Wikipedia:WikiProject Merge


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.

Milestones

Scope

The main project focus at this time is reducing the backlog of articles with consensus to merge, but its scope is much larger!

"Merging space"

Articles with consensus to merge
(refresh)
Subtotals
September 202618
October 202696
November 2026109
Undated articles0
All articles
223

The full scope of the project includes:

Articles proposed for merging from October 2026 (68 P)
Articles proposed for merging from November 2026 (161 P)
All articles proposed for merging (228 P)
Articles with consensus to merge (4 C)
Articles with consensus to merge from September 2026 (18 P)
Articles with consensus to merge from October 2026 (96 P)
Articles with consensus to merge from November 2026 (109 P)
All articles with consensus to merge (223 P)
WikiProject Merge needs your help! Jump to a random article with consensus to merge!
   Merge a random article!
Jump to a random article with consensus to merge!
   Merge a random article!

"Splitting space"

Until a "Split Project" is formed, split requests will fall entirely under the auspices of WikiProject Merge:

Articles proposed for splitting (98 C)
Jump to a random article from the split backlog!
   Split a random article!

A merge is the process of uniting two or more articles into a single article. It is done by copying some or all content from the source article(s) into the destination article and then replacing the source article with a redirect to the destination article.

Nominating articles for merging

Any editor can perform a merge. If merging is obviously needed and is not controversial, editors are encouraged to be bold and simply do it themselves by following the merging instructions. You do not need anyone's permission or prior discussion to proceed, especially if the merge satisfies one or more of the reasons to merge articles. While bold merges may be reverted entirely, the process and the discussion after the revert often result in better articles. (However, if there is an open AfD discussion for the article—whether it is for merging or otherwise—wait for it to be closed before merging.)

If you have reason to believe that merging an article is controversial, nominate it for merging at AfD. If you want to nominate more than one article for merging into one or more destination articles, you can do so in the same nomination! The main reason that the merge backlog includes hundreds of articles is because the people who support the merge neglect to undertake this final step. Any editor, including the editor who originally proposed the merge, is permitted to perform a merge in accordance with consensus, as merging articles does not require intervention from an administrator.

While young or short articles and stubs that only differ in wording should be boldly merged immediately, long and well-developed articles that concern controversial topics are often discussed first. If you want to first gauge whether there is opposition to a potential merge or want to hear other editors' opinions before nominating the article, you can seek input through standard consensus-building venues, such as the destination article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Articles for deletion.

Reasons to merge articles

Further information: Wikipedia:Merging § Guidelines on merging

There are several good reasons to merge articles:

"WP:DUPLICATE" redirects here. For other uses, see Wikipedia:Duplicate (disambiguation).
  1. Shortcut
    Duplicate: There are two or more articles on the same subject and with the same scope, also known as redundant content forks. If the content fork was unjustified, the article created more recently should be merged into the older one. If a duplicate article was created recently, it may also be a candidate for A10 speedy deletion.
  2. Shortcut
    Overlap: There are two or more articles on related subjects that have a large overlap and might be redundant. Wikipedia is not a dictionary; there does not need to be a separate entry for every concept. For example, "flammable" and "non-flammable" can both be explained in an article on flammability.
  3. Shortcut
    Short text: If an article is short and, in your opinion as editor, is unlikely to be expanded within a reasonable amount of time, it often makes sense to merge it into the article on the broader topic.
  4. Shortcut
    Context: Some topics that are independently notable are best covered in the same article in order to better serve reader understanding. For example, if a short article requires the background material or context from a broader article in order for readers to understand it, it can be merged into the broader article.
  5. Shortcut
    Insufficient notability: Articles about non-notable topics can have content which if added to another article would make that article better. For example, relatives of celebrities who are otherwise not notable are generally covered in a section of the article on the celebrity.
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Merging should be avoided if:

  1. The resulting article would be too long or "clunky"; see § When to merge large articles.
  2. The separate topics could be expanded into longer standalone (but cross-linked) articles; see § When to merge short articles
  3. Readers would be best served by standalone articles about notable topics; see § When to merge a notable topic

Procedure

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To avoid manually making some repetitive and time-consuming edits, it is recommended to install the easy-merge script before proceeding; the instructions below will also explain when and how to use it. When performing a merge, remember to attribute copied content as required by copyright; at minimum, this means including a wikilink to the source article in your edit summaries, as described below. To merge two articles, follow these steps:

  1. Copy all or some of the content from the source article and paste it in an appropriate location at the destination article. Then, immediately publish your edit, even if it duplicates some parts or it looks messy. In your edit summary, include a link to the source article and to the AfD discussion (unless this is a bold merge):

    [[H:M|Merged content]] from [[ SOURCE ARTICLE ]]; see its history for [[WP:CWW|attribution]].

  2. Do any necessary rearranging and copy editing ideally in a second edit, to simplify attribution. In this edit, also remove any leftover templates from the destination article, like {{Being merged from}} or {{In use}}.
  3. Finally, blank the source article whose content was just merged and replace it with a redirect
    • To do this more quickly, install the easy-merge script and reload the source article. Then, click the "easy-merge" link in the "Tools" section of your sidebar, enter the name of the destination article or section, and keep this option enabled:
      Redirect this page to the target page
    If you want to enable other options, read the optional step 5 below before clicking Submit.
    • To do it manually instead, replace everything in the source article with: 
      #REDIRECT [[ DESTINATION ARTICLE ]]

{{R cat|
{{R from merge}}
}}
      or, if you merged the content to a section: 
      #REDIRECT [[ DESTINATION ARTICLE#SECTION NAME ]]

{{R cat|
{{R from merge}}
{{R to section}}
}}
      Then, publish your changes. If the merge was discussed, you can include a link to it in your edit summary:

      [[H:M|Merged content]] into [[ DESTINATION ARTICLE ]].

And that's it! You've successfully merged two articles!

Optional steps

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These additional steps are not necessary nor required:

  1. If the source article has a talk page, reconcile the talk page banners. Move any previously added {{Merged-from}} and {{Copied}} templates to the destination's talk page and copy the various {{WikiProject}} templates to the destination. If the merge was discussed at AfD but you are merging it to a different destination than the one selected by the closer, remove the {{Afd-merge from}} template from the talk page of the destination selected by the closer.
  2. Tag the talk pages with the relevant notices for posterity.
    1. If the merge was not discussed at Articles for deletion (for example if it's a bold merge or if it was discussed elsewhere), you can optionally note that the merge has taken place by adding a tag to the articles' talk pages:
      • This action is performed automatically when using the easy-merge script; simply enable these two options and click Submit:
          Add {{merged-from}} to talk page of target page
          Add {{merged-to}} to talk page of this page
      • To do it manually, place {{Merged-from|SOURCE ARTICLE|November 2026}} atop the destination's talk page and {{Merged-to|DESTINATION ARTICLE|November 2026}} atop the source's talk page.
    2. However, if the merge was discussed at AfD and the {{Afd-merge from}} template is already on the destination's talk page, do not add another banner to the destination's talk page. However, you can optionally add a tag to the source article's talk page:
      • If you are using the easy-merge script, simply keep this option disabled:
          Add {{merged-from}} to talk page of target page
        You can optionally enable the other one, and then click Submit.
      • To do it manually, place {{Merged-to|DESTINATION ARTICLE|November 2026}} atop the source's talk page.
  3. Check whether you have moved any non-free files to the destination article. In the rare cases where there are any, the article mentioned in the rationale should be updated to the destination article's per the non-free content criteria. You can recognise non-free files from their file descriptions, as they have a red copyright icon and a non-free use rationale (a summary box with Non-free use rationale in the title, or a Fair use section: see these examples).
  4. Fix any double redirects found at Special:WhatLinksHere. There are a few bots that do this automatically, but it may take a few hours.

