GuildWiki:Style and formatting/Disambiguation

When more than one topic can be associated with a single article title, that title is ambiguous. Disambiguation is used to help readers find the article they are looking for. Disambiguation templates help editors achieve this.

One title, several articles
Different topics that share a common title are differentiated by suffixing a qualifier after the individual article titles. This is usually a word or two in parentheses that uniquely identifies the topic. Example:


 * Fort Ranik (mission), Fort Ranik (location), Fort Ranik (Pre-Searing)

Common qualifiers include:
 * Quest or location type: (mission), (location), (quest), (explorable), (dungeon)
 * Campaign or gameplay type: (Core), (Prophecies), (Factions), (Nightfall), (Eye of the North), (Bonus Mission Pack), (PvP)
 * Associated group or faction: (Luxon), (Kurzick)
 * Skill or item type: (Skill), (Attack), (skill type), (effect), (item), (unique), (unique item), (weapon)
 * Creature type: (boss), (monster), (species), (NPC)
 * Profession: (Warrior), (Ranger), (Necromancer), (Mesmer), ...
 * Location: (Pre-Searing), (Post-Searing), (Tomb Ruins), (Ascalon), (Crystal Desert), (Shing Jea Island), ...
 * Special events: (Wintersday), (Wintersday 2006), (special event), (2006), (2007), ...

Primary topics
Somtimes there is a well known primary topic for an ambiguous title, one that would be much more commonly used than any other topic. In this case, that topic can use the title with no qualifier

For example, given the topic "Avatar of Dwayna," the dervish skill Avatar of Dwayna was given primary topic status. That page has a disambiguation message pointing to the secondary topics Avatar of Dwayna (NPC) and Avatar of Dwayna (snow fighting skill).

Disambiguation page
A disambiguation page is a list of links to articles that a reader may be looking for, along with short descriptions.

Disambiguation pages should not contain any actual content, as their purpose is simply to provide links to other articles.

The individual articles often have the same name as the disambiguation page, with a suffix (see above). Examples:
 * Spider Web lists Spider Web (Elonian) and Spider Web (Tyrian).
 * Isle of the Dead lists Isle of the Dead (guild hall) and Isle of the Dead (quest).

When there is a primary topic, the disambiguation page will have the (disambiguation) suffix, such as Camp (disambiguation), which is the disambiguation page for the primary topic Camp.

The notice should be placed at the top of every disambiguation page. It ensures that the page is listed in Category:Disambiguation. The only other category that should be used on disambiguation pages is Category:Abbreviations - since most abbreviations can stand for multiple things, most abbreviation pages are also disambiguations.

Tip: Never link to a disambiguation page if you can avoid it! Links should always point directly to the intended article.

Disambiguation message
A disambiguation message appears at the top of an article and points to other articles the reader may have been seeking under that name.

This is required for disambiguations that have a primary topic - the primary article must have a disambiguation message linking to the secondary topics, if there only a few, or to the disambiguation page.

This is also usually used on articles that share a disambiguation page (for example, the Spider Web articles) so users can easily move between them.

For example, the articles for missions and locations with the same name, like Tihark Orchard (mission) and Tihark Orchard (location), will have messages pointing to each other.

The template is commonly used to display this message.

Skills
Any disambiguations that involve skills have the skill article as the primary topic, since skills are usually the most commonly referenced articles on GuildWiki. (A skill name will never be a disambiguation page, although there may be one at "Skill name (disambiguation)".) Example: If there are multiple skills that share a name, the PvE version is the primary topic. Examples:
 * the skill article Shatterstone has a disambiguation message for Shatterstone (unique item).
 * Brawling Headbutt / Brawling Headbutt (Brawling)
 * Aegis / Aegis (PvP) / Aegis (shield)

Split skills
You can easily create a pair of disambiguation messages for PvE/PvP split skills by copying the following: Remember that the PvP version of a split skill belongs in Category:PvP skills.
 * on the PvE page (plain name):
 * on the PvP page, with (PvP) page name:

Missions
Missions always share their name with the mission outpost, and in the case of Factions missions, with the explorable area, as well. Missions are always given primary article status, since it is much more likely a visitor is looking for help with the mission than information on either of the other options.

is a simpler version of the DisambigMsg template that is used for mission articles to link to to the mission outpost. Example:

There are also and, which work similarly.