Page splitting

Page Splitting: A Comprehensive Guide

Page splitting is a fundamental, yet often overlooked, technique for maintaining a well-organized and navigable wiki. It's the process of dividing a single, overly long page into multiple, smaller, more focused pages. This guide will provide a comprehensive overview of page splitting, its benefits, when to consider it, how to execute it effectively, and best practices for ensuring a smooth transition. This article is geared towards beginners, assuming little to no prior experience with advanced wiki editing.

== What is Page Splitting and Why is it Important?

As a wiki grows, individual pages can become excessively long. This can happen for a variety of reasons – extensive documentation, detailed historical records, a broad range of related information, or simply organic growth over time. While a wealth of information is valuable, a single page that is too long presents several problems:

**Readability:** Long pages are difficult to read and comprehend. Users can easily get lost, losing focus and potentially missing crucial information. It impacts user experience negatively.
**Load Times:** Large pages take longer to load, especially for users with slower internet connections. This can lead to frustration and abandonment.
**Edit Conflicts:** When many editors are working on a large page simultaneously, the likelihood of edit conflicts increases significantly. This disrupts the editing process and can lead to lost work.
**Navigation:** Finding specific information within a massive page can be time-consuming. Table of contents can help, but they become unwieldy and less effective as the page grows.
**Maintainability:** Updating and maintaining a very long page is a complex task. Changes can have unintended consequences, and it's harder to ensure consistency.
**Search Engine Optimization (SEO):** While primarily internal, a well-structured wiki benefits from better internal linking and focused content, improving how search functions within the wiki operate. Excessively long pages dilute the focus of the content.

Page splitting addresses these issues by breaking down large pages into smaller, more manageable units. Each new page can then focus on a specific aspect of the original topic, making the information easier to find, read, and maintain. It’s a core component of wiki organization.

== When Should You Consider Page Splitting?

Determining *when* to split a page isn't always straightforward. There's no hard and fast rule, but here are some indicators that it's time to consider splitting:

**Page Length:** A general guideline is that a page exceeding 30-50 kilobytes (KB) in size should be considered for splitting. You can check a page's size by going to "Page info" in the "More" dropdown menu at the top of the page. However, size isn't the only factor.
**Topic Breadth:** If a page covers multiple distinct subtopics, each of which could stand alone as a separate article, splitting is a good idea. For example, a page about "Trading Strategies" might be split into "Day Trading Strategies," "Swing Trading Strategies," and "Long-Term Investing Strategies."
**Complex Tables or Lists:** Very large tables or lists can significantly impact page load times and readability. Consider moving them to separate pages or breaking them down into smaller, more manageable chunks. For instance, a comprehensive list of technical indicators could be split based on indicator type (trend-following, momentum, volatility).
**Frequent Edits to Specific Sections:** If certain sections of a page are edited much more frequently than others, it suggests those sections are evolving independently and might benefit from being on their own pages.
**Lack of Cohesion:** If the content on a page feels disjointed or lacks a clear focus, splitting can help create more cohesive and focused articles.
**Redundancy:** If information is being repeated across different sections of a page, it might indicate that a separate page dedicated to that specific information is needed.
**Difficulty in Navigation:** If users are consistently struggling to find specific information within a page, it's a strong sign that splitting is necessary. Consider user feedback and page views when making this assessment.

== How to Split a Page: A Step-by-Step Guide

Here's a detailed breakdown of how to split a page in MediaWiki:

- 1. Planning & Preparation:**

**Identify Split Points:** Carefully analyze the page and identify natural breakpoints where to divide the content. Consider the subtopics and how they relate to each other. Outline the proposed new pages and their scope.
**Create New Pages:** Create the new pages with appropriate titles. These titles should be descriptive and accurately reflect the content they will contain. Use the Help:Page for guidance on creating new pages.
**Initial Content:** Begin populating the new pages with the relevant content from the original page. Copy and paste the sections you've identified for each new page. *Do not* remove the content from the original page yet.

