Wikipedia:WikiProject Bluelink patrol

WikiProject Bluelink patrol (WP:BPAT) is a WP:WikiProject begun in January 2021 as a complement to Wikipedia:Disambiguation pages with links (WP:DPL). User:DPL bot generates frequent reports of all bad links to WP:Disambiguation (DAB) pages, and WP:WikiGnomes try to fix them. However, there is no bot which records WP:Blue links (WP:BLUE) to WP:Set index articles (WP:SIA) (which include {{given name}}, {{surname}}, and other subtypes); and no bot could possibly check links to WP:Primary topics (WP:PTOPIC).

This WikiProject is a forum for gnomes who try to fix such bad bluelinks, to avoid duplication of effort and to share techniques. This is not the place to discuss things like specific WP:Guidelines (WP:PG) or WP:Requested moves (WP:RM) - the appropriate WP:Talk pages (WP:TP) are thataway →

If you have questions or comments about how this WikiProject should operate, please post at Wikipedia Talk:WikiProject Bluelink patrol (WT:BPAT), not here.

How to fix a bad bluelink

This is everyday gnoming. If there is a corresponding (disambiguation) page or a WP:ONEOTHER-type hatnote, look at that. If there is no match there (and the search tool turns up nothing - it sometimes does), choose between unlinking, WP:REDLINKing, and creating a new WP:REDIRECT - and, if appropriate, add an entry to a DAB page or a {{redirect}} hatnote to an article. If in doubt, ask at Wikipedia Talk:Disambiguation (WT:DAB) or at Wikipedia Talk:Disambiguation pages with links (WT:DPL).

Techniques for finding bad bluelinks

The human eyeball is the only sure resource. However, some search techniques have proved useful in getting the numbers to be looked at down to something manageable. You can help by adding others:

• Uppercase versions of PTOPICs which are not proper nouns (e.g. Bull). (Such searches often turn up violations of MOS:CAPS; you can console yourself with the thought that even if you haven't corrected an error, you have improved the encyclopaedia.)
• Lowercase versions of PTOPICs which are proper nouns (e.g. slough, which may mean slough (hydrology) rather than the town).
• Links to {{surname}} pages in {{taxobox}}es.
• Links in quotes or italics (e.g. "FizBuz" or FizBuz) without obvious need because the main article does not have them (e.g. The Crown, which may mean The Crown (TV series)). Such links may turn out to be WP:QUOTES or WP:ITALICS violations; for the consolation, see above.
• Variations on the above, where links to the main article should be in quotes or italics (e.g. hamlet, which may mean hamlet (place) rather than the play).

Advanced search techniques for (among other things) efficiently finding such links can be recorded and discussed in WP:WikiProject Bluelink patrol/Workshop.

Useful resources

• User:Certes/misdirected links, an essay and a list of common bad bluelinks
• User:GoingBatty/Backlinks and User:Certes/Backlinks, lists of monitored links
• User:GoingBatty/misdirected links, a list of search strings

Investigations

This section is broadly set up from oldest to newest, with the idea that new ideas get posted at the bottom, get looked at, and finally bubble up into Past or Ongoing. That scheme also applies within subsections: oldest first - newest last.

Past investigations

WP:WikiProject Bluelink patrol/Archive contains records of investigations carried out at any time, whether as part of this WikiProject or independently of it. There are annual subpages for 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Ongoing investigations

Certain pages will continue to accumulate bad incoming links.

User:GoingBatty/Backlinks lists targets whose incoming links are monitored daily via User:GoingBatty/Backlinks/Report. User:Certes/Backlinks contains further targets but is no longer monitored.

User:HostBot/Top 1000 report shows Wikipedia's most visited pages, some of which enjoy temporary popularity. Most entries are not relevant to this project but qualified titles may be worth checking if the base name leads to a different article. For example, if The Crown (TV series) is popular then The Crown may attract links intended for the series.

Recently completed investigations

Items may be left here for others to check, or seek inspiration from, before moving to the Archive.

• Menaka – Menaka (actress) 7, Ménaka 7. Certes (talk) 18:57, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
• Alexandria - changed 3 to Alexandria, Virginia. GoingBatty (talk) 15:51, 12 April 2024 (UTC)
• The Register – The Register (Adelaide) 6. Certes (talk) 19:09, 14 April 2024 (UTC)
• Hastings – Hastings, Kolkata 1. Certes (talk) 09:45, 18 April 2024 (UTC)
• Channel Islands – Channel Islands (California) 36. Certes (talk) 13:42, 12 May 2024 (UTC)
• Burial – Burial (musician) 2. Certes (talk) 09:45, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
• UC Quarry Lake (redirects to Quarry lake) – Quarry Lake (Maryland) 3, unlinked 1. —ShelfSkewed Talk 21:19, 16 June 2024 (UTC)
• The Night Manager - changed 6 to The Night Manager (British TV series). GoingBatty (talk) 04:51, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
• UC Rebus - changed 1 to Rebus (2024 TV series), 6 to Rebus (2000 TV series), 1 to Inspector Rebus, unlinked 1. GoingBatty (talk) 04:51, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
• UC Shetland - changed 2 to Shetland (TV series), unlinked 1. GoingBatty (talk) 04:51, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
• Hamish Macbeth - changed 8 to Hamish Macbeth (TV series). GoingBatty (talk) 04:51, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
• UC Civvies - changed 1 to Civvies (TV series). GoingBatty (talk) 04:51, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
• Case Histories - changed 5 to Case Histories (TV series). GoingBatty (talk) 04:51, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
• Jane Seymour - changed 29 to Jane Seymour (actress). GoingBatty (talk) 02:25, 7 September 2024 (UTC)
• Chain Reaction (redirects to Chain reaction) - changed 1 to Chain Reaction (band), unlinked 1. —ShelfSkewed Talk 19:17, 16 October 2024 (UTC)
• UC Stunt - changed 2 to Stunt (sport). GoingBatty (talk) 15:41, 30 October 2024 (UTC)

