Disambiguation pages

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Disambiguation Pages

Disambiguation pages are not articles, but navigation aids!

Disambiguation pages ("dab pages") are designed to help a reader find Wikipedia articles on different topics that could be referenced by the same search term, as described in the Disambiguation guideline. Disambiguation pages are not articles; they are aids in searching.

The pages should contain only disambiguation content, whether or not the page title contains the parenthetical (disambiguation). This guideline does not apply to articles that are primary topics, even if the articles are prefaced by a "See also" hatnote or the like at the top of the page.

In general, the title of a disambiguation page is the ambiguous term itself, provided there is no primary topic for that term. If there is already a primary topic, then "(disambiguation)" is added to the title of the disambiguation page, as in Jupiter (disambiguation).

At the top of the page

The first line of a disambiguation page should be the introductory line (see below) unless there is a link to Wiktionary using the templates shown below, in which case that should be the first line. If there is a link to the primary topic (see below), that line should appear before the introductory line, but after the Wiktionary link. Each of these three should begin its own line (the Wiktionary template creates a box on the right side of the page).

Linking to Wiktionary

When a dictionary definition should be included, rather than writing a text entry, create a cross-link to Wiktionary, one of the Wikimedia sister projects. To do this, use one of these Wiktionary link templates on the first line:

{{Wiktionary}} – {{wiktionary|WORD|WORD2|...|WORD5}} – up to five optional parameters; useful for linking dictionary entries with multiple capitalizations (star, Star, and STAR) – without parameters, defaults to using the current page's name without capitalization.

{{Wiktionary pipe}} – {{wiktionary pipe|WORD|optional display name}}

Be sure to check the links created by these templates, as Wiktionary's case sensitivity sometimes differs from Wikipedia's. (On the first letter, Wiktionary uses proper capitalization for its entries, unlike Wikipedia's use of an uppercase first letter for each page name.)

Linking to a primary topic

When a page has "(disambiguation)" in its title – i.e., it is the disambiguation page for a term for which a primary topic has been identified – users are most likely to arrive there by clicking on a top link from the primary topic article, generated by a template in the {{otheruses}} series. For example, the article School contains the hatnote:

For other uses, see School (disambiguation).

The primary topic is the one reached by using the disambiguation page title without the (disambiguation) qualifier. Capitalization differences matter, so there will only be one primary topic for a title.

Since it is unlikely that this primary topic is what readers are looking for if they have reached the disambiguation page, it should not be mixed in with the other links. It is recommended that the link back to the primary topic appear at the top, in a brief explanatory sentence.

When the ambiguous term has a primary topic but that article has a different title (so that the term is the title of a redirect), the primary topic line normally uses the redirect to link to that article.

Introductory line

The term being disambiguated should be in bold (not italics). It should begin a sentence fragment ending with a colon, introducing a bulleted list. Example:

Interval may refer to:

Individual entries

After the introductory line comes a list of individual entries – lines which direct the readers to Wikipedia articles on the various topics which might be referenced by the term being disambiguated. Keep in mind that the primary purpose of the disambiguation page is to help people find the specific article they want quickly and easily. Example:

Interval may refer to:

· Interval (mathematics), a certain subset of an ordered set

· Interval (music), the relationship between two notes

Apply the following rules when constructing entries:

· Preface each entry with a bullet (an asterisk in wiki markup).

· Start each entry with a capital letter (unless it begins with a link to an article marked with {{lowercase}}, like eBay).

· Insert a comma after an entry when a description is included.

· Use sentence fragments, with no closing punctuation unless it is part of the description (e.g., a description that ends in "etc." would end with the period)

· Include exactly one navigable (blue) link to efficiently guide readers to the most relevant article for that use of the ambiguous term. Do not wikilink any other words in the line.

· Do not emphasize the link with bolding or italics, although titles (such as for books and movies) may need to be italicized to conform with the style guidance on titles. If the article's title contains both a title and a clarifier, quote or italicize only the part requiring such treatment, as opposed to the entire link, e.g.: Dark Star (film) . This can be accomplished by piping the link. The templates {{fti}} or {{ftq}} can also be used to put only the title, and not the qualifier, in italics or quotes, respectively.

· Keep the description associated with a link to a minimum, just sufficient to allow the reader to find the correct link. In many cases, the title of the article alone will be sufficient and no additional description is necessary.

