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 more than two articles, a disambiguation page must be created.
- If one of the terms is significantly more prominent than the other(s), the main page should redirect to it.
- If none of the terms are significantly more prominent than the others(s), the main page should redirect to a disambiguation page.
- 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.
- If there is no disambiguation page because there are only two articles and one of them is more important, put Template:Disambig2 at the top of both articles.
- If there is a disambiguation page, put Template:Disambig3 at the top of all articles.
Note that if none of the meanings of the term require long definitions, they can simply all be listed in the same article.
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.
Disambiguation suffixes
When deciding what to put in parantheses to disambiguate an article title, the first choice should always be the entity's franchise of origin. 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 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. As another example, the name "Paddles" refers to both a character and a story from the G1 continuity family. Using "G1" as a parenthetical here will not be helpful; however, Paddles (character) and Paddles (story) are both short and to the point.
Use your best judgement. If others disagree, it will merely mean somebody moves the page later.
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.