If you've performed these optional steps, there's nothing else you can possibly do, besides improving the article further or merging another article!

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When the merge is a result of a formal discussion at Articles for deletion, editors should not add a new banner to the destination's talk page or change the existing one (see the optional step 5b above). These notices are usually added automatically by the closer and are updated automatically by AnomieBOT several hours after the merge is complete (example diff). These templates inform users involved in those pages that content is to be merged as a result of an AfD discussion. Note that it is any editors' job, not necessarily the closing editors' job, to perform the merge. If these templates have been changed, removed, or if they are not already on the talk pages, you can optionally place this atop the source article's talk page:

{{Afd-merge to |DESTINATION ARTICLE |discuss=AFDDISCUSSION |date={{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}} }}

Similarly, you can place this template atop the destination's talk page:

{{Afd-merge from |SOURCE ARTICLE |discuss=AFDDISCUSSION |date={{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}} }}

Guidelines on merging

When to merge a notable topic

When creating new content about a notable topic, editors should consider how best to help readers understand it. Often, understanding is best achieved by presenting the topic on a dedicated standalone page, but it is not required that we do so; at times it is better to cover a notable topic as part of a larger page about a broader topic, with more context (and doing so in no way disparages the importance of the topic). Editorial judgment goes into each decision about whether or not to create a separate page, but the decision should always be based upon specific considerations about how to make the topic understandable, and not merely upon personal likes or dislikes.

  • Does other information provide needed context? Sometimes, a notable topic can be covered better as part of a larger article, where there can be more complete context that would be lost on a separate page (Mitt Romney 2012 presidential campaign § International trip, for example). Other times, standalone pages are well justified (as with President of the United States as well as standalone biographies of every individual President). One should particularly consider due and undue weight. Fringe theories, for example, may merit standalone pages but have undue weight on a page about the mainstream concept.
  • Do related topics provide needed context? Sometimes, several related topics, each of them similarly notable, can be collected into a single page, where the relationships between them can be better appreciated than if they were each a separate page (as at Music of the Final Fantasy VII series). Other times, when many similar notable topics exist, it is impractical to collect them into a single page, because the resulting article would be too unwieldy. In that case, a viable option is creating a new list or category for the broader topic and linking to the individual articles from it (as with Category:Restaurants in New York City).
  • What sourcing is available now? When a subject is notable, but it is unlikely that there ever will be a lot to write about it, editors should weigh the advantages and disadvantages of creating a permanent stub. On the other hand, an article may be a stub even though many sources exist, but simply have not been included yet. Such a short page is better expanded than merged into a larger page (see also the essays Wikipedia:Every snowflake is unique and Wikipedia:Run-of-the-mill). Sometimes, when information about a future event is scarce, coverage may instead be better suited to a larger encompassing article (see also Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not § Wikipedia is not a crystal ball). Other times, a future event may clearly be suitable for a standalone page before it happens (such as the next upcoming Summer Olympics). However, before creating such an article, make sure that the likelihood of the future event occurring is reasonably assured. For example, the WikiProject Film strongly recommends that a standalone article for a new film be created only if reliable sources confirm that principal photography for the film has commenced (which makes it very likely the film will be completed).

Subject-specific notability guidelines and WikiProject advice pages may provide information on how to make these editorial decisions in particular subject areas. When a standalone page is created, it can be spun off from a broader page. Conversely, when notable topics are not given standalone pages, redirection pages and disambiguation can be used to direct readers searching for such topics to the appropriate articles and sections within them (see also Wikipedia:Redirects are cheap).

When to merge articles about the same topic

It becomes a problem when there are two articles about the exact same thing, or any two pages of the same type covering the same thing as each other, such as two outlines, two portals, two templates, two categories, etc. Imagine if 30 editors each wrote a separate article on the Moon and Wikipedia displayed them all. That would defeat the collaborative purpose of the wiki, and it would make managing information on the Moon 30 times more difficult.

A page that covers the same subject as another page of the same type is often called a "redundant content fork". The most common occurrence of redundant content forks results in two articles on the same thing; the extra one is a "redundant article fork". Redundant content forks of page types other than articles are rarer, but they do occur.

Here are some examples of pages of the same type on the same subject:

  • An article about domestic house cats would be an unacceptable content fork of the existing article Cat (which is about domestic house cats).
  • An outline of the People's Republic of China would be an unacceptable content fork of the existing Outline of China (which is about the People's Republic of China).

Although Wikipedia contributors are reminded to check whether there is an existing article on the subject before they start a new article, there is always the chance they will fail to find an existing article, forget to check, or simply flesh out a derivative article rather than the main article on a topic. If you suspect a redundant article fork, check with people who watch the respective articles and participate in talk page discussions to see if the fork was justified. If the content fork was unjustified, the more recent article should be merged into the main article.

When to merge short articles

Article and list topics must be notable, or "worthy of notice". Editors are cautioned not to immediately split articles if the new article would meet neither the general notability criteria nor the specific notability criteria for their topic. In this case, editors are encouraged to work on further developing the parent article first, locating coverage that applies to both the main topic and the subtopic. Through this process, it may become evident that subtopics or groups of subtopics can demonstrate their own notability and thus can be split off into their own article. Also consider whether a concept can be cleanly trimmed, removed, or merged elsewhere on Wikipedia instead of creating a new article. Some topics are notable, but do not need their own article.

If only a few sentences could be written and supported by sources about the subject, that subject does not qualify for a separate article, but should instead be merged into an article about a larger topic or relevant list. It is not uncommon for editors to suggest that articles nominated for deletion instead be merged into a parent article. Note that notability guidelines only outline how suitable a topic is for its own article or list. They do not limit the content of an article or list because notability guidelines do not apply to article content.

When to merge long articles

These rules of thumb are intended to be approximate and apply only to readable prose – not to wiki markup size (as found via the page history or other means). These rules of thumb apply somewhat less to disambiguation pages and naturally do not apply to redirects. Some useful rules of thumb for splitting, trimming or merging articles:

Readable prose What to do
> 15,000 wordsAlmost certainly should be divided or trimmed.
> 9,000 wordsProbably should be divided or trimmed, though the scope of a topic can sometimes justify the added reading material.
> 8,000 wordsMay need to be divided or trimmed; likelihood goes up with size.
< 6,000 wordsLength alone does not justify division or trimming. 98.5% of all Wikipedia articles and 76% of all Wikipedia:Featured articles are shorter than this.
< 150 wordsIf an article or list has remained this size for over two months, consider merging it with a related article. Alternatively, the article could be expanded; see Wikipedia:Stub.

