Help:Disambiguation
"'Disambiguation'" is used to resolve conflicts between two articles that should have the same "natural" title. It is also used to resolve conflicts between two redirects (for example, two acronyms that can have different meanings).
For example, if you were to create a link to the "St. Mary", such an article could refer to the numerous saints. See St. Mary (Disambiguation) for a listing. Disambiguations provide the means to differentiate between subjects. See Category:Disambiguation for more options.
Disambiguation should not be confused with the merging of duplicate articles.
When to Disambiguate
Disambiguation should be used anytime there is uncertainty on what a meaning of a link may be.
As an Saintapedia author or editor, ask yourself what article the reader would realistically be expecting to view as a result? When there is no risk of confusion, do not disambiguate, nor add a link to a disambiguation page. Simply link directly to the article.
How to Create a Disambiguation Page
A disambiguation page is no different from any other page except it has a very simple construct that goes something like
Some term may refer to:
- Link to the first thing
- Link to the second thing
- Link to the Nth thing
And it has the {{Disambig}} template at the end of the article.
Breaking a redirect
Sometimes the term already redirects to a specific topical page and it is necessary to "break the redirect' so you can turn the page into a redirect. To break a redirect, search on the term so Saintapedia redirects you to the page. Look right below the article's title for "Redirected from <the term you just searched on>". The term you searched on will be a link. Click that link and then edit the page. As soon as you remove the #Redirect at the beginning of the article, you will have broken the redirect.
Default Disambiguation
- "Default disambiguation is the exception, and the first method of directing to the disambiguation page should be used for most cases of disambiguation."
Sometimes, the most logical definition of the disambiguation warrants that it should automatically default (redirect) to the real article, not the disambiguation page. When to use this depends on the situation, but if there is doubt as to whether a page should direct to the article or to the disambiguation page, then direct to the disambiguation page.
In other words, only redirect to the article (versus the disambiguation page) when the article is widely accepted as the only common use of the term or acronym.
Warnings
In general, do not:
- Use disambiguation for misspellings of articles.
- Use disambiguation for "free association" of titles.
- Use disambiguation for double disambiguation (don't send one disambiguation page to another disambiguation page).
- Fill a disambiguation page with every possible meaning (the "Mercury (disambiguation)" page on Intellipedia has no need for references to the record label, the Roman god, the car, etc.)
- Create placeholder links for articles that may need disambiguation one day.
Finally, use disambiguations carefully. If two authors feel the need to fight for an article redirect, then probably it needs a disambiguation page, and the redirect should go there.
Code of Honor
A code of honor for creating disambiguation pages is to fix all resulting misdirected links. Before creating a disambiguation page, click on "What links here" on the left-hand menu to find all of the pages that link to the page that is about to change. Make sure that those pages are fixed or that they won't be adversely affected before performing the split.