Investigations in progress

• Works of art, e.g. Abraham Lincoln may mean Abraham Lincoln (1930 film). I am working through the alphabet and have tools to assist anyone who wants to take a letter. Certes (talk) 14:05, 14 February 2021 (UTC)
• Here is a list of qualified titles having the most incoming wikilinks. I've fixed some errors such as Accolade → Accolade (company)‏‎. Those that remain are either close enough to ignore (Swimming → Swimming (sport)‏‎ seems pedantic) or awkward to check. Comments or help welcome. Certes (talk) 17:05, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

  @Certes: Interesting list! Billboard and Time are two I monitor via Backlinks. GoingBatty (talk) 19:43, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

  @Certes: Fixed one by searching for Census insource:/\[\[White\]\]/ GoingBatty (talk) 22:33, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

  Changed 2 to White (U.S. census), 1 to White people. GoingBatty (talk) 03:55, 8 April 2022 (UTC)

  @Certes: Fixed one by searching for knot insource:/\[\[knot\]\]s/ GoingBatty (talk) 22:47, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

  @Certes: Looked at User:Certes/sandbox and searched uppercase Faith - changed 1 to Faith (Faith Hill album) and another to Faith (South Korean TV series). GoingBatty (talk) 05:32, 26 May 2021 (UTC)

  @GoingBatty: Sorry, that's an old list and I'd done all the easy wins on it. I've replaced it by G works of art. I've already done Gramophone and Narky Blert fixed Gladiator recently but others near the top may be fruitful. I can generate lists H–Z and put them somewhere more accessible if they would be useful. Certes (talk) 10:43, 26 May 2021 (UTC)

  @Certes: If you want to generate additional lists (and decide on a way for us to document what we're doing so we don't step on each other), I'd do more work. Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 20:41, 26 May 2021 (UTC)

  I've created Wikipedia:WikiProject Bluelink patrol/Works to keep us going for now. Certes (talk) 15:33, 27 May 2021 (UTC)

  It's been some time but I've been slowly going through the L's. (though I haven't been counting them, oops). Rough estimates based on the edit summary search: approximately 99 Lohengrin -> Lohengrin (opera) (!!!), 22 Lawrence of Arabia -> Lawrence of Arabia (film), 2 Lemonade -> Lemonade (2018 film). eviolite (talk) 22:10, 8 September 2021 (UTC)

  Changed 1 to Faith (2018 film). GoingBatty (talk) 04:00, 8 April 2022 (UTC)

• Atlantic and Atlantis. Atlantic won't be easy, but a search for recordings might turn up a few. Narky Blert (talk) 08:36, 1 February 2021 (UTC)

  @Narky Blert: I fixed about 36 70 articles. Atlantic should usually be Atlantic Monthly or The Atlantic. In citation templates, it can be The Atlantic or Atlantic Records. For |label= or articles containing "Atlantic Records" or albums or discographies, it's usually Atlantic Records. (Also found a Custard and a couple Tommy Boy that I changed to record companies.) GoingBatty (talk) 02:08, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

  Done 28 Atlantic (mainly Atlantic Records) and 16 Atlantis (mainly Space Shuttle Atlantis). Links remain which could go to Atlantis (DC Comics) or Atlantis (Marvel Comics) but, like Amazons, the distinction is subtle and we may just want to trust the original authors. More to do, or move to completed? Certes (talk) 19:55, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

• Saxon in progress. This looks like a nightmare, where the majority of inlinks may be wrong. In every other similar case I can think of (English, French, German, Italian, and so on), the adjective is a DAB page at the basename, not a redirect to an ethnic group. This may need cleanup followed by a WP:RM. Narky Blert (talk) 22:27, 19 May 2021 (UTC)
• Trove suggests {{cite news}} templates for Australian news articles, but about 230 newspapers have wrong wikilinks. I am investigating the scope of the problem with a view to having them repaired automatically. Further details: User:Certes/Trove. See also #New investigation suggestions below. Certes (talk) 01:08, 19 August 2021 (UTC)
• Places whose WP:COMMONNAME differs from the local spelling (which should be anglicised per a little-known sentence in MOS:ROMANISATION, and are often WP:EASTEREGGs). I'm working on Milano, and have already turned up a basketball club (but not as of yet Milano, Texas). Fortunately, there are no more than a dozen or so. Narky Blert (talk) 15:55, 18 October 2021 (UTC)
• Infidel - 1 changed to Infidel: My Life. (An earlier edit without a summary) Leschnei (talk) 00:05, 19 January 2022 (UTC)
• More citations copied from Trove:
  • Advertiser → Advertiser (Hurstbridge) 1,
    • Unlinked 1. GoingBatty (talk) 02:32, 23 December 2021 (UTC)
  • Mirror → The Mirror (Western Australia) 4,
    • Changed 13 to Daily Mirror, 1 to Mirror (multimedia project), unlinked 1. GoingBatty (talk) 02:32, 23 December 2021 (UTC)