Most articles on Wikipedia are stubs or otherwise short articles. As of 2024, article lengths had this distribution:

Measures of article size
Percentile ranking 1 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 95 99 99.9
Number of words 20 50 100 150 250 350 450 650 950 1,700 2,700 7,000 16,000
Sentences 1 2 4 6 9 13 18 24 35 60 95 235 500
References 0 1 1 2 3 4 5 7 11 20 30 85 200
Links to other articles 2 7 10 14 18 23 30 40 55 95 150 500 850

If an article is in the top 1% (99th percentile) or higher for number of words or sentences, you should consider whether the article needs copy editing to omit needless words and maintain encyclopedic concision, or if it might need to be split. If the article is in the top 0.1%, then it almost certainly needs to be split or trimmed. When considering splitting lists, consider the impact of breaking up a sortable table.

Merging pages in non-article namespaces

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Pages in certain other namespaces can also be merged, usually also on a bold basis, but merging on a consensus basis relies on different venues. Most templates can be explicitly nominated for merging at Templates for discussion. The Categories for discussion process governs category merges; these fall entirely outside the scope of this page because "merging" categories is not merging in the usual sense (and is not done boldly either). For most other namespaces, the counterpart to AfD is Miscellany for deletion, which does not accept merge nominations; for controversial proposals to merge miscellaneous pages, alternative means of publicizing discussion have to be used. However, a deletion discussion at that venue can yield "merge" as an alternative to deletion.

  1. ↑ If the merge is very large and will take you a long time to fully clean up, you can let other editors know by placing the {{In use}} notice atop the destination article.
  2. ↑ To collapse many similar merge banners into one, experienced users may alternatively place the {{Copied}} template atop one or both talk pages: {{Copied |merge=yes |from= |from_oldid= |to= |to_oldid= |to_diff= |date=November 2026}}
  3. ↑ Note that "redundant content fork" is an idiom, not to be taken literally. All content forks are redundant, that's their nature, even the acceptable ones, but we use the term "redundant content fork" to refer to the specific kind described in this section.
  4. ↑ A 2026 RfC resulted in no consensus to allow miscellaneous merges at MfD, nor on mandating any specific alternative method for discussing miscellaneous merges.

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. 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)
  2. Ebe123 (talk · contribs) Overpopulated backlog. ~~Ebe123~~ → report 20:40, 27 February 2012 (UTC)
  3. Mark Miller (talk · contribs) This user has merged 1 article from the February articles for merger list Drakula (1920 film)
  4. Extra999 (talk · contribs) going to help and keep this project going 03:32, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
  5. Cerebellum (talk · contribs) - Working on AfD merges. --Cerebellum (talk) 01:02, 8 March 2012 (UTC)
  6. Wikishagnik (talk · contribs) - Working Merge and wikify tags
  7. OlEnglish (talk · contribs) - Certainly support this project and will try to help when I have time.
  8. Thegreatgrabber (talk · contribs) - Work on some random things, applying templates, just help along.
  9. 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)
  10. Coastside (talk · contribs) - Interested in working on scientific articles
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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)
  14. --NickPenguin(contribs) 01:22, 25 February 2013 (UTC)
  15. 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)
  16. Iamozy (talk) 02:29, 6 February 2014 (UTC) Interested in science, especially, biology, neurology, and medicine.
  17. 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)
  18. Capankajsmilyo (talk · contribs · count)
  19. Klbrain (talk · contribs), particularly Pharmacology and Medicine. I'm working on old merge proposals.
  20. Onel5969 (talk · contribs), will try to help out as I can. Came here through the AfD merge backlog.Onel5969 TT me 21:40, 24 April 2016 (UTC)
  21. Serial Number 54129 (talk · contribs) Anything except lists, which seem extra complicated.
  22. Kvng (talk · contribs), 21 June 2016
  23. Adityavagarwal (talk) 18:29, 21 February 2017 (UTC)
  24. Sophie means wisdom (talk · contribs)
  25. AmericanAir88 (talk) 01:50, 6 November 2017 (UTC)
  26. Million_Moments (talk) 12:10, 13 July 2018 (UTC)
  27. BRES2773 (talk · contribs) Will really work on anything.
  28. Path slopu (talk · contribs)14:28, 23 September 2018 (UTC)
  29. Samee (talk · contribs) 20:10, 18 March 2019 (UTC)
  30. Trialpears (talk · contribs) Hoping to reduce the backlog and discuss potential improvements to the process. Trialpears (talk) 10:08, 20 April 2019 (UTC)
  31. Robertsky (talk · contribs) Willing to help in any way possible. robertsky (talk) 14:07, 20 September 2019 (UTC)
  32. Newslinger (talk · contribs) 08:23, 22 October 2019 (UTC)
  33. MarcMyWords (talk · contribs · count)
  34. WikiAviator (talk · contribs) 04:42, 6 April 2020 (UTC)
  35. TimothyBlue as part of NPP and AfD.   // Timothy :: talk  14:14, 24 October 2020 (UTC)
  36. Tsistunagiska (talk · contribs) If I offer both hands to help then it will keep me out of trouble. A concept my brothers will agree I need to do more often. So here I am. --ARoseWolf 17:19, 22 April 2021 (UTC)
  37. Felix QW (talk · contribs) Will help where I can, when I can.
  38. Karthanitesh (talk) 00:44, 19 January 2022 (UTC)
  39. Joyous! | Talk 02:35, 8 November 2022 (UTC) I love chipping away at a backlog. I've settled in working on the articles whose AfD discussions concluded with a "merge" consensus.
  40. Mooonswimmer (talk · contribs) I have tons of free time, a great portion of which I devote to Wikipedia. Tackling backlogs and doing tedious maintenance work sounds quite appealing to me!
  41. Kautilyapundit (talk · contribs) As an impartial editor, I can assist in merging articles while following proper procedures.
  42. Lililolol (talk · contribs)Im still learning. 01:14, 22 April 2023 (UTC)
  43. Queen of Hearts ❤️ (no relation) 02:37, 23 November 2023 (UTC)
  44. Robertjamal12 (talk · contribs) Robertjamal12 ~🔔 14:35, 21 February 2024 (UTC)
  45. Choucas Bleu (talk · contribs) No preferences, but happy to help! Choucas Bleu (T·C) 17:24, 12 March 2024 (UTC)
  46. Penultimate supper (talk · contribs) I like working on articles focused on religion and history, as well as countries I'm interested in learning more about, but honestly anything. They're nice to do when I have 20 minutes free at work, and I'll mostly focus on the AfD merge backlog. 18:54, 27 October 2024 (UTC)
  47. Unknown Lifeform | Talk 09:24, 1 February 2025 (UTC) Excess articles just kinda annoy me.
  48. Go D. Usopp (talk · contribs) 16:10, 25 August 2025 (UTC)
  49. happypenguins82 (talk · contribs) i enjoy random articles, will do my best to help out :)
  50. Royz-vi Tsibele (talk) 17:44, 22 May 2026 (UTC) Merging is the epitome of quality over quantity. It's mergin' time!
  51. FaviFake (talk · contribs) Less is more. 23:43, 15 September 2026 (UTC)
  52. Reechard (talk · contribs) I've got some merges under my belt, hoping to get better at complex merging

