Wikipedia:WikiProject Disambiguation

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Please join the discussions on our project's talk page. Suggested changes and additions to the WikiProject are always welcome there.

Scope[edit]

All disambiguation pages, as described at Wikipedia:Disambiguation.

Goals[edit]

  1. Create and expand disambiguation pages.
  2. Copy-edit disambiguation pages to conform to the Manual of Style.
  3. Eliminate links to disambiguation pages, such as the massive list at Wikipedia:Disambiguation pages with links, and keep Wikipedia:Disambiguation pages with links/The Daily Disambig under control.

How to help[edit]

The dab-cleaning broom

First, please read Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Disambiguation pages, which describes disambiguation pages; and Wikipedia:Disambiguation, which describes guidelines about when and how to disambiguate.

If you are an editor, you can use these tools; if you are a coder, you can help with these tools:

Create or move a disambiguation page[edit]

There are many instances where a new disambiguation page is needed.

Use "Foo" rather than "Foo (disambiguation)" as the disambiguation page name unless there is a primary topic. If "Foo" is a redirect to "Foo (disambiguation)", the disambiguation page is malplaced, and should be moved from "Foo (disambiguation)" to "Foo". In some cases, you may be able to use the move tool immediately. If the move requires technical assistance, you can report it at Wikipedia:WikiProject Disambiguation/Malplaced disambiguation pages#Manual list or list it at Wikipedia:Requested moves/Technical requests.

Add missing entries to a disambiguation page[edit]

There are still many disambiguation pages that do not yet contain all entries they are supposed to. To help with that, go to the reports list and select "Missing entries". This will take you to the report where you can choose a dab page to expand. When you click on it, you will be presented with the Dabfix interface where that page is preloaded with the missing entries added and further changes suggested. Review the missing entry and the linked article to ensure they are suitable for inclusion (you can Ctrl+click (PC) or ⌘ Command+click (Mac) on a blue link to be taken to the corresponding article) and then copyedit the automatically generated descriptions before saving. You can also work manually using the information found in the report.

Please note these reports haven't been updated since April 2019.

Find additional ambiguous terms for 2-DAB pages[edit]

Pick a page from Category:Disambiguation pages containing one non-primary topic, and see if you can find (or create) other articles in the wiki that can be added to turn a 2-DAB into a 3-or-more DAB.

If you come across a page with only 2 ambiguous terms, one of which is the primary topic, you can tag the top with {{One other topic}}, which will notify users that the page needs additional disambiguation terms, and will place the page in 2-DAB category listed above.

Clean up a disambiguation page[edit]

Pick a page from Category:Disambiguation pages in need of cleanup. Check the recent edit summaries in the history and the talk page for comments earlier editors may have left. When you finish cleaning up a page, please change its {{disambiguation cleanup}} to {{disambiguation}} (or change {{hndis-cleanup}} to {{hndis}}).

If you see that a disambiguation page needs to be cleaned up, but you cannot or do not want to do it yourself, you can tag the page for cleanup by changing the {{disambiguation}} template to {{disambiguation cleanup}} (or changing {{hndis}} to {{hndis-cleanup}}). These -cleanup templates add the page to Category:Disambiguation pages in need of cleanup and change the descriptive text on the page. You can describe specific problems on the talk page of the disambiguation page to help other editors see what needs to be done.

You can also use dabfix (see above) to help you cleanup a dab page.

Repair incoming links[edit]

Most links from articles to disambiguation pages are in error and need to be repaired. They can be repaired by choosing an article and repairing all its links to disambiguation pages, or by choosing a disambiguation page and repairing all incoming links to it from articles.

To choose an article, type its page name into the dablinks tool (see below). For help, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Disambiguation/Fixing a page.

To choose a disambiguation page, see the "Finding disambiguation pages" section below. There is a Wikipedia Project devoted to this: Wikipedia:Disambiguation pages with links.

Do not guess how to fix the link; if you have trouble, tag the link with {{disambiguation needed}}.

If you want a challenge, try to repair difficult links, those tagged with {{disambiguation needed}}. Articles with such tagged links can be found in Category:Articles with links needing disambiguation, and tips on repairing them are given in Wikipedia:WikiProject Disambiguation/Fixing links.

You may also consider "adopting" a disambiguation page.

When you fix or tag a link, leave an edit summary pointing to this project. Suggested edit summary:

Repaired link to disambiguation page: [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Disambiguation|please help]]

Repair redirects[edit]

Merge incomplete disambiguations[edit]

Incomplete disambiguation pages are disambiguation pages that also have a disambiguated title (a title with a parenthetical phrase appended). These disambiguated titles are supposed to be unambiguous; if they are still ambiguous, the incomplete disambiguation should normally redirect to the disambiguation page or a section of it.

