Help:Moving a page
Moving (renaming) a page means giving it another name, and is something that requires special permissions. An advanced editor, gardener, or committee member can do this by selecting the "Move" tab at the top, entering the new name, and clicking "Move Page". Normally they would want to leave the "Move associated talk page" option ticked.
If you are not a gardener or committee member and wish to have a page moved to a new title, use Template:AttentionGardeners to request the move and give justification.
If you move page "A" to a new title "B", this operation will:
- Create the new page "B", with contents from page "A"
- Replace the contents of page "A" with a redirect to "B"
- Move all the editing history from page "A" so that it appears under "B"'s history tab.
The third point is important. The editing history allows people to see how the contents of the page were built up and who contributed what. If you move contents around by copying and pasting (instead of using the move feature), you will lose the edit history.
Because the move operation leaves behind a redirect, it should not result in any broken links. However, you might want to hunt down the pages that link to the redirect and change their text to link directly to the new title. The "What links here" toolbox feature in the sidebar (bottom left) is useful when doing this.
Proposing a move
Deciding on a page title can be a difficult aspect of wiki organization, and it often provokes debate. Unless there is already agreement around what the new name should be, or it's an obvious change (e.g. to correct a mistake), please propose the move first by leaving a note with your reasoning on the talk page. You can also alert everyone to your intentions by labeling the page itself with an attention gardener template.
If you have a general question about page naming that for whatever reason wouldn't be right to bring up on a specific talk page, you can add it to the Help:Naming Conventions talk page for advice and opinions from other editors.
Undoing a move
As with all wiki editing, a move operation can be reversed. To reverse a move operation, simply move the page back, e.g. move page "B" back to "A".
The page title "B" will still be left behind, as a redirect from "B" to "A". Any user can remove the redirect and propose that the page be deleted. However the final deletion will require sysop privileges (see Help:Deleting a page).
For any other questions, you can use the Talk page or contact the Fanlore Committee.