Mailing List Archive

"Fixing redirects" to "improve performance"
Hi everyone,

On the French Wikipedia we're currently reworking our help page about
redirects and some of us would like to include a section about common
misconceptions, especially those described at
<https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation_popups/About_fixing_redirects&oldid=988508313>.

However one user who's used to "fix" redirects is strongly opposed
because "this page is from 2006" and it's "unsourced".[1]

So I would like to ask the sysadmins from Wikimedia and the MediaWiki
developers who are following this mailing list: is this page created in
2006 still true and relevant in 2020?

Thank you.

--
Kind regards,
Thibaut Payet
[[User:Thibaut120094]]

[1]
<https://sigma.toolforge.org/usersearch.py?name=Alaspada&page=Discussion_aide%3ARedirection&server=frwiki&max=>

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Re: "Fixing redirects" to "improve performance" [ In reply to ]
the page was created in 2006 [1], but i don't think it's up to date for
2020. the last couple of "constructive" edits were from 2006-2011 but i'm
not sure.

[1]:
https://xtools.wmflabs.org/articleinfo/en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation%20popups/About%20fixing%20redirects
--andreas



On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 11:11 PM Thibaut Payet <thibaut120094@outlook.fr>
wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> On the French Wikipedia we're currently reworking our help page about
> redirects and some of us would like to include a section about common
> misconceptions, especially those described at
> <
> https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation_popups/About_fixing_redirects&oldid=988508313
> >.
>
> However one user who's used to "fix" redirects is strongly opposed
> because "this page is from 2006" and it's "unsourced".[1]
>
> So I would like to ask the sysadmins from Wikimedia and the MediaWiki
> developers who are following this mailing list: is this page created in
> 2006 still true and relevant in 2020?
>
> Thank you.
>
> --
> Kind regards,
> Thibaut Payet
> [[User:Thibaut120094]]
>
> [1]
> <
> https://sigma.toolforge.org/usersearch.py?name=Alaspada&page=Discussion_aide%3ARedirection&server=frwiki&max=
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikitech-l mailing list
> Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
>
Re: "Fixing redirects" to "improve performance" [ In reply to ]
While the specifics may have changed over time, the general point of
the page is correct -- "fixing" a redirect will use significantly more
server time than clicking on one. When you click a redirect, MediaWiki
queries the redirect table to see where you should go instead. Reads
from the database like this are fast. However, when you edit the page
to "fix" a redirect, MediaWiki has to save the edit, update the links
tables, re-render the HTML, invalidate the cache, and serve the new
HTML, among other things.

From a reader's perspective, there's no performance difference between
clicking a redirect and clicking any other internal link. We're
talking milliseconds here, if that. If you wanted to really improve
the performance of a page, remove all the images. (Note: do not do
this.)

This falls under
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Don%27t_worry_about_performance>:
let the developers and the operations folk worry about performance. If
you're already making an edit to an article and you feel like
bypassing a few redirects, go ahead and knock yourself out. But going
out of your way to "fix" links to redirects is just a waste of your
time.

ACN

On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 11:23 PM Andreas Papacharalampous <me@apap04.com> wrote:
>
> the page was created in 2006 [1], but i don't think it's up to date for 2020. the last couple of "constructive" edits were from 2006-2011 but i'm not sure.
>
> [1]: https://xtools.wmflabs.org/articleinfo/en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation%20popups/About%20fixing%20redirects
> --andreas
>
>
>
> On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 11:11 PM Thibaut Payet <thibaut120094@outlook.fr> wrote:
>>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> On the French Wikipedia we're currently reworking our help page about
>> redirects and some of us would like to include a section about common
>> misconceptions, especially those described at
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation_popups/About_fixing_redirects&oldid=988508313>.
>>
>> However one user who's used to "fix" redirects is strongly opposed
>> because "this page is from 2006" and it's "unsourced".[1]
>>
>> So I would like to ask the sysadmins from Wikimedia and the MediaWiki
>> developers who are following this mailing list: is this page created in
>> 2006 still true and relevant in 2020?
>>
>> Thank you.
>>
>> --
>> Kind regards,
>> Thibaut Payet
>> [[User:Thibaut120094]]
>>
>> [1]
>> <https://sigma.toolforge.org/usersearch.py?name=Alaspada&page=Discussion_aide%3ARedirection&server=frwiki&max=>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikitech-l mailing list
>> Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikitech-l mailing list
> Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l

_______________________________________________
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Re: "Fixing redirects" to "improve performance" [ In reply to ]
Thank you very much for your detailed reply.

