Help:Interwiki links

An interwiki link is a link to another wiki on Wikia, or to any other wiki listed on the interwiki map (which is part of the wiki's database), using the abbreviated form [[wikiname:pagetitle]]. This prevents you needing to use the full URL, and will prevent links from breaking if a wiki later changes its address.

Linking to another Wikia

To link from a Wikia to another, use [[w:c:wikiname:pagename]], e.g. [[w:c:Starwars:Jedi]]. Some Wikia have their own wiki prefix; for example, the Star Wars Wikia has a prefix of "Starwars", and its Jedi page can be linked via Starwars:Jedi. It is not necessary to use w:c:Starwars:Jedi in that case.

Linking to another language version of your wiki (Interlanguage links)

To link to another language version of your wiki, use [[languagecode:pagename]], e.g.[[fr:fromage]] will link to the "fromage" article on the French-language version of that wiki. If you leave off the pagename, it will use the pagename of the article the interwiki link is placed on.

Generally such links are placed alphabetically by language code at the end of an article, and will show up in the sidebar. See Help:Interlanguage links for more information.

Note: because different languages can use different wiki names (such as the English cycling.wikia.com and the French cyclisme.wikia.com), interlanguage linking must be manually activated by the community team. If your topic has another language version at Wikia, and you would like to activate interlanguage linking, please leave a request on the Interlanguage link requests page on Community Central.

Linking to Wikia Community Central

You can use the format [[wikia:pagename]] (or just [[w:pagename]]) to link to pages on the Wikia Community Central site. This is true for any pages with the community.wikia.com subdomain.

[[community:pagename]] also works.

For example; to link to Community Central from other wikis use wikia:Community Central, w:Community Central, or community:Community Central.

Linking to Wikia Help

You can use the format [[helpwiki:pagename]] to link to most help wiki pages (pages with the help.wikia.com subdomain) from other wikis. For example;

• [[helpwiki:Contents]] to link to Help:Contents from other wikis:

For category, talk, and special pages use [[w:c:help:pagename]] to link from other wikis.

• [[w:c:help:Help talk:Contents]] to link to Help talk:Contents.
• [[w:c:help:Category:Help]] to link to Category:Help.
• [[w:c:help:Special:Search]] to link Special:Search for the help wiki.

It is oftentimes better to link directly to the help wiki with the above methods. This is because then the help wiki can be searched from the page.

[[help:pagename]] displays the same content when used on other wikis, but it is transcluded from the help wiki. The link subdomain of the transcluded page is not help.wikia.com. So the help wiki can not be searched from those transcluded pages.

Linking to an External Wiki

Sites listed in the interwiki map can be linked via [[wiki prefix:page name]]. For example, [[Wikipedia:Jedi]] will be converted to link to the English Wikipedia's "Jedi" article: Wikipedia:Jedi.

Note that the name used in the interwiki link is not always exactly the same as the domain or sub-domain, e.g. MetaWikipedia: vs. http://meta.wikimedia.org

See the Interwiki map on Community Central for interwiki prefixes for an ever-growing list of individual external wikis.

Link to a Wikia site from an external wiki

If the Central Wikia is in the interwiki map of another wiki, you can link to any Wikia using the syntax: [[Wikia:c:Wiki name:Page title]] or [[Wikiasite:Projectname:Page title]]

For example, [[Wikia:c:Starwars:Jedi]] or [[Wikiasite:Starwars:Jedi]] from a wiki outside Wikia would link to http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Jedi

The c stands for "city" (a legacy from Wikia's origin as "Wikicities") and makes use of automatic redirects.

Interwiki Redirects

It is sometimes possible to redirect to another wiki using interwiki links (although this has now been disabled by default in MediaWiki). Such redirects are not recommended since they can be surprising and confusing for users to be taken automatically to a different wiki.

There is no easy way for the user to return to the original page other than using the "back" button on their browser, and it is difficult to edit the page once redirected. Redirects of user pages are especially harmful, since it prevents people finding the contributions list of that user. A soft redirect can be used as an alternative.

Styling Interwiki Links

See Help:Changing the style of interwiki links.

See also

• To request a specific interwiki link for your wiki, please visit this page.
• Help:Interwiki link/technical - detailed list of interwiki link types
• MetaWikipedia:Help:Interwiki linking
• MetaWikipedia:Redirected user pages considered harmful