Wikipedia talk:WikiProject History Merge

I really don't know where would be most appropriate to put this so I am here.

From the deletion log: (no page specified as to where the cats were moved)

• 00:46, 25 April 2006 Cyde (talk | contribs) deleted page Category:US writer stubs (Cat moved)
• 00:35, 25 April 2006 Cyde (talk | contribs) deleted page Category:US train station stubs (Cat moved)
• 00:34, 25 April 2006 Cyde (talk | contribs) deleted page Category:US school stubs (Cat moved)
• 00:33, 25 April 2006 Cyde (talk | contribs) deleted page Category:UK rail stubs (Cat moved)
• 00:32, 25 April 2006 Cyde (talk | contribs) deleted page Category:UK constituency stubs (Moved cat)
• 00:31, 25 April 2006 Cyde (talk | contribs) deleted page Category:UK government stubs (Cat moved)
• 00:31, 25 April 2006 Cyde (talk | contribs) deleted page Category:UK retail company stubs (Moved cat)
• 00:29, 25 April 2006 Cyde (talk | contribs) deleted page Category:UK comics stubs (Moving cat)
• 00:29, 25 April 2006 Cyde (talk | contribs) deleted page Category:UK school stubs (Cat renamed)

Also:

• 16:24, 28 April 2006 Alai (talk | contribs) deleted page Category:Western US geography stubs (renamed, per SFD)
• 15:00, 28 April 2006 Alai (talk | contribs) deleted page Category:Midwestern US geography stubs (renamed, per SFD)
• 12:47, 28 April 2006 Alai (talk | contribs) deleted page Category:Northeastern US geography stubs (renamed, per SFD)
• 07:59, 27 April 2006 Mel Etitis (talk | contribs) deleted page Category:Greek-Japaneses (speedy rename)

Additionally, see [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?limit=50&title=Special%3AContributions&contribs=user&target=Cyde&namespace=14&newOnly=1 this] from Cyde's contribs log, from which the relevant entries are listed below:

• 16:59, 27 November 2012 (diff | hist) . . (+832)‎ . . N Category:Public holidays in Russia ‎ (Renamed cat)
• 22:00, 29 April 2007 (diff | hist) . . (+370)‎ . . N Category:Fair use images of sports posters ‎ (Moved over from Category:Fair use sports posters)
• 03:49, 3 March 2007 (diff | hist) . . (+130)‎ . . Nm Category:Endemic birds of Western Mexico ‎ (Robot: Moved from Category:Avifauna of Western Mexico. Authors: Circeus, Kbdank71, Chidom, Angusmclellan, BetacommandBot, Mmcannis)
• 17:06, 2 June 2006 (diff | hist) . . (+383)‎ . . Nm Category:Suspected Wikipedia sockpuppets of Willy on Wheels ‎ (Copy over from old cat name)
• 14:17, 2 June 2006 (diff | hist) . . (+285)‎ . . Nm Category:Suspected Wikipedia sockpuppets of Interiot` ‎ (Move over category)
• 19:19, 30 May 2006 (diff | hist) . . (+77)‎ . . N Category:Hotels in Haiti ‎ (Copy over category text)
• 19:18, 30 May 2006 (diff | hist) . . (+311)‎ . . N Category:American Indian reservations ‎ (Copy over category text)
• 07:20, 9 May 2006 (diff | hist) . . (+241)‎ . . N Category:Free screenshots ‎ (Copy over from non-plural)
• 03:03, 30 April 2006 (diff | hist) . . (+26)‎ . . N Category:Transport in Slovenia ‎ (Transport in Slovenia.)
• 18:54, 28 April 2006 (diff | hist) . . (+181)‎ . . N Category:Columbia University alumni ‎ (Move cat)
• 18:51, 28 April 2006 (diff | hist) . . (+304)‎ . . N Category:Cornell University alumni ‎ (Move cat)
• 17:40, 28 April 2006 (diff | hist) . . (+219)‎ . . N Category:California Institute of Technology alumni ‎ (Move cat)
• 17:40, 28 April 2006 (diff | hist) . . (+134)‎ . . N Category:Bates College alumni ‎ (Move cat)
• 16:31, 28 April 2006 (diff | hist) . . (+141)‎ . . N Category:Brown University faculty ‎ (Moved cat)
• 15:03, 28 April 2006 (diff | hist) . . (+252)‎ . . N Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni ‎ (Moved)
• 23:33, 14 April 2006 (diff | hist) . . (+280)‎ . . N Category:United States railway station stubs ‎ (Moved from Category:US train station stubs)

