Help:Disambiguation

In many cases, more than one article "should" have the same name. Such articles require disambiguation. This article describes our scheme for doing so.

Disambiguation methods

The method of disambiguating depends on how many articles there are that need the same title, as well as their relative importance.

• If there are going to be multiple articles, they should each have a parenthetical qualifier in their titles.
• If there are only two such articles, do not create a disambiguation page. Instead, have the main page redirect to one of the articles.
  • Place Template:Disambig2 at the top of both articles.
• If there are more than two articles, a disambiguation page must be created.
  • If there is a disambiguation page, put Template:Disambig3 at the top of all ambiguous articles.
  • If one of the terms is significantly more prominent than the others, the main page should redirect to it.
  • If none of the terms are significantly more prominent than the others, the main page should redirect to a disambiguation page.
  • If an article has another same-titled article that is related enough to merit specific mention and there are also three or more uses for the term in general, put Template:Disambig3.5 at the top of the article.
  • If an article has multiple terms it is disambiguated on, and there are several disambiguation3 templates at the top, consider using Template:Disambigm.
  • When in doubt, redirect to the disambiguation page.

Disambiguation pages

The titles of all disambiguation pages should end with "(disambiguation)". All disambiguation pages should end with the Template:Disambig template which places an explanatory box in the article and adds it to the disambiguation page category.

When listing items on a disambiguation page, we generally list them in the order of their first appearance. Hence, G1 incarnations come first, followed by late Japan-exclusive G1, G2, BW, and so forth. Incarnations of characters that have prominently appeared in mainstream Transformers fiction, such as cartoons, comics or films, should be listed as "Major" versions of that character and grouped together in a thumbnail gallery above the other entries.

Disambiguation suffixes

When deciding what to put in parentheses to disambiguate an article title, the first choice should always be the entity's franchise of origin, except for Transformers Timelines, in which case the first choice is their "home" franchise-of-origin, as identified in the fiction or toys. Multiple-word franchises may use abbreviations while single-word franchises should be written out (as in the Wiki's official franchise identifiers list). Thus the original Ironhide would be Ironhide (G1) and the Unicron Trilogy Ironhide is Ironhide (Energon). If a character/idea/object was introduced in one franchise, and then later fleshed out in another franchise with backstory set before the original introduction, we still use the earliest real-world depiction of the entity, not the earliest in-fiction depiction. In instances where the only difference between two names is capitalization or punctuation (e.g. "Energon Grid" the Energon episode vs. "Energon grid" the technology featured in said episode), further disambiguation is recommended.

In those rare instances where a franchise name is not sufficient for disambiguation, there is no single best alternative system. Simply make the qualifier as brief and clear as possible. For characters, a faction or subgroup name will usually do the trick if the franchise alone will not; for example, since there are two different characters named "Sky High" within Generation 1, they would be marked "Sky High (Pretender)" and "Sky High (Micromaster)". In some cases clarity might be improved by including the franchise along with the faction or subgroup.

Characters with multiple names (as in the case of alter-egos) should have redirect pages at all names and their article under their most prominent name (hence Circuit Breaker instead of Josie Beller but Donny Finkleberg instead of Robot Master). Humans should be listed with their full name if possible (except in the case of prominent alter egos) with redirects from nicknames.

Add disambiguation templates to pages only for English names. If a disambiguation link is placed for every single name use from across all languages, scrolling would be required to reach the content of several characters' pages. For example, Armada Red Alert was also called Ratchet and First Aid in Japan, both of which are also the names of other Transformers. That would be three disambiguation tags stacked on top of each other. For the sake of keeping our articles as clutter-free as possible, only English names are disambiguated.

Transformers fiction has often crossed over with other fictional universes ("external properties"). Characters and concepts from these other fictions that need disambiguation should use tags that refer to their home property, not to the Transformers franchise with which they have interacted. As a concrete example, the G.I. Joe character Roadblock is not disambiguated as Roadblock (G1) despite having first appeared in Transformers fiction of the G1 franchise. That disambiguation is thus available for use on an actual Transformers character.

As a final piece of advice, always use your best judgment. If others disagree, it will merely mean somebody moves the page later.

Some final thoughts

Disambiguations will never be 100% consistent. Please bear in mind these wise words:

• 19:44, 31 May 2009 Rosicrucian (Talk | contribs) "Combatron (Cybertron)" moved to "Combatron (planet)" ‎ (Disambiguating a planet with a parenthetical that happens to be the name of another planet is bad juju.) (revert)

Bad juju indeed.