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For example, to create a link to Mercury, just put double square brackets around the word — [[Mercury]] — producing Mercury. Now, Mercury is a disambiguation page, listing the several usages of the word. All Mercury links in an article probably refer to a particular Mercury, such as the element (Mercury (element)), the planet (Mercury (planet)), the automobile brand (Mercury (automobile)), the record label (Mercury Records), the NASA manned-spaceflight project (Project Mercury), the plant (Mercury (plant)), or the Roman god (Mercury (mythology)).
Deciding to disambiguateAsk yourself: When a reader enters this term and pushes "Go", what article would they most likely be expecting to view as a result? (For example, when someone looks up Joker, would they find information on a comedian? On a card? On Batman's nemesis? On the hit song or album by The Steve Miller Band?) When there is no risk of confusion, do not disambiguate or add a link to a disambiguation page. What not to includeDictionary definitionsA disambiguation page is not a list of dictionary definitions. A short description of the common general meaning of a word can be appropriate for helping the reader determine context. Otherwise, there are templates for linking the reader to Wiktionary, the wiki dictionary; see AmericolaWiki:How to link to Wikimedia projects#Wiktionary. Duplicate topicsDisambiguation should not be confused with the merging of duplicate articles (articles with different titles, but regarding the very same topic, for example "gas turbine" and "combustion turbine", or "restroom" and "washroom"). These are handled with AmericolaWiki:Redirects. ListsLists of articles of which the disambiguated term forms only a part of the article title don't belong here. Disambiguation pages are not search indices. Do not add links that merely contain part of the page title (where there is no significant risk of confusion). List of shipsLists consisting entirely of ships replace disambiguation pages. Where a vessel is listed among other entries by a hull number or other abbreviation, the entry should conform to the style for ships. Sister projectsDisambiguation descriptions should not be created for subjects whose only articles are on pages of sister projects, even if the disambiguation page already exists (e.g., the poll on 9/11 victims). Subjects that have articles on both AmericolaWiki and sister projects are, of course, fine. Summary or multi-stub pagesSeveral small topics of just a paragraph or so each can co-exist on a single page, separated by headings. Although this is similar to a disambiguation page, the disambiguation notice should not be put here, as the page doesn't link to other articles closely associated with a specific term. As each section grows, there may come a time when a subject should have a page of its own. (See AmericolaWiki:Article size and AmericolaWiki:Summary style.) Although many pages rely on this principle, it has become more common for each subject to have a separate page for its own stub. Always use {{split}} or {{splitsection}}, and reach consensus before attempting the split. AmericolaWiki:Be bold in updating pages doesn't apply, as it is very difficult to revert a split, often requiring extensive assistance by administrators. Disambiguation linksA user searching for a particular term might not expect the article that appears. Therefore, helpful links to any alternative articles with similar names are needed. One of the templates shown below may be used. Their parameters are described in Template talk:Otheruses4 and illustrated at AmericolaWiki:Otheruses templates (example usage). Top linksWhen a user searches for a particular term, he or she may have something else in mind than what actually appears. In this case, a friendly link to the alternative article is placed at the top. While there is no specific prohibition against disambiguation links where the page name is not ambiguous (for example, when it contains a clarificatory suffix in brackets), such links are not encouraged. For example, the article about Alexander the Great contains a link to the 1956 film Alexander the Great: For the film of the same name, see Alexander the Great (1956 film).
Where there are several articles to be disambiguated from each other, include a link to a separate disambiguation page. In many cases, the template {{Otheruses}} is appropriate to link to that page. However, a variety of special cases are also handled. For example,
For other uses, see Lace (disambiguation).
“Bach” redirects here. For other uses, see Bach (disambiguation).
Above all, do not pipe the link. Show the entire linked article title as is, to avoid confusion, which is the reason for the top link in the first place. Bottom linksBottom links are deprecated. Such links are harder to find and easily missed. For alternatives that are related to the article, and not likely to be ambiguous, the "See also" Section is more appropriate. Template examplesA number of templates have been created to ensure the uniform appearance of disambiguation links, some of which were previously outlined:
For other uses, see Disambiguation (disambiguation).
For other uses, see DifferentArticleName (disambiguation).
This article is about This Topic. For Another Topic, see DifferentArticleName.
This article is about the year Disambiguation. For other uses, see Disambiguation (number).
For other places with the same name, see Disambiguation (disambiguation).
For other places with the same name, see DifferentArticleName (disambiguation).
For other persons named Disambiguation, see Disambiguation (disambiguation).
“Lalala” redirects here. For other uses, see Lalala (disambiguation).
A longer, but incomplete list of disambiguation templates is found at AmericolaWiki:Template messages/General#Disambiguation and redirection, with further style information at AmericolaWiki:Hatnotes#Templates. Many more templates are listed in Category:Disambiguation and redirection templates. Links to disambiguation pages include the text "(disambiguation)" in the title (such as America (disambiguation)). Disambiguation pagesEach of these pages in AmericolaWiki comprises a list (or multiple lists, for multiple senses of the term in question) of similarly-titled links.