    Changed 1 to Mirror (group). GoingBatty (talk) 03:09, 8 April 2022 (UTC)

    Changed 1 to The Mirror (Western Australia), added to Backlinks. GoingBatty (talk) 13:31, 18 April 2022 (UTC)

  • Chronicle → The Chronicle (South Australia) 23,
    • Changed 1 to Houston Chronicle, 1 to Wriothesley's Chronicle, 2 to The Chronicle (Zimbabwe), 2 to Chronicle Books, 2 to Chronicle (American TV program), 2 to Chronicle (film), unlinked 1. GoingBatty (talk) 02:32, 23 December 2021 (UTC)

    Changed 1 to The Chronicle (South Australia). GoingBatty (talk) 03:15, 8 April 2022 (UTC)

  • Richmond Guardian → Richmond Guardian (Melbourne) 1,
  • Globe → Globe (Sydney, 1885–1887) 1,
    • Changed 1 to The Globe (Toronto newspaper), 4 to The Globe (London newspaper), 1 to Washington Globe, 3 to Globe Telecom, 1 to Globe (band), unlinked 4. GoingBatty (talk) 05:12, 23 December 2021 (UTC)

    Removed 1. GoingBatty (talk) 03:19, 8 April 2022 (UTC)

  • Bunyip → The Bunyip 8,
    • Changed 1 to The Bunyip (musical). GoingBatty (talk) 05:12, 23 December 2021 (UTC)
  • Daily Herald → Daily Herald (Adelaide) 11,
    • Daily Herald is a set index article, so nothing should link here. Changed 10 to Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, Illinois), 3 to Daily Herald (Utah), 1 to The Herald (Glasgow), added 1 {{disambiguation needed}}, unlinked 2, added to Backlinks. GoingBatty (talk) 00:14, 24 December 2021 (UTC)
  • Herald → Herald (Adelaide) 1,
    • Changed 1 to O Heraldo, 1 to Herald (newspaper) (disambiguation needed), unlinked 2. GoingBatty (talk) 02:27, 24 December 2021 (UTC)

    Changed 1 to Herald (Pakistan). GoingBatty (talk) 03:26, 8 April 2022 (UTC)

  • Western Herald → Western Herald (Bourke) 15,
    • Changed 3 to Western Herald (Bourke). GoingBatty (talk) 03:35, 8 April 2022 (UTC)
  • Arrow → The Arrow (newspaper) 1,
    • Changed 5 to Arrow (TV series), 1 to Arrow, Warwickshire, unlinked 2. GoingBatty (talk) 02:27, 24 December 2021 (UTC)

    Changed 1 to Arrow (TV series). GoingBatty (talk) 03:37, 8 April 2022 (UTC)

  • News → The News (Adelaide) 26,
    • Changed 1 to News Corp Australia, unlinked 3. GoingBatty (talk) 02:27, 24 December 2021 (UTC)

    Changed 5 to The News (Adelaide), removed 1. GoingBatty (talk) 23:37, 13 April 2022 (UTC)

