UniWiki:Manual of Style/Disambiguation pages: Difference between revisions

* Preface each entry with a {{em|bullet}} (an asterisk in wiki markup).  

* Start each entry with a {{em|capital letter}}.

* Insert a {{em|comma}} after an entry when a description is included.

* Use {{em|sentence fragments}}, with no closing punctuation unless it is part of the description (e.g., a description that ends in "etc." would end with the period)

but {{em|not}}:

In some cases, however, the target article title is {{em|not}} an expansion or variation of the term being disambiguated. For these cases see {{section link||Red links}} and {{section link||Items appearing within other articles}} below.

The above does not apply if the subject is commonly referred to simply by ''Title''. For instance, [[Wikipedia:Oxford (disambiguation)|Oxford (disambiguation)]] should link to [[Wikiedia:University of Oxford|University of Oxford]] and [[Wikipedia:Catalina|Catalina]] might include [[Wikipedia:Santa Catalina Island, California|Santa Catalina Island, California]]. If there is disagreement about whether this exception applies, it is often best to assume that it does.

:#the redirect target article contains the disambiguated term; {{em|and}}

:* However, when the disambiguated term is an [[Wikipedia:Acronym and initialism|acronym or initialism (alphabetism)]], links should {{em|not}} use redirects to conceal the expanded version of that initialism. For example, on the disambiguation page [[Wikipedia:BNL|BNL]], linking to the full article title [[Wikipedia:Banca Nazionale del Lavoro|Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]] is preferable to linking to a redirect at [[Wikipedia:BNL (bank)|BNL (bank)]].

* Unlink the entry word but still keep a blue link in the description. Red links should not be the {{em|only}} link in a given entry; link also to an existing article, so that a reader (as opposed to a contributing editor) will have somewhere to navigate to for additional information. The linked article should contain some meaningful information about the term.

It is often useful to link to the relevant {{em|section}} of the target page. For examples, see [[#Where piping may be appropriate|§ "Where piping may be appropriate"]].

#  {{em|Within}} each section, entries should be ordered to best assist the reader in finding their intended article. Entries are typically ordered first by similarity to the ambiguous title, then alphabetically or chronologically as appropriate. A recommended order is:

## Articles with the item as part of the name: e.g., [[Wikipedia:Moss Bros|Moss Bros]] (Only include articles whose subject might {{em|reasonably}} be called by the ambiguous title.)

# Different forms of ''Title'', for example [[Wikiedia:Splitting|Splitting]], [[Wikipedia:Split|Split]], and [[Wikipedia:Splitter|Splitter]]

A large number of topics can make it difficult for a reader to find a particular topic. On longer disambiguation pages, separate entries by subject [[Wikipedia:WP:SECTION|sections]]. Subject areas should be chosen carefully {{em|to simplify navigation}}; see [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Organizing disambiguation pages by subject area|Wikipedia:Organizing disambiguation pages by subject area]] for detailed guidance. Use subject areas that are well-defined, and that group the entries into similarly sized sections. Very small sections may impede navigation, and should usually be avoided. Section headings should be as simple as possible; '''Sports''' is preferred to '''Sports people''' or '''Sports figures''', since the nature of the category (people, in this case) should be obvious.

Entries which do not fit neatly into any section should be placed in an "Other uses" section or subsection, at the bottom of the page or section (but above any [[#Ordering|"See also" section]]). The "Other uses" section should be relatively short; if it becomes excessively long, the page may need to be reorganized. Uncategorized entries should {{em|never}} be left at the top of the page, with the exception of one or two primary topics as stated [[#Order of entries|above]].

The usual template to use is {{tl|disambig}}, which produces a general disambiguation notice, and places the page in [[:Category:Disambiguation pages]]. Parameters can be added to place the page {{em|additionally}} into other more specific disambiguation categories.

[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Set index articles|Set index articles]] are [[UniWiki:Manual of Style/Lists|list articles]] about a set of items {{em|of a specific type}} that have similar or identical names. '''Set index articles are not disambiguation pages''' and do not have to follow the style outlined on this page. Note that the set index article exception was designed to be narrow: for pages that contain links to articles about different topics, please follow this style guide for disambiguation pages. An example of a set index article is a list of ships with the same name, such as [[Wikipedia:HMS Albatross|HMS ''Albatross'']].