We tried to convince our friend with your message and WP:PERF but he's
still not convinced, he even created a RfC on frwiki which is currently
being discussed[1] and we need some more information.

He created these two pages:
* <https://fr.wikipedia.org/?oldid=177832893&uselang=en> (list of
redirections)
* <https://fr.wikipedia.org/?oldid=177847552&uselang=en> (list of direct
links)

Previewed them and argue that the parser profiling data table shown
below the page indicate that there's less CPU time/real time usage with
the page using direct links than the one using redirects:
"As surprising as it may seem, the page that gives the best result is
the one with the direct links. Exactly the opposite of those who want to
prohibit the fixes [note: we don't], it is precisely the direct links
that give the best results. Go figure."[2]

Does that kind of benchmark makes sense? Is the parser profiler data
even relevant here? What exactly is calculated?

Sorry for all these questions but we would be grateful if you could shed
some light on this.

Happy holidays,
Thibaut Payet
[[User:Thibaut120094]]

[1] <https://fr.wikipedia.org/?curid=13767430&uselang=en>
[2] <https://fr.wikipedia.org/?diff=prev&oldid=177855343&uselang=en>

On 24.11.2020 05:36, AntiCompositeNumber wrote:
> While the specifics may have changed over time, the general point of
> the page is correct -- "fixing" a redirect will use significantly more
> server time than clicking on one. When you click a redirect, MediaWiki
> queries the redirect table to see where you should go instead. Reads
> from the database like this are fast. However, when you edit the page
> to "fix" a redirect, MediaWiki has to save the edit, update the links
> tables, re-render the HTML, invalidate the cache, and serve the new
> HTML, among other things.
>
> From a reader's perspective, there's no performance difference between
> clicking a redirect and clicking any other internal link. We're
> talking milliseconds here, if that. If you wanted to really improve
> the performance of a page, remove all the images. (Note: do not do
> this.)
>
> This falls under
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Don%27t_worry_about_performance>:
> let the developers and the operations folk worry about performance. If
> you're already making an edit to an article and you feel like
> bypassing a few redirects, go ahead and knock yourself out. But going
> out of your way to "fix" links to redirects is just a waste of your
> time.
>
> ACN
>
> On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 11:23 PM Andreas Papacharalampous <me@apap04.com> wrote:
>>
>> the page was created in 2006 [1], but i don't think it's up to date for 2020. the last couple of "constructive" edits were from 2006-2011 but i'm not sure.
>>
>> [1]: https://xtools.wmflabs.org/articleinfo/en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation%20popups/About%20fixing%20redirects
>> --andreas
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 11:11 PM Thibaut Payet <thibaut120094@outlook.fr> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi everyone,
>>>
>>> On the French Wikipedia we're currently reworking our help page about
>>> redirects and some of us would like to include a section about common
>>> misconceptions, especially those described at
>>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation_popups/About_fixing_redirects&oldid=988508313>.
>>>
>>> However one user who's used to "fix" redirects is strongly opposed
>>> because "this page is from 2006" and it's "unsourced".[1]
>>>
>>> So I would like to ask the sysadmins from Wikimedia and the MediaWiki
>>> developers who are following this mailing list: is this page created in
>>> 2006 still true and relevant in 2020?
>>>
>>> Thank you.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Kind regards,
>>> Thibaut Payet
>>> [[User:Thibaut120094]]
>>>
>>> [1]
>>> <https://sigma.toolforge.org/usersearch.py?name=Alaspada&page=Discussion_aide%3ARedirection&server=frwiki&max=>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Wikitech-l mailing list
>>> Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org
>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikitech-l mailing list
>> Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikitech-l mailing list
> Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
>

_______________________________________________
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Re: "Fixing redirects" to "improve performance" [ In reply to ]
Hey,
In general, the performance implications of an edit for fixing redirects
heavily outweighs the small improvement of removing a redirect.

The biggest exception to that is main pages of wikis (which redirecting
en.wikipedia.org to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_page actually wastes 27
years of Wikipedia readers time every month) [1] so if there is lots of
clicks coming for an article from another article (you can find those in
clickstream datasets [2]) this might be a good idea to fix but in general I
don't think so and it's even more work for the system to re-render the
page, update links table, etc.