  • The Independent → Deniliquin Independent 1,
  • Northern Times → The Northern Times (Newcastle) 1,
  • Referee → The Referee (newspaper) 13,
    • Changed 1 to The Referee (newspaper). GoingBatty (talk) 01:30, 14 April 2022 (UTC)
  • Sunday Times → The Sunday Times (Sydney) 7,
  • The Sunday Times → The Sunday Times (Sydney) 1,
  • Rochester Express → Rochester Express (newspaper) 2,
    • Unlinked 1. GoingBatty (talk) 01:30, 14 April 2022 (UTC)
  • Land → The World (Hobart) 4,
    • Changed 1 to Land (Worship band). GoingBatty (talk) 01:30, 14 April 2022 (UTC)
  • Free Lance unlinked 1,
  • The Week → The Week (Brisbane) 34,
    • Changed 9 to The Week (Brisbane), The Week (Indian magazine). GoingBatty (talk) 01:30, 14 April 2022 (UTC)
  • Tribune → The Tribune (Hobart) 1,
    • Changed 2 to The Express Tribune, 1 to Nigerian Tribune, 1 to Tribune Broadcasting, 1 to Trybuna, 1 to Tribune (magazine), unlinked 7. GoingBatty (talk) 02:27, 24 December 2021 (UTC)
    • Changed 4 to Tribune (Australian newspaper), added to Backlinks. GoingBatty (talk) 01:30, 14 April 2022 (UTC)
  • The Colonist → The Colonist (Launceston) 6,
  • Evening Journal → Evening Journal (Adelaide) 7,
    • Changed 2 to Evening Journal (Adelaide), added to Backlinks. GoingBatty (talk) 01:30, 14 April 2022 (UTC)
  • Tribune → Tribune (Australian newspaper) 12,
  • The Daily Mail → Daily Mail (Brisbane) 35,
    • Changed 9 to Daily Mail (Brisbane). GoingBatty (talk) 01:30, 14 April 2022 (UTC)
  • The Producer → Plains Producer 1,
    • Changed 1 to Plains Producer, unlinked 1. GoingBatty (talk) 02:27, 24 December 2021 (UTC)
  • The Daily Express → The Daily Express (Wagga Wagga, NSW) 1,
  • Critic → The Critic (Adelaide) 5,
    • Changed 1 to Critic (band), unlinked 3. GoingBatty (talk) 02:27, 24 December 2021 (UTC)
    • Changed 1 to The Critic (Adelaide). GoingBatty (talk) 01:30, 14 April 2022 (UTC)
  • Sport → The Sport (Adelaide newspaper) 3,
    • Changed 1 to The Sport (Adelaide newspaper). GoingBatty (talk) 03:41, 24 December 2021 (UTC)
  • Construction → Construction and Local Government Journal 5,
  • The Daily Telegraph → The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) 36,
    • Changed 5 to The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 2 to The Daily Telegraph (Launceston). GoingBatty (talk) 01:30, 14 April 2022 (UTC)
  • Co-operator → Co-operator (newspaper) 1,
    • Changed 1 to Co-operator (newspaper). GoingBatty (talk) 03:41, 24 December 2021 (UTC)
  • Listening Post → Listening Post (newspaper) 1,
  • Sunday Chronicle → Sunday Chronicle (Perth) 1,
  • The Umpire → The Umpire (Fremantle) 1
• That should be all Trove mislinks, though I'll leave them here for now in case others find links to elsewhere. Certes (talk) 19:16, 23 December 2021 (UTC)
• Grass, Stone (+Stones) – primary redirects with a large number of incoming links (respectively 4,000 and 550). This is convoluted, it may lead to some article rewriting and will likely also involve a few discussions. I'll be working on it in the coming months. – Uanfala (talk) 22:11, 1 July 2022 (UTC)
• SpongeBob SquarePants - changed 4 to SpongeBob SquarePants (character). More to do. GoingBatty (talk) 03:02, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

New investigation suggestions

If you have thought of a bluelink which might be worth looking at, or looking at again, or indeed are in the process of looking at, post it here as a bulleted list entry with brief comments (and sign). Please keep date order: oldest at the top. If you complete one of these investigations, please move it to the Archive, or to Recently completed investigations (just above).

• Revolution. I fixed the links that should be to the album, novel, roller coaster, TV show, etc. There are others that should link to a specific revolution. GoingBatty (talk) 05:02, 30 January 2021 (UTC)

  Hmm... do we change the Revolution when it obviously means (say) Farroupilha Revolution, or would that be an Easter egg? I've fixed some geometric and social revolutions. Certes (talk) 22:30, 30 January 2021 (UTC)

• Phantom of the Opera and The Phantom of the Opera - when referring to the musical, it's not clear whether the link should be The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical) or Phantom of the Opera (1976 musical), or maybe even Phantom (musical). GoingBatty (talk) 15:50, 8 February 2021 (UTC)
• Following the same train of thought, Port (it wouldn't be easy to separate the water from the wine). Narky Blert (talk) 17:02, 17 February 2021 (UTC)

  @Narky Blert: Bonus points for the pun! Fixed the Port links where "wine" was nearby. GoingBatty (talk) 01:57, 18 February 2021 (UTC)

  @Narky Blert: Fixed a few more by searching for Wine insource:/\[\[port\]\]/ (upper and lower case). GoingBatty (talk) 23:06, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

• Thanksgiving to Thanksgiving (United States) where appropriate. GoingBatty (talk) 04:01, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

  Most of the 1300 links are from articles which mention US or America. Maybe skip this one as improvable in theory but not actually wrong? Certes (talk) 14:33, 11 March 2021 (UTC)

  A quick initial search turned up a few links specific to Canada or USA, usually tied to the date (they're about 6 weeks apart). I'll have a more detailed look. Narky Blert (talk) 15:07, 11 March 2021 (UTC)

• Capitalised Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Space Force, Congress, House of Representatives, Senate → individual countries (e.g. United States Army). GoingBatty (talk) 19:55, 26 February 2021 (UTC)

  I'm looking at Army, which is slow but fruitful: 14 articles beginning with A fixed. Certes (talk) 15:57, 14 March 2021 (UTC)

  I've looked at several hundred articles and changed a few dozen links, but this one is very slow going and I'm not sure how far we should take things. For example, Dan Foster (DJ) mentions Air Force. Can we safely conclude that this is the United States Air Force? If so, is there any value in changing that link or would it be an WP:Easter egg? Certes (talk) 12:14, 23 March 2021 (UTC)

  I think that's a safe bet. The thing to watch out for is service up to 1947, when the USAAF and the Naval and Marine air services were combined. Narky Blert (talk) 19:02, 23 March 2021 (UTC)

  Still in progress. Roughly 160 Army, 60 Navy, 40 Air Force, 40 Marines done. Certes (talk) 22:52, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

  Added these to my Backlinks a while back, along with Attorney General, Marine Corps, Space Force, Merchant Marine, and Postal Service. GoingBatty (talk) 21:01, 17 March 2022 (UTC)

