GSWiki:Disambiguation
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 "Mod" may refer to Weapon Mods, A specific mod, a mod store, and many other things. There are three important aspects to disambiguation:
- Naming articles in such a way that each has a unique title.
- Making the links for ambiguous terms point to the correct article title.
- 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.
This page discusses the standard ways of handling the above issues and formatting of disambiguation pages.
Usage
Content
Disambiguation pages should contain a minimum of three entries. If there are only two topics with the same name, e.g. Boost Shield and Boost Shield (Feature), the primary topic should link directly to the secondary topic with the {{Otheruses}} template. In these cases, creating a separate disambiguation page is unnecessary.
For disambiguation pages that cover a broad topic with dozens of possible entries, use your best judgement in determining what to include. Listing every single article with the topic in its title is overkill and makes it much more difficult for readers to find what they are looking for.
Hatnotes
Hatnotes are the templates that provide links to disambiguation pages or similar articles. Editors should keep the number of hatnotes at the top to a minimum. Two is the suggested limit, e.g. one {{Otheruses}} and one {{Confuse}} – if there are three or more, they should be placed on their own disambiguation page.
There are several hatnote templates available, each suited to different situations:
{{Otheruses}}is the most common hatnote for noting other uses of the primary topic, and generally links to a(disambiguation)page.{{Redirect}}is used when an ambiguous term redirects to a primary topic, but could also refer to a page with a similar title. For example, "Cav" redirects to Character:Cav, but could also refer to Cav's Cat.{{Confuse}}is used when the primary topic could be confused with another page, either through misspelling, or similar subject matter.{{Main}}should only be placed in subsections of articles, generally accompanied by a summary of the topic being linked to.
As hatnotes separate the reader from the content they are looking for, descriptions should generally be as concise as possible. Long explanations are generally discouraged; the article's lead text, not the hatnote, should explain what the article is about.
Format
Introductory line
Disambiguation pages should always begin with: '''[PAGENAME]''' may refer to:. The page name should not be linked, nor should any further descriptive text be added to the first line.
Individual entries
Each entry should be part of an unordered list (created with *). Entries may stand alone or have a short sentence fragment describing it. Information presented in the description should be kept to a bare minimum, and should only be just enough to direct a reader to the correct article. If a page title is disambiguated with parentheses, the parentheses may be hidden via pipe link; however, this will require it to have a description.
Links should not be used in descriptions, in order to keep focus on the entry; the purpose of a disambiguation page is to take the reader to the page they were actually looking for, not any other article.
Organisation
For pages with more than several entries, the list may be split into sections. Short pages may use fake section headings by starting the line with a semicolon (; Header); longer pages should use level 3 headers (===Header===). If a section has too many entries, it may be split into columns with {{Multicol}} to preserve readability and space.
Headers should be titled by subject area, which should be as general as possible. Common groupings include "Missions", "NPCs", "CNPCs", and "Mods".
A "See also" section (different from an "Other" section) may be used to link to relevant disambiguation pages. If a "See also" section is needed, it should be given a level 2 header and placed last, after all other headers.
Ending
All disambiguation pages must have the {{Disambig}} template placed at the bottom for categorization purposes.
Example
'''Attributes''' may refer to:
* [[Shield Attribute]]
* [[Attack Attribute]]
...
{{Disambig}}
See also
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