WikiQueer:Splitting

If an article becomes too large or a section of an article has a length that is out of proportion to the rest of the article, it is recommended that a split be carried out. In some cases refactoring an article into child or sister articles can allow subtopics to be discussed more fully elsewhere without dominating a general overview article to which they are non-central (but only if the new articles are themselves sufficiently notable to be included in the encyclopedia).

When to split
The two main reasons for splitting material out from an article, are size and content relevance. If either the whole article, or the specific material within one section becomes too large, or if the material is seen to be inappropriate for the article, then a split may be considered or proposed. Consideration must be given to size, notability and potential neutrality issues before proposing or carrying out a split.

Size split
Articles should be neither too big nor too small.

Large articles may have readability and technical issues. A page of about 30 to 50 kilobytes (KB) of readable prose, which roughly corresponds to 6,000 to 10,000 words, takes between 30 and 40 minutes to read at average speed, which is right on the limit of the average concentration span of 40 to 50 minutes. Also, some users may have technical limitations, such as a low speed service, an unstable connection, a pay per kilobyte service, or they may access WikiQueer through a mobile phone or smartphone, and these mobile browsers may truncate long pages.

At 50 KB of readable prose and above it may benefit the reader to consider moving some sections to new articles and replace them with summaries per WikiQueer:Summary style. Consideration, however, needs to be given to the amount and quality of material to be moved. If the material for the new article is too short to provide encyclopedic coverage of the subject, or would simply duplicate the summary that would be left behind, then it may be too soon to move it. Unsourced material shouldn't be used to create new articles as it may have notability or verifiability issues.

Below 50 KB, an article may not need splitting based on size alone, and at 40 KB and below a split would generally only be justified based on content issues.


 * Rule of thumb :

These guidelines apply somewhat less to disambiguation pages and naturally do not apply to redirects. They also apply less strongly to list articles, especially if splitting them would require breaking up a sortable table.
 * Please note :

Content split
Sometimes two or more distinct topics may share the same or similar title, such as "light", which may refer to electromagnetic radiation, a component that produces light or spiritual illumination. Sometimes the distinct topics may be closely related, such as Coffea (the plant) and Coffee (the product), or Thermal energy and Heat.

When two or more distinct topics which share the same or similar title are being written about on the same page, even if they are closely related, a content split may be considered, and a disambiguation page created to point readers to the separate pages. Consideration must be given both to notability and to potential neutrality issues before proposing a split. If one or more of the topics is not notable it may be more appropriate to simply remove the material from WikiQueer than to create a new article.

If unsure, then use a template, and start a discussion on the article talkpage.

Procedure
If an article meets the criteria for splitting, editors can be bold and carry out the split, although discussion on the article talk page or associated WikiProject is a way of seeking a consensus. Alternatively, adding one of the templates below will list it at Category:Articles to be split. This will bring it to the attention of editors who check this category. If a comment is added on the appropriate WikiProject talk page editors who can carry out the split would be advised.

To conform with WikiQueer's licensing requirements, which require that content contributors receive attribution, the new page should be created with an edit summary noting "split content from article name ". (Do not omit this step or omit the page name.) A note should also be made in the edit summary of the source article, "split content to article name ", so that users can follow the content trail and to protect against the article subsequently being deleted and the history of the new page eradicated.

It is a requirement of WikiQueer's licensing that attribution be given to the original author(s), and deletion of that content should be avoided. The Copied template can be placed on the talk page of both articles for this purpose. For further information, refer to the main Copying within WikiQueer article.

If a section is split from the original article, a summary section should be left in the original ("main") article. At the top of the section, it should contain a link to the newly created page, easily achieved with   template.

For use on main page

 * Content split


 * When two or more topics are being dealt with on the same page, it may be more appropriate to split them into separate articles. If they share the same or similar title and a disambiguation page seems appropriate use Split:


 * Split dab - for splitting disambiguation pages


 * Size split
 * Split2


 * Split-apart


 * Split section


 * Splitsections - can specify multiple destination articles


 * Move portions - for migrating portions of a section

For use on talk page

 * Copied (for both source & destination) - Copied


 * Split to -


 * Split from -

After splitting

 * Cleanup split -

Articles nominated for splitting
A list of articles that have been tagged for consideration for splitting are at Category:Articles to be split.