Inactive

  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. Intwizs (talk · contribs) Badam.. tsss (drum sounds)
  3. Dondegroovily (talk · contribs) still grinding thru them 21:34, 27 February 2012 (UTC)
  4. The_mobot (talk · contribs) - Working on merge - going to try and get as much of it done as I can
  5. Khatie Lou (talk · contribs) - Will work on random articles to merge.
  6. DoctorKubla (talk · contribs) - I'll do what I can.
  7. Karl.brown (talk · contribs) - I'm still learning... 05:27, 5 April 2012 (UTC)
  8. Kelpso1 (talk · contribs) - I'll do as much as I can starting right now. 05:47, 11 April 2012 (UTC)
  9. Dark Silver Crow (talk · contribs) - Working on random articles to merge when able.
  10. Logical1004 (talk · contribs) Working on dead, or Indian election related or Physics related merges. Logical1004 (talk) 17:40, 24 March 2014 (UTC)
  11. MartinZ02 (talk · contribs)
  12. NewYorkActuary (talk · contribs) 14:59, 29 June 2016 (UTC)
  13. nerdgoonrant (talk · contribs) 24 Aug 2017
  14. The Duke of Nonsense (talk · contribs) 20:26, 30 July 2018 (BST)
  15. Pcamellon (talk · contribs) (I am interested in working on articles realted to technology, science music, computer science and electronics. Maybe other topics but these are my prefered ones.19:31, 24 October 2018 (UTC)
  16. kashmorwiki (talk · contribs)Hoping to reduce the backlog Kashmorwiki (talk) 17:13, 17 October 2020 (UTC)
  17. Ophyrius (talk · contribs)

Merge report

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The merge report lists articles that require attention because they were nominated at Articles for deletion and the discussion was closed as "merge", but something went wrong afterwards.

All reports below are automatically generated by bots.

The nominated article was redirected to a different destination

The following table lists pages referred to by {{Afd-merge from}} are redirects to some page other than that mentioned in the template. Please correct the {{Afd-merge from}}, either by removing it (if the page was correctly merged to a target different than the one selected by the AfD closer), undoing the incorrect redirection (if it was out of process or against consensus), or pointing it to the correct page.

AnomieBOT automatically adds and removes entries from this table. See the request for approval.

The destination article is no longer tracked

The following table lists articles that are neither in Articles with consensus to merge nor Articles proposed for merging whose talk pages have been tagged with {{Afd-merge from}}. This indicates that there was consensus to merge at Articles for deletion but the destination article was removed from the backlog.

Editors should investigate these discussions (especially the older ones) in order to figure what went wrong. Most will be false positives. For example, the nominated article could be correctly tagged and the closer simply forgot to tag the destination as described in Wikipedia:Articles for deletion § Merge, or the {{Afd-merge from}} could need to be corrected or moved to another talk page because one of the articles was renamed during the discussion. Other times, however, both articles were intentionally removed from the backlog in an attempt to bypass consensus and keep them; in these cases, the merge tags need to be reinstated, the editors warned, and the articles watchlisted.

The table is updated daily and does not need to be edited; any edits made to the table will be removed by the SDZeroBot bot the following day. The query is from quarry:query/110096 and this database report was created based on a bot request.

This table is generated by querying the database replica and is periodically updated by a bot.
Edits made within the table area will be removed on the next update!
AfD discussion Date Nominated article Destination article Destination links
Exercise Franchise For Good Governance 2026-10-28 Exercise Franchise For Good Governance 2009 Indian general election (edit | talk | history)
2020 Clemson vs. Notre Dame football game 2026-09-27 2020 Clemson vs. Notre Dame football game 2020 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team (edit | talk | history)
2021 World Rugby Sevens Series squads 2026-10-30 2021 World Rugby Sevens Series squads 2021 World Rugby Sevens Series (edit | talk | history)
2021–22 World Rugby Sevens Series squads 2026-11-09 2021–22 World Rugby Sevens Series squads 2021–22 World Rugby Sevens Series (edit | talk | history)
2022–23 World Rugby Sevens Series squads 2026-11-09 2022–23 World Rugby Sevens Series squads 2022–23 World Rugby Sevens Series (edit | talk | history)
2022–23 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series squads 2026-11-09 2022–23 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series squads 2022–23 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series (edit | talk | history)
2023–24 SVNS squads 2026-11-09 2023–24 SVNS squads 2023–24 SVNS (edit | talk | history)
2024–25 SVNS squads 2026-11-09 2024–25 SVNS squads 2024–25 SVNS (edit | talk | history)
2025–26 SVNS squads 2026-11-09 2025–26 SVNS squads 2025–26 SVNS (edit | talk | history)
Performance management work 2026-10-31 Performance management work Application performance management (edit | talk | history)
List of Ares (manhwa) characters 2026-10-17 List of Ares (manhwa) characters Ares (manhwa) (edit | talk | history)
Microbial drug delivery 2026-11-08 Microbial drug delivery Bacterial therapy (edit | talk | history)
Dhaka Shishu Hospital (2nd nomination) 2026-11-01 Dhaka Shishu Hospital Bangladesh Shishu Hospital & Institute (edit | talk | history)
Ghost Ship Games 2026-10-08 Ghost Ship Games Coffee Stain Studios (edit | talk | history)
Coppola Foods 2026-10-04 Coppola Foods Coppola Industria Alimentare (edit | talk | history)
Dark oxygen production 2026-11-02 Dark oxygen production Dark oxygen (edit | talk | history)
Somebody else's problem 2026-10-22 Somebody else's problem Diffusion of responsibility (edit | talk | history)
Flag of ECOWAS 2026-11-02 Flag of ECOWAS ECOWAS (edit | talk | history)
Walter Scheler 2026-11-06 Walter Scheler East German uprising of 1953 (edit | talk | history)
Flag of the Commonwealth of Independent States 2026-11-02 Flag of the Commonwealth of Independent States Emblem of the Commonwealth of Independent States (edit | talk | history)
Flag of the European Coal and Steel Community 2026-11-02 Flag of the European Coal and Steel Community European Coal and Steel Community (edit | talk | history)
Soviet Mountains 2026-11-08 Soviet Mountains Far side of the moon (edit | talk | history)
Aida Abdel Nasser 2026-10-26 Aida Abdel Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser (edit | talk | history)
Fachhochschule 2026-10-22 Fachhochschule Hochschule (edit | talk | history)
Hovis biscuit 2026-11-09 Hovis biscuit Hovis (edit | talk | history)
Labour Day 2026-09-08 Labour Day International Workers' Day (edit | talk | history)
2025 Iranian protests 2026-11-07 2025 Iranian protests Iran protests (edit | talk | history)
Mess of pottage 2026-11-06 Mess of pottage Jacob and Esau (edit | talk | history)
Kanpur City Transport Services Limited 2026-11-08 Kanpur City Transport Services Limited Kanpur (edit | talk | history)
Al hachi (dish) 2026-11-06 Al hachi (dish) Kashmiri cuisine (edit | talk | history)
Keurig Dr Pepper Canada 2026-11-06 Keurig Dr Pepper Canada Keurig Dr Pepper (edit | talk | history)
Lincolnshire Premier Cricket League 2026-11-04 Lincolnshire Premier Cricket League Lincolnshire Premier League (edit | talk | history)
Ogre (Marvel Comics) 2026-11-12 Ogre (Marvel Comics) List of Marvel Comics characters: O (edit | talk | history)
List of X-Men film series cast members 2026-11-11 List of X-Men film series cast members List of X-Men film series characters (edit | talk | history)
Grace Lee Reynolds 2026-11-06 Grace Lee Reynolds MaRS Discovery District (edit | talk | history)
Francisco Mendes International Airport 2026-11-01 Francisco Mendes International Airport Nelson Mandela International Airport (edit | talk | history)
Manhunt (urban game) 2026-11-07 Manhunt (urban game) Tag (game) (edit | talk | history)
Subsidiaries and affiliates of TotalEnergies 2026-11-07 Subsidiaries and affiliates of TotalEnergies TotalEnergies (edit | talk | history)
Flag of UNESCO 2026-11-02 Flag of UNESCO UNESCO (edit | talk | history)
BellaNaija 2026-11-08 BellaNaija Uche Pedro (edit | talk | history)
Homat Torat Yisrael 2026-10-13 Homat Torat Yisrael United Torah Judaism (edit | talk | history)
Fusion Media Group 2026-11-08 Fusion Media Group Univision (edit | talk | history)
List of Unofficial Sentai Akibaranger episodes 2026-11-12 List of Unofficial Sentai Akibaranger episodes Unofficial Sentai Akibaranger (edit | talk | history)
Dependent adult 2026-11-09 Dependent adult Vulnerable adult (edit | talk | history)
Flag of the Western Union 2026-11-02 Flag of the Western Union Western Union (alliance) (edit | talk | history)
Floodgate Entertainment 2026-10-19 Floodgate Entertainment Zynga (edit | talk | history)
[[Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/|]] 2026-11-12 Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Implementing the PAM–AfD merge (edit | talk | history)

