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Tardis:Disambiguation: Difference between revisions
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{{sc|T:DAB}} | {{sc|T:DAB}} | ||
'''Disambiguation''' is the | '''Disambiguation''' is the fancy term for "giving an article a unique name". | ||
== The name itself == | |||
Although the term is ubiquitous in wiki editing communities, don't feel stupid if you've never heard it before. It's actually a comparatively new term, which arose at the beginning of the computer age, and has only become truly popularised in the [[English language]] ''because of'' projects like Wikipedia. In a loose sense, it's almost "Wikipedia slang". | |||
But, for a colloquial term associated with a particular community, it's really long and awfully pretentious-sounding. That's why you'll often find it shortened to '''dab''', which results other forms like '''dab-ed''', '''dabed''','''dabing''', '''dab-ing''', '''un-dab''' and '''undab'''. These shortened forms are often seen in [[help:edit summary|edit summaries]], where letter count is at a premium. | |||
== Basic principles == | |||
There are three important aspects to disambiguation: | There are three important aspects to disambiguation: | ||
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There are some disambiguation rules to follow on this wiki. | There are some disambiguation rules to follow on this wiki. | ||
* '''Story titles are always disambiguated | * '''Story titles are always disambiguated, according to our [[help:disambiguation cheat sheat|disambiguation cheat sheat]].''' | ||
* '''You need 3 similarly-named things to start a disambiguation page, particularly one that is itself un-disambiguated.''' A disambig page that is itself un-disambiguated simply invites people to link to it. For instance, if the page ''''City of the Daleks''' existed, then people would ''most likely'' link to it when they were trying to link to the modern [[City of the Daleks (video game)]], because many people are unaware of the 1960s [[City of the Daleks (comic story)]]. Deleting the page at '''City of Daleks''' is actually ''helpful'', because it forces users to pick one of the two valid links. We want disambiguation pages to help us create more correct links — not be lightning rods for bad ones. Un-disambiguated disambig pages tend to have long [[Special:WhatLinksHere|WhatLinksHere]] lists, so they really shouldn't be created '''before they are truly necessary'''. Thus, disambig pages consisting of just two items are actually considered, on balance, ''unhelpful''. | * '''You need 3 similarly-named things to start a disambiguation page, particularly one that is itself un-disambiguated.''' A disambig page that is itself un-disambiguated simply invites people to link to it. For instance, if the page ''''City of the Daleks''' existed, then people would ''most likely'' link to it when they were trying to link to the modern [[City of the Daleks (video game)]], because many people are unaware of the 1960s [[City of the Daleks (comic story)]]. Deleting the page at '''City of Daleks''' is actually ''helpful'', because it forces users to pick one of the two valid links. We want disambiguation pages to help us create more correct links — not be lightning rods for bad ones. Un-disambiguated disambig pages tend to have long [[Special:WhatLinksHere|WhatLinksHere]] lists, so they really shouldn't be created '''before they are truly necessary'''. Thus, disambig pages consisting of just two items are actually considered, on balance, ''unhelpful''. | ||
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== See also == | == See also == | ||
* | * [[T:NAMING]], the section of our [[T:MOS|Manual of Style]] which deals with nomenclature. | ||
* [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Disambiguation|Wikipedia's | * [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Disambiguation|Wikipedia's disambiguation guide]] also has information on which this policy was partially based. | ||
[[Category:Policies]] | [[Category:Policies]] | ||