  UC Congress, changed 1 to Congress, Arizona, 40 to United States Congress. Many are related to Indian politicians - maybe should be changed to the Indian National Congress party? GoingBatty (talk) 21:01, 17 March 2022 (UTC)

• Two possiblities:.
  • Member of the Legislative Assembly (or equivalently Member of Legislative Assembly, a redirect). Most of these should go directly to Member of the Legislative Assembly (India) or Member of the Legislative Assembly (Northern Ireland). There are also quite a lot for Canadian provincial parliaments, which don't have a clear target they should go to, except possibly for Ontario (Member of Provincial Parliament (Canada)). Perhaps there should be province-specific pipings along the lines of Member of the Legislative Assembly (Saskatchewan), which would redirect to either Member of the Legislative Assembly#Canada or Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan. In India, it seems the constitution imposes the same requirements on all states for their legislative assemblies, so the single target article Member of the Legislative Assembly (India) suffices.
  • Member of Parliament. Most of these should go directly to Member of parliament, Lok Sabha or Member of parliament, Rajya Sabha or Member of Parliament (United Kingdom). Colonies Chris (talk) 19:03, 27 February 2021 (UTC)
• Capitalised Dance, Dancer and Dancing. Narky Blert (talk) 11:37, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

  @Narky Blert: I monitor Dance (upper and lowercase) and change to Dance music when needed. GoingBatty (talk) 04:27, 25 May 2021 (UTC)

  @GoingBatty: That's a relief, a preliminary look suggested anything but a simple problem. I may have a look for dance + music - dance music for historical stuff. Narky Blert (talk) 05:58, 25 May 2021 (UTC)

  There's a whole subproject changing [[Foo]] bar to [[Foo bar]]. There's a list for dabs and a bot was trialled for blue links but it produced too many false positives. Of course, it needs manual control: Carol Kuhlthau was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey but Aethes biscana is found in both New Brunswick and New Jersey. Certes (talk) 09:41, 25 May 2021 (UTC)

• Capitalised News and Mirror and Leader and Worker and Advocate and Empire and Referee can appear in citations generated by Trove; should usually actually be The News (Adelaide), The Mirror (Western Australia), The Leader (Melbourne), The Worker (Brisbane), either The Advocate (Melbourne) or The Advocate (Tasmania), Empire (newspaper), The Referee (newspaper). (Trove has been asked to fix their citations, to no avail). Colonies Chris (talk) 10:03, 4 March 2021 (UTC)

  The main Trove errors, which I monitor, are The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times, both with or without The. Other perennials include Evening Journal and The Northern Miner. Could the tool(s) which add these produce a log of their work which could be checked and possibly even fixed automatically? Certes (talk) 11:05, 4 March 2021 (UTC)

  I've just run through Trove-related occurrences of News, Mirror, Leader, Worker, Advocate, Empire and Referee and fixed them. Just a few dozen. Colonies Chris (talk) 13:19, 5 March 2021 (UTC)

  User:Certes/Trove lists the main offenders with suggested replacements. I've had a go at fixing them all, but they will recur. I've also e-mailed the NLA, who replied courteously but don't seem to have changed anything yet. Certes (talk) 16:23, 18 December 2022 (UTC)

• Hip hop (and varieties with dashes or no spaces) to Hip hop music or Hip hop dance. GoingBatty (talk) 04:10, 8 March 2021 (UTC)

  Currently (but very slowly) trying to fix some of these: \[\[([hH]ip[- ]?[hH]op)\]\]->\[\[$1 music|$1\]\]. I'm trying to be careful with things that essentially say "influenced by hip hop" since that could mean either the culture or the genre. eviolite (talk) 03:06, 5 May 2021 (UTC)

  I'm working on new instances of Hip hop and varieties, but there are many existing links to be fixed. GoingBatty (talk) 19:18, 5 May 2021 (UTC)

  Hip hop is now a redirect to Hip hop music. GoingBatty (talk) 06:15, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

• Districts of England for example links to Blaby may be for Blaby District[1], links to Fareham may be for Borough of Fareham and links to Carlisle may be for City of Carlisle (or vice versa), see User:Crouch, Swale/Districts, those that have 2 articles need checking, I often fix such links. Crouch, Swale (talk) 07:17, 13 March 2021 (UTC)
• Tons of parliamentary constituencies in many countries and subnational regions, e.g. provinces. These often share names with cities or regions within (e.g. Chippenham and Chippenham (UK Parliament constituency)). Also be careful with former districts. I'll try to cook up a spreadsheet sometime for various countries to make a list of them(this is probably infeasible and unhelpful since the constituency and city/region are related), but currently I'm going through searching through insource:/MP for \[\[[A-Za-z ]*\]\]/ which seems to be a decently common format. 20UF6 (talk) 23:33, 2 May 2021 (UTC)
• Nevada - I can't think of a good way to filter the links down to a manageable number. Narky Blert (talk) 08:13, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

  @Narky Blert: With Nevada insource:/''\[\[Nevada\]\]/ I found one to change to Nevada (TV series). GoingBatty (talk) 22:23, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