∑ 47 items | Query runtime: 9.47 s | Last updated: 17:28, 12 November 2026 (UTC)

End of auto-generated report.

The nominated article was deleted

The following table lists deleted pages that were referred to by the {{Afd-merge from}} template as a result of an AfD discussion. The offending {{Afd-merge from}} has already been removed, but you should double-check whether the deletion was correct:

  • If the nominated article was indeed merged, the deletion needs to be brought to Requests for undeletion or Deletion review to restore the attribution history in accordance with Wikipedia's copyright license. (Once undeleted, the {{Afd-merge from}} template should be restored.)
  • If the article was not merged (for example if the merging editor noticed the same content was already at the destination article), or the merged material was so little as not to be protected by copyright, then the row from the table should simply be removed.

Entries on this list will not be removed automatically, they need to be removed manually..

PageAFD merge toNote
1994 Rhythmic Gymnastics Grand Prix circuit (e t h l)Rhythmic Gymnastics Grand Prix (e t h l)
1995 Rhythmic Gymnastics Grand Prix circuit (e t h l)Rhythmic Gymnastics Grand Prix (e t h l)
1997 Rhythmic Gymnastics Grand Prix circuit (e t h l)Rhythmic Gymnastics Grand Prix (e t h l)
2000 Rhythmic Gymnastics Grand Prix circuit (e t h l)Rhythmic Gymnastics Grand Prix (e t h l)
2004 Rhythmic Gymnastics Grand Prix circuit (e t h l)Rhythmic Gymnastics Grand Prix (e t h l)
2005 Rhythmic Gymnastics Grand Prix circuit (e t h l)Rhythmic Gymnastics Grand Prix (e t h l)
2022 Road Safety World Series squads (e t h l)Road Safety World Series (e t h l)
2024 French-Russian Aerial incident (e t h l)Thiruchitrambalam (soundtrack) (e t h l)
4th millenium BC (e t h l)4th millennium BC (e t h l)
Action of 12 October 1950 (e t h l)SMS Möwe (1914) (e t h l)
Advanced Bionics (e t h l)Sonova (e t h l)
All individual season articles (e t h l)Comedy Circus (e t h l)
Anand Chowdhary (e t h l)Oswald Foundation (e t h l)
Anna Williams (Tekken) (e t h l)Tekken (e t h l)
Anti-Semitism in International Brigades (e t h l)International Brigades (e t h l)
Arjawinangun railway station (e t h l)Cikampek–Cirebon Prujakan railway (e t h l)
Auckland licensing trust elections, 2016 (e t h l)Auckland local elections, 2016 (e t h l)
Bedford College (Australia) (e t h l)Australian Baptist Ministries (e t h l)
Bernard Wojtkowiak (e t h l)Erie County, New York (e t h l)
Bhakti Narasimha Swami (e t h l)ISKCON (e t h l)
BitGamer (e t h l)Underground Gamer (e t h l)
Bob (image) (e t h l)Bill Fink (e t h l)
Boharo (e t h l)Maakhir (e t h l)
Brandon Buckman (e t h l)St. Louis Cardinals minor league players (e t h l)
Brownhills West (Midland Railway) railway station (e t h l)Brownhills West railway station (e t h l)
Buddy Walthers (e t h l)Assassination of John F. Kennedy (e t h l)
CIA activities in Israel (e t h l)CIA activities in Asia (e t h l)
Centre for South Asian Studies (e t h l)Munk School of Global Affairs (e t h l)
Code page 3846 (e t h l)Code page (e t h l)
Conviction: A Sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (e t h l)List of literary adaptations of Pride and Prejudice (e t h l)
Cranking (fetish) (e t h l)Foot fetishism (e t h l)
Crimson Daffodil (e t h l)Cloak and Dagger (comics) (e t h l)
Cristiana of Capua and Adelaide of Riedenburg (e t h l)Stephen II of Hungary (e t h l)
Curse of Chick Hearn (e t h l)Chick Hearn (e t h l)
Dermatome (embryology) (e t h l)Dermatome (anatomy) (e t h l)
Developing Minds Software (e t h l)DDtrac (e t h l)
DoggyRide (e t h l)Bicycle trailer (e t h l)
Dris Mohamed Amar (e t h l)Andalusi Party (e t h l)
Earth-691 (e t h l)Features of the Marvel Universe (e t h l)
Elur CHetty (e t h l)Elur Chetty (e t h l)
Equivalent moment of inertia of worm and wheel (e t h l)Moment of inertia (e t h l)
FIREWALKER (e t h l)NSA ANT catalog (e t h l)
Faculty of Arts, University of Dhaka (e t h l)University of Dhaka (e t h l)
Faculty of Biological Science, University of Dhaka (e t h l)University of Dhaka (e t h l)
Faculty of Business Studies, University of Dhaka (e t h l)University of Dhaka (e t h l)
Fictional men of All My Children, volume 1 (e t h l)List of All My Children characters (e t h l)
Fictional women of All My Children, volume 2 (e t h l)List of All My Children characters (e t h l)
Friend Police Department (Nebraska) (e t h l)Friend, Nebraska (e t h l)
Fruit Ganesh (e t h l)Ganesh Chaturthi (e t h l)
Generali osiguranje (e t h l)Assicurazioni Generali (e t h l)
Germany in 2011 (e t h l)2011 in Germany (e t h l)
Gorson (Dungeons & Dragons) (e t h l)Devil (Dungeons & Dragons) (e t h l)
Gotti (2013 film) (e t h l)John Gotti (e t h l)
Green Bloggers (e t h l)Green Party of Canada (e t h l)
Hamza Ali Mazari (character) (e t h l)Dhurandhar (e t h l)
Harper's Island episodes (e t h l)List of Harper's Island episodes (e t h l)
Highfolk (e t h l)Flanaess (e t h l)
Hindu Yes, Hindutva No (e t h l)Hindutva (e t h l)
History Of Tai-Phake People Living In North-East India (e t h l)Tai-Phake (e t h l)
History of Satara district (e t h l)Satara district (e t h l)
History of Tai-Phake (e t h l)Tai-Phake (e t h l)
Humor (positive psychology) (e t h l)Humor (e t h l)
Inspector Eiffel (e t h l)EiffelStudio (e t h l)
International reactions to the 2013 North Korean nuclear test (e t h l)2013 North Korean nuclear test (e t h l)
Inventory proportionality (e t h l)Petrolsoft Corporation (e t h l)
J-Rocc (e t h l)Beat Junkies (e t h l)