Resources[edit]

When using Dabfix to tag pages, please note that there are common-sense exceptions to every rule, and a disambiguation page which violates one or more of the following guidelines (such as multiple blue links in an entry, or piped links) might not require cleanup; please use your best judgment when tagging.

Code Description MoS Pages Autofix
1 O More than one red link on a line MOS:DABRL 1,003 0.37% No
2 N Red link with no blue link MOS:DABRL 29,058 10.78% No
3 M Multiple blues link on a line MOS:DABENTRY 41,213 15.28% Yes
6 P Punctuation on line MOS:DABENTRY 25,257 9.37% Yes
7 L No bullet lists MOS:DABENTRY 352 0.13% #*
9 C Non-capitalized entry MOS:DABENTRY 2,255 0.84% Yes
10 B Bold text on line MOS:DABENTRY 2,058 0.76% Yes
11 F Less than two blue links on the page WP:TWODAB 4,013 1.49% Suggestions
12 E External link MOS:DABEXT 1,181 0.44% No
13 R <ref> tag MOS:DABENTRY 955 0.35% No
14 S Unpiped #section on line MOS:DABSECTION 1,479 0.55% Usually
- T Link is piped to hide (subject) suffix MOS:DABPIPE 23,836 8.84% Usually
- X Excessively long line MOS:DABENTRY 1,453 0.54% No
- H Long unbroken list (30+ item) 596 0.22% No
- U No link on line MOS:DABENTRY 6,158 2.28% Re-links
2024-03-21 Open Dabfix Random cleanup

Finding disambiguation pages[edit]

Project watchlist[edit]

Templates[edit]

Disambiguation templates are listed under the "general" category of template messages. Most of these templates do not have usage guidelines associated with them on their Talk pages, however, some direction is provided for hatnotes at Wikipedia:Hatnote#Hatnote templates and Wikipedia:Disambiguation#Disambiguation links.

"*" = no usage guidelines

On disambiguation pages:

On talk pages:

  • {{WikiProject Disambiguation}} – Project banner for talk pages with discussion. Please do not use to create talk pages that have no discussion.

On set index articles. Note that set index articles are similar to, but are not the same thing as, disambiguation pages:

  • {{Set index article}}* – The generic set index template.
  • {{Lake index}} – For lists of lakes with similar names.
  • {{Locomotive index}} – For lists of locomotives, or classes of locomotives, with similar names.
  • {{Mountain index}} – For set index articles about mountain names.
  • {{Road index}} – For set index articles about roads.
  • {{Ship index}} – For lists of ships with the same or similar names.
  • {{Sport index}} – For lists of sports related articles with similar names.

Link formatting (See Wikipedia:WikiProject Disambiguation/Title templates):

  • {{fti}} – put subject title, but not parenthetical disambiguating term, in italics
  • {{ftq}} – put subject title, but not parenthetical disambiguating term, in quotes

On anthroponymy list articles. See Wikipedia:WikiProject Anthroponymy for specific guidelines. These are also not disambiguation pages, although short lists may be embedded on disambiguation pages.

  • {{Given name}} – For given name pages or sections of disambiguation pages that list people by given names.
  • {{Surname}} – For pages or sections of disambiguation pages that list people by family name.

Optional Wiktionary template, for use on disambiguation pages:

Look from and In title, for use on disambiguation pages where the term is used to form compound terms:

  • {{Look from}} <span class="selfreference">[[Special:PrefixIndex/term|All pages with titles beginning with ''term'']]</span>
  • {{In title}} <span class="selfreference">[[Special:Search/intitle:"term"|All pages with titles containing ''term'']]</span>

Hatnotes, for use on articles where reference to a disambiguation page is useful

Redirects, for use on redirects that point to a disambiguation page

Inline, for use within article text where a link needs correcting, but it is unclear where it should link

User talk, for alerting editors to the dab guidelines

Userbox, for your own userpage

Barnstar, for awarding editors active in disambiguation

Categories[edit]

Click on "►" below to display subcategories:
Click on "►" below to display subcategories:

Subpages[edit]

Page views[edit]

Article alerts[edit]

Articles for deletion

Proposed deletions

Redirects for discussion

Requested moves

(22 more...)

Articles to be merged

(1 more...)

Articles to be split

Articles for creation

Deletion discussions[edit]

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/Disambiguations

Participants[edit]

Project participants
All participants are worthy to wield the official dab-cleaning broom

Please insert your details here (in alphabetical order please). Use {{User WP Disambiguation}} on your user page if you wish to post your pride in joining this esteemed WikiProject.

Related WikiProjects[edit]