- 2. The Split Process:**

**Edit the Original Page:** Open the original page for editing.
**Remove the Split Content:** Carefully remove the sections you've copied to the new pages from the original page. *Leave a note* where the content was removed, explaining that it has been moved to a new page and providing a link to that page. For example: `Template:Moved to` This is crucial for maintaining the history and context of the information.
**Add Summary Links:** At the top of the original page, add a brief summary of the new pages and links to them. This helps users quickly navigate to the related information. For example:

```wiki This page previously contained information on various trading strategies. That information has been split into the following pages:

```

**Save Changes:** Save the changes to the original page.

- 3. Linking and Refinement:**

**Internal Linking:** This is the *most* important step. Review all pages (the original and the new ones) and ensure that all relevant internal links are updated to point to the correct pages. For example, if the original page had a link to a section that is now on a new page, update that link to point to the new page. Use the Special:WhatLinksHere tool to find pages that link to the original page and update those links as needed. Consider links to concepts like candlestick patterns, moving averages, or Fibonacci retracements.
**Table of Contents (TOC) Updates:** The TOC on the original page will likely need to be adjusted to reflect the removed content.
**Category Updates:** Ensure all pages are correctly categorized. Consider adding categories related to market analysis, risk management, or trading psychology.
**Review and Refine:** Carefully review all pages for accuracy, clarity, and consistency. Ensure that the content flows logically and that there are no broken links. Solicit feedback from other editors.

== Best Practices for Page Splitting

**Communicate:** Before making significant changes, especially to widely viewed pages, discuss your plans with other editors. Use the Talk page to propose and discuss the split.
**Use Templates:** Consider using templates to create consistent layouts and formatting across the new pages.
**Maintain History:** The `Template:Moved to` template is essential for preserving the edit history and context of the information. Do not delete content from the original page without leaving a clear indication of where it has been moved.
**Avoid Over-Splitting:** Don't split pages into too many small fragments. Each new page should have a substantial amount of content and a clear purpose. Consider the principle of information granularity.
**Consider Redirects:** In some cases, it might be helpful to create redirects from the original page sections to the new pages. This ensures that users who access the old links are automatically redirected to the correct location.
**Check for Broken Links:** After splitting, thoroughly check for and fix any broken links. Use tools like the Special:BrokenLinks page.
**Use Descriptive Page Titles:** Choose page titles that accurately reflect the content of the page and make it easy for users to understand what the page is about.
**Maintain Consistency:** Ensure that the style and formatting are consistent across all pages.
**Regularly Review:** Periodically review your wiki to identify pages that may need to be split or reorganized. This is part of ongoing wiki maintenance.
**Understand the Impact on Page Views:** Splitting a page will likely reduce the page views on the original page, but it should increase the page views on the new, more focused pages. Monitor your page statistics to track the impact of the split.
**Consider the broader context of information architecture within the wiki.**

== Tools and Resources

**Page Info:** Provides information about a page, including its size and edit history.
**What Links Here:** Shows all pages that link to a specific page.
**Broken Links:** Lists all pages with broken links.
**Edit History:** Allows you to view the edit history of a page.
**Talk Pages:** Used for discussing changes and proposals.
**Redirects:** Used to automatically redirect users from one page to another.
**Templates:** Used to create consistent layouts and formatting.
**Categories:** Used to organize pages into logical groups.
**Help Pages:** Provides documentation and guidance on using MediaWiki.

== Advanced Considerations

**Transclusion:** Instead of copying content to new pages, you could consider using transclusion (`{{#invoke:}}`) to include the content on multiple pages. This can be useful for content that is used repeatedly. However, transclusion can also increase page load times and make it harder to edit the content.
**Subpages:** You can use subpages (e.g., `Page Name/Subpage`) to organize related content within a single page. This can be a good alternative to splitting if the content is closely related and doesn't warrant a separate page.
**Modular Design:** When designing a new wiki or restructuring an existing one, consider adopting a modular design that makes it easier to split and reorganize pages in the future.

==Further Reading & Related Topics

<references> Technical Analysis Candlestick Patterns Moving Averages Fibonacci Retracement Risk Management Trading Psychology Forex Trading Strategies Day Trading Swing Trading Long-Term Investing Volatility Momentum Trend Bull Market Bear Market Sideways Market Range-Bound Uptrend Downtrend Head and Shoulders Pattern Double Top Pattern Double Bottom Pattern W Pattern Triangle Pattern Flag Pattern Pennant Pattern </references>

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