103.6.159.72 (talk) 09:33, 14 February 2017 (UTC)

:{{ping|Od Mishehu|Wbm1058|Cyde}} 103.6.159.72 (talk) 09:41, 14 February 2017 (UTC)

::I just finished going over the first group; there was only 1 which I hadn't previously dealt with. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 10:10, 14 February 2017 (UTC)

::Second group: Category:Greek-Japaneses was renamed to :Category:Greek people in Japan, which was deleted (not renamed). עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 10:18, 14 February 2017 (UTC)

::The last group was previously unhandled; I've handled it all now - except for {{cl|Transport in Slovenia}}, which doesn't appear to be copied from anywhere. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 10:47, 14 February 2017 (UTC)

I added a MergeHistory column at the right side of Wikipedia:WikiProject History Merge/01 with the aid of a PHP script I wrote to make an edit. With that, I was able to fairly quickly do [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&offset=20190119200000&limit=257&type=merge&user=Wbm1058&page=&wpdate=&tagfilter= these 257 items] in semi-automated fashion. These links may also help to do the human-created cut-pastes, but those are less predictable so do them with more caution. Often, an initial redirect stands in the way of a full histmerge, so before clicking on the link and subsequent buttons, I delete the target page and then restore all but the initial redirect, which a proper move (rather than the cut-paste) would have moved over the top of the redirect and deleted it. Deletion and restoration of pages with long edit histories often times out with an errror message for me, but when that happens I just try again and the deletion or restoration virtually always succeeds on the second try. – wbm1058 (talk) 14:55, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

I've written a PHP script that reports the total number of items on the list. As of now, there are 21,666 – a daunting task if this can't be done with at least some semi-automation. And that doesn't include the cut-pastes that have been done in the past year. I also made the script check for history merges that require deletion and restoration of the target, in order to complete hist-merge "move over redirects". Higher priority should be given to these as it's a major pain to delete and restore pages with lengthy edit histories... and after over 15 years we have a lot of those. Delaying the task will only make it even more time-consuming as edit histories continue to grow longer. I will be updating the reports to indicate which items require delete & restore operations before they can be history-merged. 13,772 items are not move-over-redirects so can mostly be done quickly and easily using the Special:MergeHistory links. The other 7894 items require delete & restore before using the Special:MergeHistory links. – wbm1058 (talk) 16:37, 6 February 2019 (UTC)

Current numbers (13 done since yesterday):

:Total oldest revisions: 13765 (generally the easiest to histmerge)

:Total not the oldest revisions: 7888 (requires delete & restore to move over redirect)

:*No deleted revisions: 7000

:*Has deleted revisions: 888 (care needs to be taken to note previously deleted edits so as not to mistakenly restore them)

:Total 21653 items

Today I'll update the reports to show these 888 items that need to be done with special care. – wbm1058 (talk) 16:59, 7 February 2019 (UTC)

I just noticed that someone changed the Source column of Wikipedia:WikiProject History Merge/10 to "use tm:no redirect for ease of checking" on 26 June 2024, which threw a monkey wrench into my script's regex pattern matching. Since this seems a reasonable enhancement, I'll update my script to recognize and handle this pattern. These tables should follow a consistent structure throughout; so far this change was only made to table /10. – wbm1058 (talk) 14:54, 20 February 2025 (UTC)

Current numbers

:Total oldest revisions: 9862 (generally the easiest to histmerge)

:Total not the oldest revisions: 4781 (requires delete & restore to move over redirect)

:*No deleted revisions: 4234

:*Has deleted revisions: 547 (care needs to be taken to note previously deleted edits so as not to mistakenly restore them)

:Total 14643 items – wbm1058 (talk) 01:28, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

::*{{replyto|Wbm1058}} The "not the oldest revisions" ones could also be dealt with by using Special:Mergehistory to move the redirect revisions somewhere else first (e.g. a /temp page, which would then be deleted). Graham87 (talk) 02:33, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

::**When I occasionally run into articles with a lot (thousands) of revisions, making page deletion and restoration cumbersome and less practical, I resort to shuffling revisions off to another page with Special:Mergehistory, but that's not my first option. I prefer finding another redirect to the same article with compatible history (or lack of history), so I don't need to fall back to a /temp page, which is my last resort and least favorite option. – wbm1058 (talk) 02:46, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