J. Sivaneswaran (e t h l)Thiruchitrambalam (soundtrack) (e t h l)
John Ham (e t h l)Ustream.tv (e t h l)
John Kerry VVAW controversy (e t h l)Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (e t h l)
Kashmir - the most dangerous place in the world (e t h l)Kashmir (e t h l)
LSU Free Speech Alley (e t h l)Free speech zone (e t h l)
Law of maximum entropy production (e t h l)Principle of maximum entropy (e t h l)
Left seat (e t h l)Cockpit (e t h l)
List of Deans of Engineering at NYU (e t h l)Polytechnic Institute of New York University (e t h l)
List of Kushiel's Legacy characters (e t h l)Kushiel's Legacy (e t h l)
List of NCAA Division III independents football records (e t h l)NCAA Division III independent schools (e t h l)
List of Socially or Historically Significant Persons Bearing the Surname McNulty (e t h l)McNulty (e t h l)
List of awards and nominations received by Noah Wyle (e t h l)Noah Wyle (e t h l)
List of best-selling music artists (50 million to 69 million records) (e t h l)List of best-selling music artists (e t h l)
List of historically significant Michigan Wolverines football games (e t h l)Michigan Wolverines football (e t h l)
List of mammalian alien species (e t h l)List of fictional extraterrestrials (e t h l)
List of minor characters in The Godfather (e t h l)List of minor characters in The Godfather series (e t h l)
List of officers of the Oxford University Chess Club (e t h l)Oxford University Chess Club (e t h l)
List of songs in Wii Music (e t h l)Wii Music (e t h l)
Live in Buenos Aires: The Dangerous Tour (e t h l)Dangerous World Tour (e t h l)
Lordkipanidze theory of competitive equilibrium (e t h l)Revaz Lordkipanidze (e t h l)
Madurai Local Planning Authority (e t h l)Local planning authority (e t h l)
Mandy Webster (e t h l)CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (e t h l)
Mayor of Highland Park, New Jersey (e t h l)Highland Park, New Jersey (e t h l)
Michael Gleeson (disambiguation) (e t h l)List of Fair City characters (e t h l)
Minor Characters in Kushiel's Legacy (e t h l)Kushiel's Legacy (e t h l)
Moody Margaret (e t h l)Horrid Henry (e t h l)
Mountaineer Boys State (e t h l)Boys/Girls State (e t h l)
Muhammad Rafiq (retired army) (e t h l)Bærum mosque shooting (e t h l)
Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management & Engineering (e t h l)Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (e t h l)
Mussolini's Mare Nostrum (e t h l)Mare Nostrum (e t h l)
Mustapha Ali Busuguma (e t h l)Thiruchitrambalam (soundtrack) (e t h l)
North Carolina Modern Whig Party (e t h l)Modern Whig Party (e t h l)
October 2006 in video gaming (e t h l)2006 in video gaming (e t h l)
Order of Null (e t h l)Humanx Commonwealth (e t h l)
Paddington Bear's Gold Record (e t h l)Paddington Bear (e t h l)
Parviz Khan border point (e t h l)Qasr-e Shirin (e t h l)
Perfect Peter (e t h l)Horrid Henry (e t h l)
Purple Swamphens in North America (e t h l)Purple Swamphen (e t h l)
Qwarm (e t h l)Humanx Commonwealth (e t h l)
Raspbian (e t h l)Raspberry Pi (e t h l)
Reinvent Your Enterprise (e t h l)Jack Bergstrand (e t h l)
Roger W. Pageau (e t h l)Grand Lodge of Massachusetts (e t h l)
Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove collections (e t h l)Brighton Museum & Art Gallery (e t h l)
Seneca Mission Indian Church Grounds Desecration (e t h l)Seneca mission (e t h l)
Sony PictureStation DPP-EX50 (e t h l)Sony (e t h l)
Sony SRS-17 (e t h l)Sony (e t h l)
Spider-Man episodes (e t h l)List of Spider-Man (1994 TV series) episodes (e t h l)
The Hub Weekly (e t h l)Illini Media (e t h l)
Time of Pakistani history (e t h l)Timeline of Pakistani history (e t h l)
Timeline of Pakistani history (1947–present) (e t h l)Timeline of Pakistani history (e t h l)
UAE-Israel Business Council (e t h l)Israel–United Arab Emirates relations (e t h l)
Vincent Van Ghoul (e t h l)The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (e t h l)
Virginia's 22nd House of Delegates district election, 2017 (e t h l)Virginia House of Delegates election, 2017 (e t h l)
Virginia's 32nd House of Delegates district election, 2017 (e t h l)Virginia House of Delegates election, 2017 (e t h l)
Virginia's 42nd House of Delegates district election, 2017 (e t h l)Virginia House of Delegates election, 2017 (e t h l)
Virginia's 67th House of Delegates district election, 2017 (e t h l)Virginia House of Delegates election, 2017 (e t h l)
Virginia's 89th House of Delegates district election, 2017 (e t h l)Virginia House of Delegates election, 2017 (e t h l)
Wikipedia:Summer time in Europe (e [[ Talk:Wikipedia:Summer time in Europe|t]] h l)Time in Portugal (e t h l)
Wikipedia:Summer time in Europe (e [[ Talk:Wikipedia:Summer time in Europe|t]] h l)Time in Russia (e t h l)
Yossi Wolf (e t h l)Temi (e t h l)
ZGMF-X12 Gundam Astray Out Frame (e t h l)List of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED mobile weapons (e t h l)
Zero world government (e t h l)Governance without government (e t h l)

History of the merging process

The backlog at Wikipedia:WikiProject Merge remains a tough nut to crack. One problem is that the WikiProject itself isn't setting a good example, as we have pages that themselves need to be merged. Merge-related discussions are ongoing at four venues:

  1. Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Merge
  2. Wikipedia talk:Merging
  3. Help talk:Merging
  4. Wikipedia talk:Proposed mergers

Take a look back to the very beginning, to see where things went off the rails. This is the first step towards getting the WikiProject back on track.

