and

Terminology
Source page is the page that content is merged from.

Destination page or target page is the page that content is merged into.

Other page is any page involved in a merger.

When to use and when not to use
These templates are used primarily to identify potential merges that would benefit from discussion. If it is obvious that a merge would be appropriate, then you may boldly merge the pages yourself without tagging and without discussion. Some editors also use these tags to mark pages that obviously require merging in the hope that someone else will merge the pages.

After adding the merge tag, you are expected to create a section on the talk page of the appropriate article (see below for details) explaining your rationale for the merge proposal. If the rationale is so obvious that it requires no explanation, then you should consider boldly merging the pages yourself, or explain on the talk page why you didn't do so yourself.


 * If you want to propose merging a category, you must do so at Categories for discussion, using the specific templates available there.
 * If you want to propose merging a template, you must do so at Templates for discussion, using the specific templates available there.

Simple example
Tagging a single page, without specifying source or destination, is simple:

When you want to discuss a simple merge of one page into another, tag both source and destination page:

This allows editors at both pages to see the proposed source and destination.

Other options
By default, the Discuss link on the template links to the top of the destination page's talk page. To specify which section, or to name a different talk page entirely, use the discuss parameter:



To name multiple pages to be merged, simply separate them with a vertical pipe. You can add up to 20 articles to be merged:



If you are placing the template in a section, you can use yes to change the wording to reflect this:


 * Do not link to the pages with square brackets. For example, write, not.
 * If you don't supply a date, a bot will add it later.
 * The date may not be shown in the box. Do not be concerned about this. It is used when grouping tagged pages together into categories by date.
 * These templates will add tagged articles to Category:Articles to be merged, while non-articles (files, templates, etc.) will be added to Category:Miscellany to be merged.
 * For Merge, if you are specifying a merge of two or more pages in different namespaces, the template supports this via specification of the full page name, including the namespace prefix. nspace can take on namespace values, which fixes all params to the namespace specified.
 * Do not  these templates.

Merges from XfD discussions
When a merge is being proposed as an option at an XfD discussion, the templates, , , and can be used to direct visitors at the merge target to the appropriate XfD discussion.

When to remove
There is no deadline for completing proposed merges (note the absence of any such deadlines at WP:MERGE). Pages that have been tagged for a long time (frequently more than one year) generally fall into these groups:


 * Discussion supported the proposed merge, but no one did it yet: Feel free to merge the pages yourself.
 * Discussion opposed merge, but nobody removed the tags: Feel free to remove the tags yourself.
 * No discussion found: Feel free to remove the tags if you believe the merge would be a poor choice, or to boldly merge the pages if you believe the merge would be appropriate.  Or feel free to start a discussion if you are uncertain or feel it would be controversial.