Help talk:Disambiguation

Two article disambiguation pages.

I had two disambiguation pages speedy-deleted when I was following the rule "Even if there are only two articles, if you can't decide which is more important, you should make a disambig page and redirect to it." I think that is a good guideline, but if that is not how things are actually done the guideline should be changed. Should two-article disambiguation pages be forbidden? - Starfield 14:36, 6 September 2009 (EDT)

From what I understand, the reason we've avoided them is because there's no point. If you arrive at the wrong article, it should always have a disambig tag to direct you to the other one. Thus, it's the same amount of clicks regardless.--Rosicrucian^Talk 14:39, 6 September 2009 (EDT)

And the other issue is that you made these disambig pages and changed the redirects without fixing pages that used the redirects. So now there's a bunch of pages that link to a disambig page rather than the proper article as a result.--Rosicrucian^Talk 14:42, 6 September 2009 (EDT)

Three article disambig pages

I thought that with three or more articles you would always go to the disambig page first. However, the guidelines on this page state that if one meaning is more prominent the unqualified page should redirect to it. Which is the proper guideline? Khajidha 13:27, 15 December 2009 (EST)

If one is completely, unambiguously more prominent, go there first, otherwise to the disambiguation page. Optimus Prime, disambiguation page. Ummm .... Bulkhead is a good example of one like that. Sure, there IS an Energon Bulkhead, but he wasn't noteworthy in any way, whereas the animated guy is. Now, if there is a major SG Bulkhead villain, we'd have to rethink that. --Jimsorenson 13:32, 15 December 2009 (EST)

If there is a significant more prominent meaning, while all the other options are arguably of far lesser meaning, the redirect should go there. Nightbeat is a good example of this, though with the Shattered Glass version, the second criterium becomes a bit more doubtful. Rhinox is another good example, what with the other two guys only having had small background-ish roles in comics. Geewunling 13:39, 15 December 2009 (EST)

To clarify, since people have problems with this... you would still have "Character (dis1)", "Character (dis2)", "Character (dis3)"... and a "character (disambiguation)" page... but if the second instance is notably prominent and the other two are notably obscure "Character" would redirect to "Character (dis2)" instead of "Character (disambituation)".

IIRC, this arose as a common-sense application when we started getting extra Nightbeats. Did Shattered Glass Nightbeat actually headline his own story, or was it a cameo? If he headlined, I really think he can't be justifiably called obscure anymore and "Nightbeat" should point back to "Nightbeat (disambiguation)"

(AFAIK the reason this isn't more clearly spelled out in the documentation was that the original discussion was on someone's blog when we first picked up another Nightbeat.) -Derik 14:49, 15 December 2009 (EST)

Saw an edit to the Cheetor page:

Doesn't matter. We have enough for a disambig page, so the normal goes to the disambig page.

So if that seems to be the way things are working now, should this help page be modified? --NCZ 21:37, 10 November 2010 (EST)