· In most cases the title of the target article will be an expansion or variation of the term being disambiguated (as in the example above). If this is the case:

· The link should come at the start of the entry.

· The article title should appear exactly as it is on the target page; the link should not be piped except to apply formatting.

Note also the following points when constructing lists of entries:

· An entry with no links at all is useless for further navigation.

· A disambiguation page should not be made up completely of red links or have only one blue link on the entire page, because the basic purpose of disambiguation is to refer users to other Wikipedia pages.

· Never include external links, either as entries or in descriptions. Disambiguation pages disambiguate Wikipedia articles, not the World-Wide Web. To note URLs that might be helpful in the future, include them on the talk page.

· References should not appear on disambiguation pages. Dab pages are not articles; instead, incorporate the references into the target articles.

Misspellings

Common misspellings should be listed only if there is a genuine risk of confusion or misspelling. These cross-links should be placed in a separate section entitled "Common misspellings" or "See also". For example, in a page called Kington (disambiguation), a link to Kingston (disambiguation) would appropriately be included in the "See also" section.

Specific entry types

External links

External links do not belong on disambiguation pages; they should not be used.

Foreign languages

For foreign-language terms, be sure an article exists or could be written for the word or phrase in question. Usually this means that the term has been at least partially adopted into English or is used by specialists.

People

For people, include their birth and death years (when known), and only enough descriptive information that the reader can distinguish between different people with the same name. Keep in mind the conventions for birth and death dates—see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers § Dates of birth and death. Do not include a, an or the before the description of the person's occupation or role. Example:

· John Adams (physicist) (1920–1984), Director General of CERN and particle accelerator designer

· John Worthington Adams (1764–1837), British general in India

Places

For places, it may only be necessary to write the name of the article.

It may be appropriate to add the country after the link. Leave the country unlinked.

Page ordering

The following guidelines describe the appropriate ordering of disambiguation pages:

The primary topic, if there is one, should be placed at the top. In cases where a small number of main topics are significantly more likely to be the reader's target, several of the most common meanings may be placed at the top, with other meanings below. See Mojave or Mercury for examples of this.

Long disambiguation pages should be grouped into subject sections, and even subsections as necessary, as described below. These sections (and any subsections) should typically be in alphabetical order, e.g.: Arts and entertainment; Business; Government and politics; Places; Science and technology.

Within each group or section, entries should be ordered to best assist the reader in finding their intended article. Entries are typically ordered first by similarity to the ambiguous title, then alphabetically or chronologically as appropriate. A recommended order is:

· Articles with a clarifier in parentheses: e.g., Moss (band)

· Articles with a clarifier following a comma: e.g., Moss, Monterey County, California

· Articles with the item as part of the name: e.g., Moss Bros (Only include articles whose subject might reasonably be called by the ambiguous title.)

· Synonyms: e.g., Tincture on Spirit (disambiguation)

Some entries may belong in a "See also" section at the bottom of the page:

· Terms which can be confused with Title, for example New Market and Newmarket

· Likely misspellings of Title, for example Belmont, Belmonte and Bellmont

· Different forms of Title, for example Splitting, Split, and Splitter

· Links to indexes of article titles beginning with Title (using {{look from|Title}}) or article titles containing Title (using {{in title|Title}})

· Broader-subject articles that treat the topic in a section: e.g., Brewing as part of a Hops dab page

· Articles with the item as part of the name, but that are unlikely to be called by the ambiguous title: e.g., Spanish moss as part of a Moss dab page.

The "See also" should always be separated from the other entries with a section header. Links to other disambiguation pages should use the "(disambiguation)" link

In the "See also" section of a disambiguation page, an intentional link to another disambiguation page that does not contain "(disambiguation)" in the title should be written as [[Foo (disambiguation)]]. When appropriate, place easily confused terms in a hatnote.

Grouping by subject area

Sometimes the sheer number of topics can make it difficult for a reader to find a particular topic on a disambiguation page. In these cases, it can be helpful to separate entries by subject sections. Section headings should be as simple as possible; Sports is preferred to Sports people or Sports figures, since the nature of the category (people, in this case) should be obvious.

