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This page in a nutshell: Provide links and disambiguation pages so that users typing in a likely topic name for more than one topic can quickly navigate to the article they seek. |
Disambiguation is the process of resolving the conflicts that arise when a single term is ambiguous, and so may refer to more than one topic which the wiki covers. For example, the word "Gold" can refer to coins, an ore, a metal bar, and a rock, and numerous other things. There are three important aspects to disambiguation:
- Naming articles in such a way that each has a unique title. For example, three of the articles dealing with items ordinarily called "Bucket of water" are titled Bucket of water (blessed), Bucket of water (murky), Bucket of water (stagnant).
- Making the links for ambiguous terms point to the correct article title. For example, someone writing about the quest Rum Deal may have created a link to [[Bucket of water]], and this should be corrected to point to Bucket of water (stagnant), an item specific to the quest.
- Ensuring that someone 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 Gold is a disambiguation page – a non-article page which lists the various meanings of "Gold" and links to the articles which cover them.
Disambiguation links
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 articles or disambiguation pages, placed at the top of the article using one of the templates shown below.
In some cases there are different templates available, including or omitting information about the topic of the article. The shorter hatnote may be chosen if omitting the information is not likely to confuse the reader.
On the primary page (with no disambiguation page):
- Use
{{otheruses|Varrock|the palace in Varrock|Varrock Palace}}
- This article is about Varrock. For the palace in Varrock, see Varrock Palace.
- Use
{{otheruses|Coin}}
- This article is about coins. For other uses, see Coin (disambiguation).
When the primary topic redirects to another page:
- If there is a disambiguation page, use
{{redirect|Chaos}}
- "Chaos" redirects here. For other uses, see Chaos (disambiguation).
- If there is only one secondary topic, use
{{redirect3|Death Plateau|For the location, see [[Death Plateau (location)]]}}
- "Death Plateau" redirects here. For the location, see Death Plateau (location).
Usage guidelines
- Place disambiguation links at the top of an article. This placement is where they are most visible.
- For links that are related to the article, but are not a source of ambiguity, create a section called "See also" at the end of the article. This is a more appropriate place for those types of links.
- Do not pipe disambiguation links. Use the entire article title as the link in order to avoid confusion, which is the reason for the link in the first place.
- Consolidate (or compress) multiple disambiguation links into as few dablink hatnotes as possible. In most cases, it is better to create a disambiguation page and link there, instead of adding multiple links at the top of an article.
Disambiguation pages
Naming the disambiguation page
- The title of a disambiguation page should be the ambiguous term itself, provided there is no primary topic for that term.
- Example: Bob - There is nothing in RuneScape named just Bob. Thus, the article should be named so.
- If there is an article on the primary topic, then the tag "(disambiguation)" is added to the name of the disambiguation page.
- Example: Cow (disambiguation) - (disambiguation) must be added, as there is already an article about Cow.
Page style
Each disambiguation page comprises of a list (or multiple lists, for multiple senses of the term in question) of similarly-titled links. There are a few main components that each disambiguation page must contain for consistency.
- Start each page with a short introductory sentence fragment with the ambiguous term in bold, and ending with a colon. If there is a link to the primary topic, briefly describe the topic before the sentence fragment. For example:
- Juju may refer to:
- Defenders are members-only, off-hand weapons that are wielded in the shield slot and provide positive attack bonuses. Defender may also refer to:
- List the links below the introduction using bullet points.
- Start each entry in the list with a link to the target page.
- Include a brief description where possible, but avoid full sentences (i.e. without punctuation marks).
- Big bones, a bigger version of normal bones dropped by abnormally large monsters
- Each entry should only have one navigable link because including more than one link can confuse the reader. In the following example, the links to Barrage spells and Magic are not included:
- Ice Barrage, a type of barrage spell cast with the Magic skill
- Do not pipe the links in the entries. Instead use the full title of the article being listed.
- For long lists, use section headers to group the entries:
==Header 1==* [[Link 1]]* [[Link 2]]* [[Link 3]]==Header 2==* [[Link 3]]* [[Link 4]]* [[Link 5]]* [[Link 6]]
- Include the template
{{disambig}}