While the specifics may have changed over time, the general point of the page is correct -- "fixing" a redirect will use significantly more server time than clicking on one. When you click a redirect, MediaWiki queries the redirect table to see where you should go instead. Reads from the database like this are fast. However, when you edit the page to "fix" a redirect, MediaWiki has to save the edit, update the links tables, re-render the HTML, invalidate the cache, and serve the new HTML, among other things.
From a reader's perspective, there's no performance difference between clicking a redirect and clicking any other internal link. We're talking milliseconds here, if that. If you wanted to really improve the performance of a page, remove all the images. (Note: do not do this.) This falls under <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Don%27t_worry_about_performance>: let the developers and the operations folk worry about performance. If you're already making an edit to an article and you feel like bypassing a few redirects, go ahead and knock yourself out. But going out of your way to "fix" links to redirects is just a waste of your time. ACN On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 11:23 PM Andreas Papacharalampous <m...@apap04.com> wrote: > > the page was created in 2006 [1], but i don't think it's up to date for 2020. > the last couple of "constructive" edits were from 2006-2011 but i'm not sure. > > [1]: > https://xtools.wmflabs.org/articleinfo/en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation%20popups/About%20fixing%20redirects > --andreas > > > > On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 11:11 PM Thibaut Payet <thibaut120...@outlook.fr> > wrote: >> >> Hi everyone, >> >> On the French Wikipedia we're currently reworking our help page about >> redirects and some of us would like to include a section about common >> misconceptions, especially those described at >> <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation_popups/About_fixing_redirects&oldid=988508313>. >> >> However one user who's used to "fix" redirects is strongly opposed >> because "this page is from 2006" and it's "unsourced".[1] >> >> So I would like to ask the sysadmins from Wikimedia and the MediaWiki >> developers who are following this mailing list: is this page created in >> 2006 still true and relevant in 2020? >> >> Thank you. >> >> -- >> Kind regards, >> Thibaut Payet >> [[User:Thibaut120094]] >> >> [1] >> <https://sigma.toolforge.org/usersearch.py?name=Alaspada&page=Discussion_aide%3ARedirection&server=frwiki&max=> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikitech-l mailing list >> Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l > > _______________________________________________ > Wikitech-l mailing list > Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
