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 (outpost), Fort Ranik (Pre-Searing)

There is always a page that uses the title without qualifiers ("primary article"); it may be the most commonly sought article on the subject, a redirect to that article, or a disambiguation page.

Disambiguation page
A disambiguation page is a list of links to articles that a reader may be looking for, along with short descriptions. These pages should not contain any information beyond that. A disambiguation page that needs a qualified title uses (disambiguation).

The individual articles often have the same name as the disambiguation page, with a qualifier 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).

The notice should be placed at the top of every disambiguation page. It alerts the user to the purpose of the page and lists the page in Category:Disambiguation. The only other category that may be used on disambiguation pages is Category:Abbreviations &mdash; since a disambiguation page already lists the common terms an abbreviation can stand for, the one article can serve both purposes.

Tip: The "pipe trick" (pipe is a name for the  character) is an easy way to make a link that hides the qualifer. Example: Type  to make Tihark Orchard, which displays as Tihark Orchard.

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, or the disambiguation page for that title.

Example:
 * Tihark Orchard redirects to Tihark Orchard (mission), and it and Tihark Orchard (outpost) have disambiguation messages pointing to each other.

The template is commonly used to display this message.

Primary article
Sometimes a title is much more commonly associated with a certain topic than the others. In this case, the article for that topic can use the title with no qualifier, either as page title, or from a redirect. Example:
 * Camp is thought to most often refer to the player tactic of camping. The disambiguation page for the topic is at Camp (disambiguation).

Skills
Skill names always have the skill article as the primary article, since skills are usually the most commonly referenced articles on GuildWiki. In other words, a skill name is never 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)

Skill icons
Use {{skill icon|skill name}} to list a skill on a disambiguation page. Examples:
 * CoP, CoF, SF

Split skills
You can easily create a pair of disambiguation messages for PvE/PvP split skills by copying the following:
 * 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.

Commonly used qualifiers
When creating an article that will require a qualifier as part of the title, try to use one that is already in common use. In general, the qualifier should be short, concise, and follow standard capitalization rules. Some of the more common qualifiers are:


 * Quest or location type: (mission), (location), (quest), (explorable)
 * Campaign: (Core), (Prophecies), (Factions), (Nightfall), (Eye of the North)
 * Skill type: (Skill), (Attack), (effect), (PvP)
 * Item type: (item), (unique), (unique item), (weapon)
 * Creature type: (boss), (monster), (species), (NPC)
 * Profession: (Warrior), (Ranger), (Necromancer), (Mesmer), ...
 * Location: (Pre-Searing), (Crystal Desert), (Shing Jea Island), ...
 * Special events: (Wintersday), (Canthan New Year), ...