2002–03: Birth of merging, as a listing page for "Duplicate articles"

The concept of merging was born July 31, 2002 on Wikipedia. A new link Wikipedia:Duplicate articles, which is what Wikipedia:Proposed mergers was originally called, was added to the To Do Lists section of Wikipedia:Utilities— which was later moved to Wikipedia:Topical index (diff). Note the many red links on that diff. At the time, apparently much of project namespace was still in mainspace. I believe these items were later moved to project space without leaving a redirect. The first version of Wikipedia:Duplicate articles had just a single merge item on it. You need to go back to Nostalgia Wikipedia to find the item's origins. Crimean war was created 13:13, 10 December 2001. User:Conversion script logged its phase II conversion edit at 15:51, 25 February 2002‎. The article was rewritten and expanded 09:38, 6 March 2002‎, just prior to the introduction of perhaps the first unintentional content fork—or at least the first reported content fork, Crimean War at 15:51, 30 March 2002. This fork went unreported for four months, but then was merged by a different editor just an hour and a half after it was reported, without attribution – which is understandable since the only guidance given was Wikipedia:Naming conventions and Wikipedia:Canonization.

A couple weeks later, someone listed a merger item over at Wikipedia:Pages needing attention, under Articles that have good information, but need work for some reason: (diff) – Black Metal and Black metal music. This was either half a cut-and-paste move or an intentional content fork (it's not clear which), as the creator of Black Metal had just edited Black metal music the day before. In any event, three days later Black Metal was redirected to Black metal music. Eventually Black metal music moved to Black metal.

At 09:48, 20 September 2002 and 09:58, 20 September 2002, Duplicate articles became a "subpage" of Wikipedia:Pages needing attention, which in turn was a subpage of Wikipedia utilities.

By the end of September, after its first two months of operation, the list had grown to five items, when the first talk page discussion decided to remove merged items from the list rather than mark them as "DONE" (diff). But a few weeks later, another editor said "I would be in favor of making a list of fixed issues at the bottom of the article. Good for follow-up purposes. If the list grows too long, it can be moved to an archives page."

By the end of November, there were 13 items listed, and a short discussion had spontaneously developed around one of them.

At 16:59, 14 January 2003, the first suggestion to tag articles with "boilerplate text" is made, but no templates yet. 16 items on the list.

At 20:34, 25 January 2003, three items are spun off into a new Some other articles that were duplicates and still need consolidation: section. It's unclear what this means, but it seems that some of these needed a history merge. ({{db-histmerge}}). Or an editor just dumped text from one article to the bottom of another article (diff), asking someone else to "please merge". As yet, it seems there is still no official guidance on how to merge.

At 15:15, 7 February 2003, Some other articles that were duplicates and still need consolidation was renamed Merged articles that need work. At the time the list had been emptied, so the items reported two weeks prior had been promptly tended to. An important insight was added: "The creation of duplicate articles, and the wasted effort this causes, can be avoided by creating lots of redirects." Also, when creating new articles, search for existing articles on the same subject.

At 05:30, 25 February 2003, a new item was added to the Merged articles that need work section. Plot and brief characterisation of Richard II was concatenated to (appended to the end of) Richard II (play), and needed "merging" or "to be edited". Three weeks passed before any copyediting of the appended content began. I just put template {{copied}} on the talk pages, but that template wasn't created until 6 July 2009.

At 02:28, 27 April 2003, an editor removes an item from the list and initiates a discussion about it on the talk page. At 03:02, 27 April 2003, the item returned to the list, with edit summary "there is a dispute about merging. Consult (one of the articles' talk page) about merging.; Agree?" The Duplicate articles talk page won't be edited again until August. There are 29 Articles to be Merged and four Merged articles that would benefit from further editing.

At 13:16, 14 August 2003, an editor puts the list in alphabetical order. The list has grown to 54 Articles to be Merged and 10 Merged articles that would benefit from further editing. At 06:29, 20 October 2003, an editor comments on the talk page, "Actually I liked the previous order, time-based order. What happened??"

At 12:05, 16 September 2003, the list was grouped into alphabetical sections. There are 64 items in the list.

At 12:57, 17 September 2003, the Merged articles that would benefit from further editing section, now with 15 items, is moved and merged to Wikipedia:Pages needing attention (diff).

On December 6, 2003, the MediaWiki namespace is introduced.

At year-end 2003, there are 95 items on the list. Note that a few of them seem to be "merged articles that would benefit from further editing", but now rather than appended in a special section at the end, these are co-mingled with yet-to-be merged articles, e.g.,

2004: Birth of {{merge}}, and expansion of scope—it's not just for duplicates (content forks)

At 01:18, 29 February 2004, {{msg:Merge}} (MediaWiki:Merge) is created, and at 1:36, 29 February 2004, it replaced the boilerplate text. The implementation was clunky. Were parameters supported yet?

At 16:33, 3 March 2004, a talk-page suggestion to change policy: "... in the opening couple of paragraphs, I think we should distinguish another valid fix for duplicate pages: leaving the two pages as distinct, but rewriting the pages so they no longer duplicate information."

At 1:56, 9 March 2004, an editor "took a leap" and "Made the policy clearer and (hopefully) more friendly for newbies." 86 items on the list.

At 21:04, 12 May 2004, "See also: Special:Whatlinkshere/MediaWiki:Merge" is added to the instructions, perhaps in recognition that not all templated articles are added to the list.

At 4:49, 4 June 2004, Template namespace initialisation script moved {{msg:Merge}} from the MediaWiki namespace to {{Merge}}, in the new Template namespace. At 2:35, 6 June 2004, "MediaWiki"->"template". Rm "msg:"

At 22:37, 25 June 2004, {{MergeDisputed}} became the second member of the merge template family. At 22:46, 25 June 2004, a new instruction is added: "If you disagree with a 'merge' indication then change the template from {{Merge}} to {{MergeDisputed}} and discuss it on this page until concensus is reached."

At 02:12, 18 July 2004, Wikipedia:Summary style is created as an alternative to writing articles in news style.

At 15:14, 31 July 2004, {{merge}} was modified to pupulate Category:Articles to be merged and at 15:15, 31 July 2004, Category:Articles to be merged was created as a sub-category of Category:Wikipedia maintenance. At 11:44, 6 August 2004, a category link was added to Wikipedia:Duplicate articles.