[1] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T120085
[2] https://dumps.wikimedia.org/other/clickstream/

On Mon, Dec 28, 2020 at 3:06 AM Thibaut Payet <thibaut120094@outlook.fr>
wrote:

> Thank you very much for your detailed reply.
>
> We tried to convince our friend with your message and WP:PERF but he's
> still not convinced, he even created a RfC on frwiki which is currently
> being discussed[1] and we need some more information.
>
> He created these two pages:
> * <https://fr.wikipedia.org/?oldid=177832893&uselang=en> (list of
> redirections)
> * <https://fr.wikipedia.org/?oldid=177847552&uselang=en> (list of direct
> links)
>
> Previewed them and argue that the parser profiling data table shown
> below the page indicate that there's less CPU time/real time usage with
> the page using direct links than the one using redirects:
> "As surprising as it may seem, the page that gives the best result is
> the one with the direct links. Exactly the opposite of those who want to
> prohibit the fixes [note: we don't], it is precisely the direct links
> that give the best results. Go figure."[2]
>
> Does that kind of benchmark makes sense? Is the parser profiler data
> even relevant here? What exactly is calculated?
>
> Sorry for all these questions but we would be grateful if you could shed
> some light on this.
>
> Happy holidays,
> Thibaut Payet
> [[User:Thibaut120094]]
>
> [1] <https://fr.wikipedia.org/?curid=13767430&uselang=en>
> [2] <https://fr.wikipedia.org/?diff=prev&oldid=177855343&uselang=en>
>
> On 24.11.2020 05:36, AntiCompositeNumber wrote:
> > While the specifics may have changed over time, the general point of
> > the page is correct -- "fixing" a redirect will use significantly more
> > server time than clicking on one. When you click a redirect, MediaWiki
> > queries the redirect table to see where you should go instead. Reads
> > from the database like this are fast. However, when you edit the page
> > to "fix" a redirect, MediaWiki has to save the edit, update the links
> > tables, re-render the HTML, invalidate the cache, and serve the new
> > HTML, among other things.
> >
> > From a reader's perspective, there's no performance difference between
> > clicking a redirect and clicking any other internal link. We're
> > talking milliseconds here, if that. If you wanted to really improve
> > the performance of a page, remove all the images. (Note: do not do
> > this.)
> >
> > This falls under
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Don%27t_worry_about_performance
> >:
> > let the developers and the operations folk worry about performance. If
> > you're already making an edit to an article and you feel like
> > bypassing a few redirects, go ahead and knock yourself out. But going
> > out of your way to "fix" links to redirects is just a waste of your
> > time.
> >
> > ACN
> >
> > On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 11:23 PM Andreas Papacharalampous <me@apap04.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> the page was created in 2006 [1], but i don't think it's up to date for
> 2020. the last couple of "constructive" edits were from 2006-2011 but i'm
> not sure.
> >>
> >> [1]:
> https://xtools.wmflabs.org/articleinfo/en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation%20popups/About%20fixing%20redirects
> >> --andreas
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 11:11 PM Thibaut Payet <
> thibaut120094@outlook.fr> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Hi everyone,
> >>>
> >>> On the French Wikipedia we're currently reworking our help page about
> >>> redirects and some of us would like to include a section about common
> >>> misconceptions, especially those described at
> >>> <
> https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation_popups/About_fixing_redirects&oldid=988508313
> >.
> >>>
> >>> However one user who's used to "fix" redirects is strongly opposed
> >>> because "this page is from 2006" and it's "unsourced".[1]
> >>>
> >>> So I would like to ask the sysadmins from Wikimedia and the MediaWiki
> >>> developers who are following this mailing list: is this page created in
> >>> 2006 still true and relevant in 2020?
> >>>
> >>> Thank you.
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> Kind regards,
> >>> Thibaut Payet
> >>> [[User:Thibaut120094]]
> >>>
> >>> [1]
> >>> <
> https://sigma.toolforge.org/usersearch.py?name=Alaspada&page=Discussion_aide%3ARedirection&server=frwiki&max=
> >
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> Wikitech-l mailing list
> >>> Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Wikitech-l mailing list
> >> Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Wikitech-l mailing list
> > Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikitech-l mailing list
> Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
>


--
Amir (he/him)