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== Search terms and page titles are case-sensitive. Redirect?  ==

== Search terms and page titles are case-sensitive. Redirect?  ==

If you search for a page using the built-in search engine, you need to type in the exact title of the article, with all but the first letter being case-sensitive. So for example, if you search for "qi gem", you won't be sent to [[Qi Gem]], because the "G" in the title is capitalized (the "Q" can be uppercase or lowercase). Similarly, you can link to [[Qi Gem]] and [[qi Gem]] but not [[Qi gem]] or [[qi gem]]. <br>

If you search for a page using the built-in search engine, you need to type in the exact title of the article, with all but the first letter being case-sensitive. So for example, if you search for "qi gem", you won't be sent to [[Qi Gem]], because the "G" in the title is capitalized (the "Q" can be uppercase or lowercase). Similarly, you can link to [[Qi Gem]] and [[qi Gem]] but not Qi gem or qi gem. <br>

This is a technical limitation in the MediaWiki software. Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org) gets around it by making redirects for any reasonable variant of a page title people might search for. That might seem a little clunky, and indeed, the English Wikipedia has millions of redirects as a result, but it's good enough for them, and they're one of the top-ten websites in the world. <br>

This is a technical limitation in the MediaWiki software. Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org) gets around it by making redirects for any reasonable variant of a page title people might search for. That might seem a little clunky, and indeed, the English Wikipedia has millions of redirects as a result, but it's good enough for them, and they're one of the top-ten websites in the world. <br>

I couldn't find anything definitive on whether or not we want redirects for alternative spellings and capitalization, just a few comments from last year on the old wiki. <br>

I couldn't find anything definitive on whether or not we want redirects for alternative spellings and capitalization, just a few comments from last year on the old wiki. <br>

:Something like [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:TitleKey TitleKey] can solve the search bar issue. I've tried that extension on a MediaWiki installation myself and it lets you type in all lowercase in the search bar and the results will be correctly listed. The English Wikipedia doesn't use it because it causes unintended behaviors but for this wiki it should be fine.--[[User:Spaceeinstein|Spaceeinstein]] ([[User talk:Spaceeinstein|talk]]) 00:24, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

:Something like [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:TitleKey TitleKey] can solve the search bar issue. I've tried that extension on a MediaWiki installation myself and it lets you type in all lowercase in the search bar and the results will be correctly listed. The English Wikipedia doesn't use it because it causes unintended behaviors but for this wiki it should be fine.--[[User:Spaceeinstein|Spaceeinstein]] ([[User talk:Spaceeinstein|talk]]) 00:24, 9 December 2021 (UTC)