::***I did find mention of moving unneeded revisions to redirects at the instructions, but something about adding edits to page histories like that (even relating to redirects) doesn't sit withth me as well, and I'd prefer that such edits be separated to their own page and then deleted (they're not really needed *anywhere* and are deleted as a matter of course when possible). I'm curious why you see /temp pages as a last resort in cases like this, if you can articulate your reasoning. But having said that, I don't think that the location of redirect edits is *that* big a deal that anyone should change their approach; it's better that they're out of the way *somewhere* than completely preventing a history merge. Graham87 (talk) 08:47, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

::****What I meant was shuffling revisions off to another page temporarily. I prefer finding an existing redirect for this purpose rather than creating a new page. Most of these edits will next be reshuffled back to where they should have been in the first place, and yes the move-blocking redirects can be deleted anywhere. I prefer deleting redirects on the title where they were created, which is a reason I use delete-restore as my first option. I really don't like to see any redirect edits moved (though I do that myself sometimes, too) but, sigh, that's become a frequent practice with the advent of page-mover swaps. It just leaves page histories that are more confusing to sort out. When I have fallen back to creating a temporary page, I've used the Draft: namespace page for that title, but annoyingly I've occasionally seen other editors start meddling with my Draft: temporary page before I've finished using it and deleted it. I can't recall any titles I've shuffled this way in the past. Next time I run into one, I'll hopefully remember to document my handing of it here. Oh, and when I said "shuffling", I didn't mean like a deck of cards. LOL wbm1058 (talk) 11:50, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

I've noticed that sometimes wikidata:User:DeltaBot [https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?title=Q6431883&diff=2314917610&oldid=2314914640 reverts "my" Wikidata edits] caused by "delete & restore" hist-merges, but not consistently enough to spare me the task of patrolling and fixing WIkidata. – wbm1058 (talk) 19:23, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

{{Moved discussion from|User talk:Wbm1058/Archive 8|2= May be of general interest to others. –wbm1058 (talk) 14:56, 29 May 2020 (UTC)}}

Hi wbm1058. I'm trying to learn the ropes of WP:WikiProject History Merge and wanted to ask a question about the pages {{noredirect|Islamic Federation of Canarias}}, {{noredirect|Islamic Federation of Canary Islands}}, and Islamic Federation of the Canary Islands. The first two are identical to each other, and are identical to the text that was copy-pasted into the final destination. The text is all by the same author with no intermediate edits. Does a history merge need to occur or can I just remove these entries from the log? — Wug·a·po·des​ 07:45, 25 January 2020 (UTC)

:I know you weren't asking me, but no history merge needs to occur here. There isn't any useful edit history for these purposes at the titles that are redirects. Best, Dekimasuよ! 08:58, 25 January 2020 (UTC)

:{{reply to|Wugapodes}} Thanks for asking. This is a common scenario that I've seen many cases of. An editor starts an article by making a single edit, and then minutes later changes the title by starting another article with either an identical or nearly identical edit. That one is listed at Wikipedia:WikiProject History Merge/45. Technically Dekimasu is correct, but unfortunately the bot that generated the report isn't quite smart enough to realize that, so I feel that something needs to be done so that this item won't appear on the next version of the report. There are three ways to solve that. (1) You can just merge the single edit anyway; no harm in doing that. (2) If they blanked the first page, and then a redirect edit was subsequently made by the same or another editor, you can delete the first page under G7 – one author who has requested deletion or blanked the page, then restore only the redirect and any edits made after that, or (3) As stated at Wikipedia:WikiProject History Merge#How can I help?, if you see an item that cannot be considered a cut-and-paste move, please remove it from the list, and tag the redirect with {{tlx|nahmc|}}. This will instruct the bot to disregard this page on future runs. I rarely do that, as I've found the bot to be quite accurate – it doesn't make mistakes that I've seen, other than flagging these annoying edge cases. Also, as the instructions also say, Please note: If you see an item in the report that appears to be a cut-and-paste move, please fix it, even if the source page only had one revision before being turned into a redirect! This will allow AarghBot to find additional related cut-and-paste moves on future runs.

: What is unusual here is to see two titles where this was done: Islamic Federation of Canarias created at 15:05, and Islamic Federation of Canary Islands created at 15:08. I'm inclined to just merge both, in reverse chronological order, but I don't particularly care what's done to get them permanently off the list, as long as something is done. – wbm1058 (talk) 15:00, 25 January 2020 (UTC)