Last modified: 2011-03-13 18:05:29 UTC
It happens pretty often that a redirect has not the same meaning of the page it points to; often a specific topic is a redirect to a more general topic. It would be great to have the possibility to set a redirect to delay the actual redirection for several seconds and display an explanation text in the meanwhile. I propose a simple syntax like, e.g. ---- #DELAYREDIR:10s [[target page]] some explanation text... ---- This vould be rendered with a standard message (form the MediaWiki namespace) + the custom text, e.g. ---- --> You will be redirected to [[Target page]] in 10 seconds, if you are not redirected automatically please click [[target page|here]]. some explanation text ---- This would not interfere with the standard server-side redirects by using a different keyword; and can be implemented via plain HTML <META HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" CONTENT="10s; URL=http://[...]Target_page"> Good work and many thanks, Lorenzo.
I'm against this; I don't like meta redirects as it is, and the current method of linking back to the redirect page is both sufficient, and deliciously simple.
Agree with Rob. We can't rely on the user being present to see the explanation; it might be opened to load in another tab in the background, for instance. If we're going to add explanatory text, it should be in the "redirected from" line on the new page (would be especially handy for things like misspellings, so people don't get the wrong idea).
On second thought I agree with Simetrical; and it would be great to have the possibility to include some custom text in the "redirect from [[redirect name]]" message.
Going to close this. Open a new bug for the amended request if desired.
Note additionally that timed actions of this sort are an accessibility problem, as persons with limited reading speed or mobility may have difficulty reacting before the timeout.