• Little Italy - changed 2 to Little Italy, Manhattan. GoingBatty (talk) 02:37, 29 August 2021 (UTC)
• Ministry of higher education was a dab until 2014. Some of the incoming links should go to one of the specific country articles rather than the BCA. MB 16:04, 20 September 2021 (UTC)

  Sadly, there's a pile of similar cases. I was working through them alphabetically but only got as far as Ministry of Defence (Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom) 100, Ministry of defence broad concept 20, Ministry of Defence (India) 9, others 47; monitored) before I got overwhelmed by Ministry of Finance. Certes (talk) 16:29, 20 September 2021 (UTC)

• Cambridge. I fell across a Cambridge, Massachusetts by accident, but the overlap is so great that this looks like a London-class unsearchable. Narky Blert (talk) 21:29, 11 October 2021 (UTC)

  I'm monitoring Cambridge (300 fixed so far including a few for Cambridge, Ontario and Cambridge, Maryland; about two new cases per month). As you say, there are too many to search rigorously and my heuristics will have missed some. What did you fix? It may suggest a search pattern for similar cases. Certes (talk) 23:42, 23 October 2021 (UTC)

  I didn't make a note; the link was near something else (see Boston, above); "Massachusetts" may have been the giveaway. Narky Blert (talk) 02:15, 24 October 2021 (UTC)

• Chinatown - changed 1 to Manhattan's Chinatown, 4 to Chinatown, Manhattan, 2 to Chinatown, Los Angeles, 6 to San Francisco's Chinatown, 2 to San Francisco Chinatown, 1 to New York's Chinatown, 1 to Chinatown, Vancouver, 1 to Chinatown, Singapore, Chinatown (Washington, D.C.), 1 to Chinatown, Sydney, 1 to Chinatown, Manchester, unlinked 1. GoingBatty (talk) 21:36, 19 October 2021 (UTC)
• Rutland, Vermont. These three [2] are clearly not about the English county but contain few clues as to which Rutland, Vermont they refer to. Certes (talk) 23:36, 23 October 2021 (UTC)

  There's a dispiriting tendency in New England to have villages, towns and cities which are in near enough the same place which have the same name which are indistinguishable without checking local records; I just {{dn}}, in the hope someone knows. See also North Vancouver. I've had some success in modern cases by hitting Google Maps for the street address, or (for roads) by looking at other articles with the same link. In a very few cases, dates of incorporation can help. For places with the same name in different counties, sideways evidence like ZIP or dialling codes or names of roads or schools can help (it's useful to know that names of US Post Offices are unique); but some problems (notably birthplaces of ballplayers born late C19 or early C20, but even some late C20 and C21 deathplaces) are simply insoluble online. For problems which are truly insoluble (e.g. places in pre-modern England, or in prewar central Europe), I sometimes resort to a neutral "could be this/could be that" footnote.

  Thanks. I don't feel good about dumping this on someone else but I'll deliberately link them to the dab and tag as dn. Certes (talk) 00:16, 25 October 2021 (UTC)

  (My least pleasant experience, by some way, on WP was addressing three problems, one after one after the other, relating to places which are in modern Belarus. I managed to solve them all by multilingual/multialphabetic searching, even though all that survives of one is a memorial plaque laid flat in the middle of a field. It took me a good hour, and a subsequent break.) Narky Blert (talk) 03:11, 24 October 2021 (UTC)

  William Emerson Sr.  Done. Narky Blert (talk) 03:31, 24 October 2021 (UTC)

• Peter Pan - changed 1 to Peter Pan (2003 film). GoingBatty (talk) 14:38, 8 October 2021 (UTC)
  • Peter Pan refers to the character, so references to the play or adaptations should probably link to another article, such as Peter and Wendy. There are over 500 instances of ''[[Peter Pan]]'' to be changed. GoingBatty (talk) 01:47, 22 February 2022 (UTC)
• Mandan has over 700 links. Haven't checked whether there are links intended for the other Mandans. MB 04:12, 25 November 2021 (UTC)

  Just the one fixed: turned red, in one of those articles we love so much where an editor wikilinks a huge list of tiny villages in the hope that none of them shares its name with anything notable. Certes (talk) 19:12, 20 February 2022 (UTC)

• Alcatraz is a primary redirect to Alcatraz Island, but many incoming links are specifically intended for the famous prison on that island, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. I also found one case in which Alcatrazz was meant. Lennart97 (talk) 15:43, 4 January 2022 (UTC)
• Paradise Valley, Arizona is an independent municipality (town) in Arizona bordering the city of Phoenix, in which there is urban village called Paradise Valley, Phoenix. I just fixed one link to the town which should have been to the village. As these are easily confused, there may be others. MB 04:28, 30 March 2022 (UTC)
• The Apprentice - some probably should link to the specific country series (e.g. The Apprentice (American TV series)). GoingBatty (talk) 18:39, 12 April 2022 (UTC)

  Done: 54 fixed. Certes (talk) 14:36, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

• Newfoundland - some are looking for Newfoundland (island), but sometimes it's hard to tell whether the island or the province is a beetter fit. eviolite (talk) 16:54, 12 May 2022 (UTC)
• Arts Council - almost all of of the 200 or so links are really for Arts Council of Great Britain. Colonies Chris (talk) 10:43, 2 August 2022 (UTC)
  • There's an extra subtlety however - in 1994 the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into Arts Council England, the Scottish Arts Council, and the Arts Council of Wales. Colonies Chris (talk) 12:54, 2 August 2022 (UTC)
• National Service - almost of of the 600 or so links are really for National Service (UK). Colonies Chris (talk) 10:58, 2 August 2022 (UTC)
• Privy Council - over 1000 entries, most of which are either for Privy Council of England or Privy Council of the United Kingdom. Colonies Chris (talk) 13:04, 2 August 2022 (UTC)

  It's worth noting Arts Council, National Service and Privy Council and similar cases but there are lots of them: see Ministry of higher education above. Certes (talk) 10:59, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

• Military Times - target of this redirect just changed, some could be meant for prior target.

