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), (PvP), (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), ...

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 {{Disambig}} 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 may be used on disambiguation pages is Category:Abbreviations, since there is usually no point to create an article for an abbreviation when the disambiguation page already points to the terms it can stand for.

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

Tip: The "pipe trick" (pipe is a name for the | character) makes a link without qualifier. Example:

Type [[Tihark Orchard (mission)|]] to make [[Tihark Orchard (mission)|Tihark Orchard]] (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.

Always use a disambiguation message on pages that share the same name (with qualifiers)!

Example:

• Tihark Orchard redirects to Tihark Orchard (mission), and it and Tihark Orchard (location) have disambiguation messages pointing to each other.

The {{DisambigMsg}} template is commonly used to display this message.

Usage

Usage is {{DisambigMsg|what this article is about|what other article 1 is about|name of other article 1|what other article 2 is about|name of other article 2|...)}}. You can provide up to three pairs of "other article" parameters as you want (minimum one, of course).

For example, {{DisambigMsg|the skill Shatterstone|the unique item|Shatterstone (unique item)}} will result in:

This article is about the skill Shatterstone. For the unique item, see Shatterstone (unique item).

{{DisambigMsg|the skill Phoenix|the pet|Phoenix (Animal)|the emote|rank}} will result in:

This article is about the skill Phoenix. For the pet, see Phoenix (Animal). For the emote, see rank.

Special cases

Primary article

Sometimes a title is much more commonly associated with a certain topic than the others. In this case, the artcile 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:

• the skill article Shatterstone has a disambiguation message for Shatterstone (unique item).

If there are multiple skills that share a name, the PvE version is the primary topic. Examples:

• 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. Example:

• 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):

{{DisambigMsg|the [[PvE]] version of a [[split skill]]|the [[PvP]] version|{{PAGENAME}} (PvP)}}

• on the PvP page, with (PvP) page name:

{{DisambigMsg|the [[PvP]] version of a [[split skill]]|the [[PvE]] version|{{#sub:{{PAGENAME}}|0|-6}}}}

Remember that the PvP version of a split skill belongs in Category:PvP skills.

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.

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

{{Location_Info|title=Tihark Orchard}}

There are also {{Mission info}} and {{Explorable info}}, which work similarly.