At 13:35, 5 August 2004, {{Mergefrom}} became the third member of the merge template family, and the second populating Category:Articles to be merged. At 13:43, 5 August 2004, the instructions were modified to include use of this new template. The template adds the hatnote: This article should include material from, which seems to leave the door open for copying (moving) a portion of the content while preserving both articles.

At 03:20, 16 August 2004, an editor refactored the talk page to group all procedure discussions to date into a single section.

At 17:41, 17 August 2004, an editor briefly adds the first parameter to {{merge}}, but quickly realizes this is incompatible with existing usage and opens discussion at template talk:Merge. At the time, there were 93 items on the list, and an unknown number of pages possibly transcluding one of the three merge templates, but not listed at Wikipedia:Duplicate articles.

In late August 2004, a discussion listing new candidates: Q: After inserting the merge tags in each article, do we need to add them to the list on the project page, or are they automagically added? In other words, how is the list updated? A: Articles need to be added to this page manually. Reply: Perhaps this should be noted in the "Mark current duplicates" section — Done 17:39, 28 August 2004 Gosh, we have a bot for that. And the need for it was apparent back at the end of August '04.

At 11:00, 8 October 2004, the instructions were changed to say that those disagreeing with a merge indication could just remove it, rather than replace {{Merge}} with {{MergeDisputed}}, and pleaded with editors to "Consider using these tags sparingly, and use the discussion page to discuss how to merge articles where it's not obvious whether or how the article should be merged", after concerns were expressed on the talk page that merge tags were being overused. At the time, {{merge}} was just a simple hatnote saying This article should be merged with, and {{merge/doc}} did not exist—in fact, documentation for the {{merge}} template would not be created for another two years. So, while Wikipedia:Duplicate articles leads with "Below is a list of duplicate articles that have been created mostly by mistake. They have to be merged into a single piece of work", an editor had tagged Federal Assault Weapons Ban, a subsection of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, to merge with Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. Comments were left on each talk page; paraphrasing: "It was suggested that these articles be merged. I deleted the merge tag from each article because I think the appropriate place to suggest merging articles is on the talk page, where the pros and cons can be discussed, rather than in the articles themselves. While some content is duplicated, it's not obvious to me whether or not the articles should be merged, and I take no strong view either way." As of 2014, Federal Assault Weapons Ban and Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act are still separate articles.

At 03:34, 9 October 2004, {{Merging}} became the fourth member of the merge template family. At 21:00, 9 October 2004, the instructions were modified to include use of this new template, at 6:05, 10 October 2004, the Wikipedia:Duplicate articles content was "clarified" a little, and at 06:13, 10 October 2004 {{Merging}} became the third template to populate Category:Articles to be merged.

An early October 2004 talk page conversation: Q: How long does it take before a pair that gets mentioned on this article can actually be merged?? Feel free to include what it can depend on. A: It can be merged anytime. It only depends on who is willing to put the effort to merge the articles involved, and that can take time.

2005–09

At 19:10, 3 April 2005, Wikipedia:Content forking is created. While its initial focus was on POV forking, it evolved to include redundant content forks which were unintentionally created.

At 23:41, 4 December 2005, {{Merge-section}} is created: "The following section overlaps with other sections and should be merged with the rest of the article."

At 16:13, 29 December 2005, {{Merge-section}} was moved to {{Cleanup-merge}}.

At 02:27, 12 March 2006, Category:Articles in need of internal merging, populated by {{Cleanup-merge}}, was created as a sub-category of Category:Wikipedia cleanup categories.

At 18:00, 5 December 2006, {{Cleanup-merge}} was moved to {{Cleanup-combine}}.

At 17:35, 5 October 2009, Category:Duplicate articles, populated by {{Duplication}}, was created as a sub-category of Category:Wikipedia maintenance.

2009–today

See also: Wikipedia talk:Mergers for discussion § Previous discussions
This section is an excerpt from Wikipedia:Perennial proposals § Rename AfD or expand its scope.[edit]
  • Notes:
    • In January 2009, two similar but separate proposals to rename AfD to "Articles for discussion" were created two days apart. In both discussions, editor suggested renaming AfD to "Articles for discussion", initially to allow nominating articles that may need massive cleanup, that may need to be userified, that are to be merged or possibly transwikid, and [needing] other actions including deletion, and later to only emphasiz[e] outcomes and compromises other than deletion (e.g., merging, redirecting). While multiple alternatives were considered, including folding the Proposed mergers process into AfD, none of the proposals gained enough consensus.
    • In April of that same year, a third discussion was opened on Wikipedia talk:Articles for deletion, arguing that the option of merge [should] be introduced in an enforceable form. This proposal failed miserably: after two weeks, it was closed with 46 editors opposed the rename and just 5 supporters.
    • In December, a proposal at the village pump to allow moving disputed merges to "Articles for Discussion" had a diametrically opposite result, with 45 editors supporting the change and only a dozen opposing it. However, despite the strong consensus, technical difficulties and inertia resulted in the change never being implemented.
    • A different proposal in 2011 considered making the process more mechanical by forcing closing admins to "complete" the merge themselves by merely copy/pasting the content of the source article at the bottom of the target article and placing a {{Cleanup merge}} notice at the top. The onus to actually reorganize the resulting article would then fall onto that article's editors and not the editor performing the merge. This suggestion was discussed at length but never went anywhere.
    • In 2013, a discussion at the village pump overwhelmingly concluded the Proposed article mergers process and its associated templates to be inadequate, citing the need and found wide consensus that there should be a process for mergers that is similar to RM or AFD. A consequent discussion on implementation of an automated system similar to requested moves was archived after 2 months of inactivity. The latter discussion had 6 participants; no conclusion was reached.
    • In March 2026, consensus was found to merge the Proposed article mergers process into Articles for deletion, making it the only formal venue for proposing merges as well as deletions. In light of this, a new RfC to rename AfD took place shortly thereafter, to reflect the venue's expanded scope. There was no consensus found to rename the venue, as, per the closer's summary, [a] satisfactory substitute for the word 'deletion' hasn't yet been agreed.

Templates

Further information: Wikipedia:Merging
See also: Category:Merge templates
See also: Wikipedia:Template messages/Splitting
Shortcut

The following tags should be placed on top the pages or sections which require merging.

Tag Text that will be shown (and usage notes)
{{Afd-merge from}}
links talk edit
{{Being merged to}}
links talk edit
{{merge from}}
links talk edit
{{Being merged from}}
links talk edit
{{merged-from}}
links talk edit
{{merged-to}}
links talk edit
{{Split portions}}
links talk edit

Also:

Userboxes

{{User WikiProject Merge}} produces:

This user is a participant in
WikiProject Merge.

{{User merge}} produces:

merThis editor is a mergist.

{{User mergist}} produces:

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

WikiProject barnstars

The WikiProject Merge Barnstar The Merging Barnstar
{{{1}}}
The Merging Barnstar
{{{1}}}

See also