  Done: two for Military History Matters, one for delish.com. Certes (talk) 10:57, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

• CSS General Quitman this is a SIA, incoming links should be fixed. MB 05:46, 15 August 2022 (UTC)

  Done, though the ships have confused histories. Certes (talk) 10:33, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

• Desmos was an article on tree genus. Now it is a redirect to a calculator, which correctly looks to be PT. Links to genus need to be changed. MB 01:46, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

  Done: 7 Desmos (genus), 1 unlinked (a society so secret it has no article). If the calculator really is the PT, its article should move to the base name. Certes (talk) 12:32, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

  Thanks. The editor that changed the redirect thought so, and I looked at pageviews which show the calculator gets overwhelmingly more views than the genus. If you agree, or at least don't disagree, I'll just boldly move it. MB 14:59, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

• Marshal: there are 800+ links to this, many of which could be more precise - often as Marshal of France or Marshal of the Empire. Colonies Chris (talk) 14:07, 26 September 2022 (UTC)
• Cashmore, a SIA. All incoming links should go to John Cashmore Ltd instead. MB 02:46, 13 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Done. Colonies Chris (talk) 19:18, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
• Resurrection; around 1500 links, many of which should link specifically to Resurrection of Jesus. Colonies Chris (talk) 17:28, 13 October 2022 (UTC)
• Department of Justice (redirect to Justice minister). About 150 links, most of which seem to refer to a specific Department of Justice (usually United States Department of Justice). I imagine there are similar issues with other government agencies (Department of State, Department of Defense, etc.), although I haven't looked in detail. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 06:03, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

  See Ministry of higher education above. Certes (talk) 10:06, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

• Mr. Potato Head, some should probably link to the character based on the toy Mr. Potato Head (Toy Story) MB 20:33, 5 November 2022 (UTC)
• Equatorial: there are 126 articles that use the lazy link [[equator]]ial [3], and from a quick look it seems that in many cases something else is meant instead. I'm not going to have the time for this, so please help yourself. The dab page at Equatorial may be incomplete. – Uanfala (talk) 12:42, 22 November 2022 (UTC)
• Founding fathers. Redirects to List of national founders. According to RFD, At a quick glance, I'd say every one of the 88 articles that contain this link actually mean Founding Fathers of the United States. MB 20:30, 27 November 2022 (UTC)

  I'd hold off on this one until the RfD on Founding Fathers (uc F) closes, in case both redirects are retargeted to the U.S. article. Certes (talk) 18:51, 15 December 2022 (UTC)

• While the Wikipedia article vintage refers to winemaking, there are several articles in this search result that use "vintage" to describe music. I'm not sure how to change the vintage links. GoingBatty (talk) 16:49, 15 December 2022 (UTC)

  I don't see a good target either. Near misses include Vintage (design) and Vintage musical equipment. Certes (talk) 18:58, 15 December 2022 (UTC)

• The Twilight Zone - changed 1 to The Twilight Zone (1985 TV series), 10 to The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series). There are 691 more pages to review. GoingBatty (talk) 02:47, 23 December 2022 (UTC)
• Prohibition. There are over 2000 links to this; the vast majority of them would be better piped to Prohibition in the United States. Colonies Chris (talk) 21:30, 6 August 2023 (UTC)
• Suresh - given name page with a bunch of links. Some of them are due to a recent move request where the links weren't cleaned up after and can be fixed using AWB, but some of them are longstanding, and need someone to work out which person they are referring to. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 20:21, 6 March 2024 (UTC)

  Having a look. Many links seem to be Suresh (Hindi actor), who wasn't on the name list. Certes (talk) 20:57, 6 March 2024 (UTC)

  Done. Certes (talk) 22:45, 6 March 2024 (UTC)

• Abd al-Rahman and its redirects seem to have a lot of links that should be going to specific people. More generally there seems to be no process for fixing links to set indices/given name pages, so there's probably a lot of mislinks to them lurking. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 02:28, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

  I checked a random sample of entries in Category:Arabic-language masculine given names and found 30-40% of them have at least one link intended for a specific person. The same phenomenon probably applies elsewhere too. Sigh. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 03:09, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

  I had a trawl through our hundred or so most-linked surname pages in 2020 and fixed links intended for individuals (or other topics. The winner was Leopold Zunz, with 125 articles linking his name to Zunz. I added the worst offenders to a list of pages whose new incoming links I monitor daily. However, there will still be plenty of such links that neither I nor anyone else has noticed. Certes (talk) 21:25, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

