User:Ricken/SandboxPG/Disambiguation

Disambiguation is a solution that resolves ambiguous titles on AmtWiki. For example, there are dozens of Amtgardians and chapters named Shadow, or a similar variant. If a user searches for a specific subject, they may not be able to quickly find the correct article. Disambiguation solves this problem.

There are three important aspects to disambiguation:

• Naming articles to ensure that each article has a unique, concise title. For example, titles of ambiguous subjects often include last names (Shadow Mufhstoughir) or modifers (Crimson Moon (Colorado))
• Making links for ambiguous terms point to the correct article. For example, internal links mentioning Raven Harkkonen by first name only could be changed to [[Raven Harkkonen|Raven]] to point directly to the correct player.
• Ensuring that a reader who searches for a topic using a particular term can get to the information on that topic quickly and easily, whichever of the possible topics it might be. For example, the page Peter is a disambiguation page—a non-article page which lists the various meanings of "Mercury" and links to the articles which cover them.

This page discusses the standard ways of handling the above issues.

Deciding to disambiguate

Disambiguation is required whenever, for a given word or phrase on which a reader might search, there is more than one existing Wikipedia article to which that word or phrase might be expected to lead. In this situation there must be a way for the reader to navigate quickly from the page that first appears to any of the other possible desired articles.

There are several common disambiguation scenarios, of which the following are examples:

• Kel is a disambiguation page; it links to alternative uses of the work Kel.
• Crystal Groves is about the kingdom, as it is the primary topic, and an alternate usage is linked in a hatnote.

If an ambiguous term has no primary topic, then that term needs to lead to a disambiguation page. In other words, where no topic is primary, the disambiguation page is placed at the base name.

If there is a primary topic located at the base name, then the question arises whether to create a disambiguation page, or merely to link to all the other meanings from a hatnote on the primary topic article.

Naming the specific topic articles

For disambiguating specific topic pages by using an unambiguous article title, several options are available:

• Natural disambiguation. When there is another term (such as Knee guards instead of Mechs) or more complete name (such as Celestial Kingdom Monarchy instead of CK Monarchy) that is unambiguous and equally clear, that term is typically the best to use.
• Parenthetical disambiguation. A disambiguating word or phrase can be added in parentheses. The word or phrase in parentheses should be:
  • the generic class (avoiding proper nouns, as much as possible) that includes the topic, as in Death (school); or
  • the subject or context to which the topic applies, as in Blackthorne (player); or
  • rarely, an adjective describing the topic can be used, but it is usually better to rephrase such a title to avoid parentheses.

Natural disambiguation is generally preferable to parenthetical disambiguation; for instance, Brennen MacGregor is preferred over Brennen (IM). If natural disambiguation is not available, a parenthetical is used. If there are several possible choices for parenthetical disambiguation, use the same disambiguating phrase already commonly used for other topics within the same class and context, if any. Otherwise, choose whichever is simpler.

Hatnotes

Users searching for what turns out to be an ambiguous term may not reach the article they expected. Therefore any article with an ambiguous title should contain helpful links to alternative AmtWiki articles or disambiguation pages, placed at the top of the article.

Disambiguation pages

A single disambiguation page may be used to disambiguate a number of similar terms. Sets of terms which are commonly combined include:

• Corresponding singular, plural and possessive forms, or compound words. For example, Stick (disambiguation redirects to Sticks (disambiguation).
• Variant spellings. For example, Sticks and Styx both appear at Sticks (disambiguation).
• Variant forms of names. For example, Lock (disambiguation) also lists Lockland

Editorial judgement should be used in deciding whether to combine terms in the ways described above. When a combined disambiguation page is used, redirects to it (or hatnotes, as appropriate) should be set up from all the terms involved.

Naming the disambiguation page

The title of a disambiguation page is the ambiguous term itself, provided there is no primary topic for that term. If there is a primary topic, then the tag "(disambiguation)" is added to the name of the disambiguation page, as in Kira (disambiguation).

When a disambiguation page combines several similar terms, one of them must be selected as the title for the page. The choice should be made considering the following:

• A word is preferred to an abbreviation.
• When no word can be formed, all capitals is preferred.
• Singulars are preferred to plurals.
• The simplest form of the term is preferred to those containing punctuation, diacritics and articles.
• The spelling that reflects the majority of items on the page is preferred to less common alternatives.

In addition, when a disambiguation page exists at the ambiguous term, there should also be a redirect to it from the "(disambiguation)" title.

Page style

Each disambiguation page comprises a list (or multiple lists, for multiple senses of the term in question) of similarly titled links.

• Link to the primary topic (if there is one):
  • A blade is the strike-legal part of a weapon.
• Start each list with a short introductory sentence fragment with the title in bold, and ending with a colon. For example:
  • Dark may refer to:
• Try to start each entry in the list with a link to the target page, unless the link provided gives context rather than a synonymous meaning.
• Each bulleted entry should have a navigable (blue) link, normally as the entry itself (see the previous bullet), or in the description if the entry is red-linked or unlinked.
• Rarely should a bulleted entry have more than one navigable link; including more than one link can confuse the reader.
• Do not pipe the name of the links to the articles being listed.
• Entries are sentence fragments; do not end them with periods or other punctuation.

Include the template {{disambiguation}} at the bottom as an indicator of the page's status.

What not to include

The purpose of a disambiguation page is to direct a reader seeking information on a specific topic to the right page. Strictly speaking, entries should be just sufficient for this purpose. It is common to add a little additional information. For example, consider "Laughing Ronin, a defunct freehold of Jacksonville, FL" or "Ronin Bloodrose of Murky Waters". Any extraneous information that doesn't help specify the article should be left to the page itself.

A disambiguation page is not a list of dictionary definitions. A short description of the common general meaning of a word can be appropriate for helping the reader determine context. Otherwise, include information about the definition of the word in the appropriate article.

A disambiguation page is not a search index. Do not add a link that merely contains part of the page title, or a link that includes the page title in a longer proper name, where there is no significant risk of confusion or reference. For example, Crimson Plains would not be easily confused with a person named Crimson (unless it was common practice to call the chapter simply "Crimson"), and including all references to "Crimson" in Amtgard history would be unnecessary and impractical.

Do not add articles to abbreviation or acronym disambiguation pages unless the target article includes the acronym or abbreviation—we are resolving an ambiguity, not making a list of abbreviations. A player known as AJ could be listed under the appropriate disambiguation page, but Angrist Galvorn is not commonly called "AG" and should not be placed in AG (disambiguation).

Don't include external links, either as entries or in descriptions. Disambiguation pages disambiguate AmtWiki articles, not the World Wide Web.

Don't include links to pages that have not been created. AmtWiki is not the ORK, and is not simply a list of all people who have ever played Amtgard without encyclopedic information about them.

Construction

Before constructing a new disambiguation page, determine a specific topic name for all existing pages, and the name for the disambiguation page. Move any page with a conflicting title (i.e., the same exact title) to its more specific name. Use the What links here list for the moved page to update pages that link to that page.

Categories

Disambiguation pages are not articles and should not be categorized as such. Article categories should lead readers to relevant articles; disambiguation pages should be placed in disambiguation categories only.