Help:Disambiguation

Disambiguation in EVElopedia is the process of resolving conflicts in article titles that occur when a single term can be associated with more than one topic, making that term likely to be the natural title for more than one article. In other words, disambiguations are paths leading to different articles which could, in principle, have the same title.

For example, the name "The Scope" can refer to several different things, like for instance a link to a Chronicle or to a NPC Corp. Since only one EVElopedia page can have the generic name "The Scope", unambiguous article titles are used for each of these topics: The Scope (Chronicle), The Scope (NPC Corporation). There must then be a way to direct the reader to the correct specific article when an ambiguous term is referenced by linking, browsing or searching; this is what is known as disambiguation. In this case it is achieved using The Scope (Disambiguation) as a disambiguation page.

Two methods of disambiguating are discussed here:

• disambiguation links — at the top of an article, a note that links the reader to Wikipedia articles with similar titles or concepts that the reader may have been seeking instead of the article in which the links appear.
• disambiguation pages — non-article pages that serve only to refer users to other Wikipedia pages.

Deciding to disambiguate

Disambiguation is required whenever, for a given word or phrase on which a reader might use the "Go button", there is more than one EVElopedia article to which that word or phrase might be expected to lead. In this situation there must be a way for the reader to navigate quickly from the page that appears on hitting "Go" to any of the other possible desired articles.

Is there a primary topic?

When there is a well-known primary topic for an ambiguous term, name or phrase, much more used than any other topic covered in Evelopedia to which the same word(s) may also refer (significantly more commonly searched for and read than other meanings), then that term or phrase should either be used for the title of the article on that topic or redirect to that article. When a topic is the primary topic for more than one name the more common should be the title, and the less common should redirect to the article. Any article which has primary usage for its title and has other uses should have a disambiguation link at the top, and the disambiguation page should link back to the primary topic.

Similarly, any article which has primary usage for a name that redirects to it and has other uses should have a disambigutation link at the top, and the disambiguation page for that name should link back to the primary topic.

Tools that may help determine a primary meaning (but are not determining factors by themselves):

1. Incoming wikilinks from Special:WhatLinksHere

Disambiguation page or disambiguation links?

If there are three or more topics associated with the same term, then a disambiguation page should normally be created for that term (in which case disambiguation links may or may not be desirable on the specific topic articles – see below). If only a primary topic and one other topic require disambiguation, then disambiguation links are sufficient, and a disambiguation page is unnecessary. However if there are two topics for a term but neither is considered the primary topic, then a disambiguation page is used.