  Did you miss the specific example of Abd al-Rahman? That one surname page has around 40 mistargeted links. It's going to be a pain to sort out given the sheer size of the page and how many people with the same occupation there are. I made a start at it (Abd al-Rahman of Morocco 1, Abdul Rehman (MLA Delhi) 1, the partially-disambiguated article currently at Abdul Rahman (politician) 2, Abdul Rahman (Afghan cricketer, born 2001) 1, Abdur Rehman (cricketer, born 1980) 5), but rest I couldn't easily figure out. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 04:46, 18 March 2024 (UTC)

  I think I only checked direct links, not those via redirects. Certes (talk) 11:19, 18 March 2024 (UTC)

• More similar names with many mislinks (often) through redirects. Some of these are due to Template:Bir Bikrom, which could do with a once-over to check all the links in it go to the right person.
  1. Abd al-Ghaffar
  2. Abd al-Halim
  3. Abdul Hamid
  4. Abd al-Jabbar
  5. Abdul Karim
  6. Abd al-Khaliq
  7. Abdul Wahhab (the template links to the redirect Abdul Wahab)
  8. 'Abd al-Rahim
  9. 'Abd al-Wahid
  10. Ata-ur-Rahman
  11. Abd al-Alim
  12. Inam-ul-Haq
  13. Abd al-Razzaq
  I moved a bunch of partially disambiguated titles to fully disambiguated ones revealing a bunch of links which I could not easily determine which person they referred to, and there were a lot of longstanding ones as well. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 20:50, 18 March 2024 (UTC)

  Bir Bikrom is one of many templates which seem to have been created by putting square brackets round each item in a list without checking the destination of the resulting links. Taher is probably Abu Taher rather than the Algerian city, but only a subject expert would know. The cited source for recipients is not in English (and has a bad web certificate). Sometimes we may just have to unlink, and consider deleting the worst templates which end up with few or no blue links. Certes (talk) 23:08, 18 March 2024 (UTC)

• He's Expecting was moved to He's Expecting (TV series) and then an article on a manga was cut-paste over the redirect without fixing links. I've history merged the cut-paste move but links still may need to be fixed. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 16:29, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

  Done; just the three fixed. Certes (talk) 21:07, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

• Shehzad Sheikh was originally an article on a Pakistani actor moved to Shahzad Sheikh and then hijacked with an article on an Indian actor, which I undid because the Indian actor was deleted and salted at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Shehzad Shaikh. Someone should make sure all of the links intend the Pakistani actor not the Indian one. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 21:51, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

  Six fixed, and another can of worms opened with Menaka. Certes (talk) 22:45, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

• List of WWE Tag Team Champions was previously a redirect to List of World Tag Team Champions (WWE), overwritten by cut-paste from what was previously List of WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions. I've history merged the cut-paste. There are many links, some of which should probably point to the other list. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 03:47, 20 April 2024 (UTC)
• Various links which have been checked but will acquire errors ongoing, distilled from quarry:query/83973:
  • Punjab → Punjab, India, Punjab, Pakistan or Punjab Province (British India)
  • Model or model → Model (person)
  • The Daily Telegraph → The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) in Trove references
  • Telegram → Telegram (software)
  • Reading → Reading, Berkshire
  • ABC News → ABC News (Australia)
  • Republic of China → Republic of China (1912–1949)
  • Bloomsbury → Bloomsbury Publishing
  • Commonwealth → Commonwealth of Nations, English Commonwealth or Commonwealth (U.S. state)
  • Ganja → Ganja, Azerbaijan
  • Ministry of Defence → Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), Ministry of Defence (India), etc.
  • US Open → US Open (tennis)
  • U.S. Open → U.S. Open (golf)
  • Chancellor → Chancellor (education)
  • East London → East London, South Africa
  • Arsenal → Arsenal F.C.
  • Acre → Acre, Israel or Acre (state)
  • Captain → Captain (association football), Captain (cricket), etc.
  • X → X (social network)
• – Certes (talk) 20:32, 20 June 2024 (UTC)
• Proper nouns with lower-case homographs. Links to any of these with a lower-case initial are almost certainly wrong: anchorage, batman, cairns, derby, fife, jersey, limerick, louvre, madonna, manning, march, piedmont, queens, sandbanks, shiraz, slough, surrey, troy, tulle. These examples have been fixed but will acquire errors ongoing and could benefit from regular checks. Certes (talk) 09:42, 17 July 2024 (UTC)

Members

If you would like to participate, add your username to this list, with brief details. Please keep alphabetical order. If you add {{User WP Bluelink patrol}} to your WP:User page, you will be automatically categorised into Category:Wikipedians who patrol bluelinks.

• BD2412, AutoWikiBrowser DABfixer
• Crouch, Swale, interested in places and disambiguation
• Eviolite, occasionally fixing place names
• GoingBatty, uses AutoWikiBrowser and his pal BattyBot to fix common misdirected links
• Huggums537, a gnomish contributor just doing what they can to help!
• Leschnei, DABfixer
• Narky Blert, a DABfixer who notices bluelinks that are close by bad links to DAB pages and thinks, Surely that can't be right?
• ShelfSkewed, DABfixer with a long-time interest in hidden misdirected links

See also

• Barnstar: {{subst:The Bluelink patrol Barnstar|1=message ~~~~}}