Help:Merging Pages

Merging pages is a relatively simple task. The basic idea is to combine two or more pages (or elements of those pages) into one page, while retaining as much information as possible. This must be done manually.

How to Merge

 * 1) First, you need to find out if your proposed idea will be accepted by the community. Use the template on every page / section you want to merge, and leave a message on at least one of the pages' talk page explaining why you want to merge the pages.
 * 2) If there are no real objections, determine which page will be the mother page (the page that the information gets merged to). Copy over all of the information to its appropriate location, editing as necessary (for instance, if Page A mentions X, and Page B mentions X, then you'll need to remove one of the mentions for the merge, or you'll end up with a redundant page).
 * 3) Remove the copied section from its original source, and replace it with a link to the new location if applicable. If merging an entire page, have the page redirect to where it needs to go.

Common Reasons for Merging

 * 1) Integration: this commonly occurs with stub articles entering larger articles of similar topic. If the stub article has been sitting around awhile, with little hope of expansion, sourcing, and/or image addition, it may be more worthwhile to the wiki to implant the stub's information into a larger article. An example of successful integration is the Potion page.
 * 2) Consolidation: perhaps one article deals with an enemy's weaknesses and another provides information on the same enemy's location and characteristics; in this case, the two articles, often of like size, would be candidates for merging, as their information would greatly complement a conjoined topic. An example of successful cohesion is the Iron Knuckle page.
 * 3) Redundancy: when two articles share a grand majority of information, sometimes verbatim, they are excellent candidates for merging. In this case, the least work is involved, and sometimes, there is almost no work at all; sometimes, simply deleting the information from one article, and redirecting the article to the larger one is sufficient. A second look at the content in the final article is always required in this event, in order to make sure that all the relevant information from the previous article is included.
 * 4) Listings: in the event that there are many small articles that deal with a related subject, a merge may be warranted. In this case, an entirely new article is to be created to account for the similarities between the articles, and the old ones will be redirected to the new one. An example of this is the Beedle's Membership Cards page.

This listing is simply a few of the many reasons a merge may come about; remember that no merge occurs without discussion!