Last modified: 2011-03-13 18:04:58 UTC
Occasionally, there is a problem of a vandal who will move a page, then edit the resulting redirect to prevent most users from reverting the move. I suggest that a page should be movable anyway, if: 1) The destination page was originally a redirect. 2) The destination page is currently a redirect. 3) The origin page had, at some point, been moved from the destination name. If there had been several moves, this should apply to each name the page had ever had. In this case, the redirect page with the destination name should be moved to the origin name. A new version of the page, which is a redirect to the destination name, should show up with the edit summary of "Page swap" or something like that.
Sysops can already do this.
But non-sysops can't. My recommended change allows such revert moves to be done by any user. In addition, it keeps the history of the other page, so it's not like deletion.
The current behaviour allows for a page to be moved over another page *if* the destination is a redirect to the page being moved, which allows for a standard move reversion. Where the destination is not a simple redirect, then a determination needs to be made with regards to whether or not the destination page is worth preserving, in which case it is moved out of the way, or whether it can be deleted. This decision is left to a user with permission to delete pages, i.e. a sysop. I see no good reason to change the existing behaviour and complicate matters.
With my requested improvement, the history will be preserved. This can also help allow for quick correction of a page move vandal, such as what User:Sev Snape did - one of the moved pages was deleted accidently.
(In reply to comment #4) > With my requested improvement, the history will be preserved. Not so far as I can see: "In this case, the redirect page with the destination name should be moved to the origin[sic] name. A new version of the page, which is a redirect to the destination name, should show up with the edit summary of "Page swap" or something like that." How does this preserve any additional history?
By moving the history from destination name to target name.
(In reply to comment #6) > By moving the history from destination name to target name. That doesn't make any sense whatsoever; "destination" and "target" are the same thing.