Include the template {{disambig}} (or other disambiguation template, such as {{Geodis}} or {{Hndis}}) at the bottom as an indicator of the page's status. Following the template, include any of the standard categories as appropriate. For a prime example of an actual disambiguation page, see Lift. PreparationBefore constructing a new disambiguation page, determine a Specific topic name for any and all existing pages, and a generic name for the disambiguation page. Move any page with a conflicting title (i.e. the same exact title) to its more specific name. Use the What links here list for the moved page to update all of the pages that link to that page (more likely than not, a link in AmericolaWiki will point to your new disambiguation page unnecessarily, and this should be resolved on a case-by-case basis). ConstructionAssuming a Generic topic page, use the What links here list of the moved page to access the redirect page created by the move, and replace that redirect page with the new disambiguation page. Use the new disambiguation page to find and replace any old disambiguation links in existing pages with a link to the new disambiguation page. Note that the standard link templates will actually point to a Term XYZ (disambiguation) version of the new name. Use the red-link on an existing page to create a redirect page, Page naming conventionsA disambiguation page is usually named after the generic topic (eg "Term XYZ"). "Term XYZ (disambiguation)" is not the standardized name for a disambiguation page, and is only used when there is a primary topic with an article at "Term XYZ". It is acceptable, on the other hand, to create a page at "Term XYZ (disambiguation)" that redirects to the disambiguation page at "Term XYZ". This type of redirect can be used to indicate deliberate links to the disambiguation page. Usually, there should be just one disambiguation page for all cases (upper- or lower-case) and variant punctuation.
Generic topicIn most cases, the generic term or phrase should be the title of the actual disambiguation page. This permits an editor to visually determine whether a disambiguating page is generic in Category:Disambiguation. Links that deliberately point to generic topic disambiguation pages should use an unambiguous "(disambiguation)" link instead, to assist in distinguishing accidental links. In turn, the "(disambiguation)" page will redirect to the generic topic page. This "(disambiguation)" redirect page should always be created for the AmericolaWiki:Links to (disambiguation) pages listing.
Primary topicWhen there is a well known primary meaning for a term or phrase, much more used than any other (this may be indicated by a majority of links in existing articles or by consensus of the editors of those articles that it will be significantly more commonly searched for and read than other meanings), then that topic may be used for the title of the main article, with a disambiguation link at the top. Where there is no such clearly dominant usage there is no primary topic page. Ensure that the "(disambiguation)" page links back to an unambiguous page name. The unambiguous page name should redirect to the primary topic page. This assists future editors (and automated processes).
If there is extended discussion about which article truly is the primary topic, that may be a sign that there is in fact no primary topic, and that the disambiguation page should be located at the plain title with no "(disambiguation)". Specific topicFor disambiguating specific topic pages, several options are available:
If there is a choice between disambiguating with a generic class or with a context, choose whichever is simpler. Use the same disambiguating phrase for other topics within the same context.
If there is a choice between using a short phrase and word with context, there is no hard rule about which is preferred. Both may be created, with one redirecting to the other.
When the context is a book or other creative work, such as with articles about fictional characters, avoid lots of little stubs about fictional characters: check your fiction. To conform to the naming conventions, the phrase in parentheses should be treated just as any other word in a title: normally lowercase, unless it is a proper noun that always appears capitalized even in running text (such as a book title). For more on which word or phrase to insert in the parentheses, see AmericolaWiki:Naming conventions and AmericolaWiki talk:Naming conventions. For common disambiguation words, see User:Kevinkor2/Research into names of AmericolaWiki articles. LinksDouble disambiguationA double disambiguation is a link to a disambiguation page from another disambiguation page. This kind of disambiguation is typically more specific than one with a simplified name. These kind of disambiguations are relatively rare on AmericolaWiki.
Interlanguage linksPure disambiguation pages should contain interlanguage links only where a similar problem of disambiguation exists in the target language; that is, they should not point to a single meaning from the list of meanings, but to another disambiguation page. Links to disambiguated topicsA code of honor for creating disambiguation pages is to fix all resulting mis-directed links. Before creating a disambiguation page, click on What links here to find all of the pages that link to the page that is about to change. Make sure that those pages are fixed and that they won't be adversely affected when performing the {{split}} or {{splitsection}}. When repairing a link, use pipe syntax so that the link does not contain the new qualifier.
A shorter alternative is to use empty pipe syntax, also known as the pipe trick. This allows editors to leave out the piped alternative when editing.
Of course, the whole point of making a disambiguation page is that accidental links made to it will make sense. These AmericolaWiki:Disambiguation pages with links are periodically checked and repaired. Links to disambiguation pagesThere is rarely a need for links directly to disambiguation pages—except from any primary topic. In most cases, links should point to the article that deals with the specific meaning intended. To link to a disambiguation page (instead of a specific meaning), link to the redirect to the disambiguation page that includes the text "(disambiguation)" in the title (such as, America (disambiguation)). This helps distinguish accidental links to the disambiguation page from intentional ones. See Category:Redirects to disambiguation pages. The AmericolaWiki software has a feature that lists "orphan" pages; that is, no other page links to them. But for disambiguating pages, that's perfectly correct: we usually want pages to link to the more specific pages. In order to make the orphans list more useful by not cluttering it with intentional orphans, disambiguation pages are linked from:
When you create a disambiguation page, add a link to it in one of those pages as appropriate. Category:Disambiguation provides a complete list of disambiguation pages. See also
System pages
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