Star Trek Expanded Universe:Disambiguation

This page is considered an official policy on Star Trek Expanded Universe. It has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that everyone should follow. Except for minor edits, please make use of the discussion page to propose changes to this policy.

Disambiguation is the process of resolving the conflict that occurs when articles about two or more different topics have the same "natural" title.

Making links is simple and automatic: As you type in an edit window, put brackets around Enterprise (like this: [[Enterprise]]) and you'll have a link. But which Enterprise did you intend to link?

See also: Naming conventions

How to disambiguate

There are two ways to disambiguate:

1. Create a disambiguation page listing and linking the different meanings of a term.
2. Add disambiguation links to other meanings to the top of the article with the "natural title".

If each topic has only a sentence or two, it may be simpler to put all of them together in one article. Each method depends on the specific subject and the amount of content that is/will be in the article.

Disambiguation page

A disambiguation page is generally placed as the "natural title" and links to all articles that naturally would have this name. A good example is USS Defiant. When creating a disambiguation page, include the template {{disambig}} at the bottom of the page, which will appear as:

Disambiguation page: If you followed a link to {{PAGENAME}} that brought you here, you might want to go back and change it to link to a more specific title. (For example: {{PAGENAME}} (some other term), or choose from one of those listed above.)

If there is one primary definition of the title, the more important subject can go on the main, simpler title. This is open to discussion, however. In this case, the disambiguation page can be placed at Title (disambiguation) and should be linked from the main article using {{disambig link}}, which reads:

For other meanings of "Title", see Title (disambiguation).

Disambiguation links

If not making a whole disambiguation page, put a notice at the top of a page linking to another meaning of that term. This is generally done if there are only two different meanings and one is considered the primary definition (see above). In this case, use the template {{disambiguate}}, which takes the title of the target page as a parameter and will appear as:

For another meaning of "Title", see Title (second meaning).

Specialized templates also exist. For example:

• {{ep disambig}}, which automatically creates a disambiguation to an episode of the same name, located at "Title (episode)". (This applies to fan films.)
• {{mirror disambig}}, which links to a disambiguated article about a mirror universe counterpart at "Title (mirror)".

Links to disambiguation pages

While it's generally acceptable for disambiguation pages to be orphans, it's more appropriate for other articles to link to the specific subjects rather than to the disambiguation page. Avoid cluttering the list of orphaned pages with "intentional" orphans by adding disambiguation pages links to Links to disambiguation pages.

Note, however, in some cases it might make more sense to point a reader to the disambiguation page rather than a specific article (generally, to let the reader choose which topic they are looking for).

In addition to the orphaned pages list, the following pages list all disambiguation pages:

• Special:Whatlinkshere/Disambiguation
• Special:Whatlinkshere/Template:Disambig