Subject areas should be chosen carefully to simplify navigation. Use subject areas that are well-defined, and that group the entries into similarly sized sections. Very small sections may impede navigation, and should usually be avoided. Entries which do not fit neatly into any section should be placed in an "Other uses" section or subsection, at the bottom of the page or section (but above any "See also" section). The "Other uses" section should be relatively short; if it becomes excessively long, it may indicate that the page should be reorganized. Example:

Thingamajig may refer to:

In science:

· Thingamajig (biology), an invasive plant used as ground cover

· Thingamajig (chemistry), an isotope of chlorine

· Thingamajig (physics), a kind of pulsar

In world music:

· Thingamajig (Peru), a wind instrument similar to an aulos

· Thingamajig (Qatar), a seven-stringed musical instrument

· Thingamajig (UK), a wind instrument, similar to, but longer than the Peruvian one

On longer lists, section headings should be used instead of, or in addition to, bold headings. Using more than one level may be necessary, as on Aurora (disambiguation). Always use ==Level two== as the highest-level header. Section headings should not include links.

On longer lists, {{TOC right}} may be used to move the table of contents to the right hand side of the page. This reduces the amount of white space and may improve the readability of the page. If used, {{TOC right}} should be placed after the lead section of the wiki markup and immediately before the first section heading. Users of screen readers do not expect any text between the TOC and the first heading, and having no text above the TOC is confusing.

Images and templates

Including images and transcluding templates are discouraged unless they aid in selecting between articles on the particular search term in question. Examples of this are the images at Congo (disambiguation) and Mississippi Delta (disambiguation).

Icons, including flag icons, should not be used on disambiguation pages. Only if flag topics are being disambiguated and images are needed to do so, then flag icons or flag images might be added.

The disambig notice and categorization

After all of the disambiguation content (including the "See also" section, if present), but before any categories (see below) or interlanguage links, a template should be placed identifying the page as a disambiguation page. This generates a message to the reader explaining the purpose of the page, and also places the page in the appropriate category or categories.

The usual template to use is {{disambig}}, which produces a general disambiguation notice, and places the page in Category:Disambiguation pages. Parameters can be added to place the page additionally into other more specific disambiguation categories. For example, if a page includes multiple places and multiple people with the same surname (and possibly other items), use {{disambig|geo|surname}}. A full list of available parameters and their corresponding categories can be found in the {{disambig}} template documentation.

If a disambiguation page consists exclusively of items in one of the more specific classes, then a specific template should be used instead of {{disambig}}. For example, use {{geodis}} for locations, {{hndis}} for human names and so on. A full list can be found in the {{disambig}} template documentation.

If a disambiguation page needs cleaning up to bring it into conformance with this style manual, use {{disambig-cleanup}}. This replaces both {{disambig}} and {{cleanup-date}}.

Do not use {{subst:disambig}} or {{subst:disambig-cleanup}}, as the contents of this notice may change in the future Also, the Wikipedia software relies on links to the templates to determine which pages are disambiguation pages , and subst'ing breaks this feature.

Most disambiguation pages do not need to be placed into any categories other than those generated by the template. If such cases do arise (for example, specific categories of personal names that do not have corresponding template parameters), then the additional categories should be placed after the template.

Disambiguation pages with only two entries

A disambiguation page with only two meanings is not necessary if one of them is the primary topic for that term. The recommended practice in these situations is to place a hatnote on the primary topic article to link directly to the secondary topic. The {{for}} and {{redirect}} templates are useful. A two-entry disambiguation page with a primary topic can be tagged with {{only-two-dabs}}.

If neither of the two meanings is primary, then a normal disambiguation page is still used at the base name.

SUMMARY

When you edit disambiguation pages;

DO THE FOLLOWING

· Put the target link at the start of each entry.

· Keep descriptions short.

· Organize, in sections if needed, with "other uses" last.

· List the primary topic first, if one exists.

· Link to {{Wiktionary}}, if useful.

· Fix incoming links to point to the intended page.

· Tag pages needing work with {{disambiguation cleanup}}

DO NOT DO THE FOLLOWING

· Don't pipe links, unless formatting requires it.

· Don't include multiple blue links in an entry.

· Don't include entries without a blue link.

· Don't include red links that aren't used elsewhere.

· Don't include every article containing the title.

· Don't include dictionary definitions.

· Don't include references or external links.

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