Help talk:Disambiguation Pages

Suggested addition

In light of some recent edits, I want to propose the following addition to this help page:

What if a link goes to a disambiguation page and none of the pages listed fit what the link is referring to?

Sometimes other editors will link to a disambiguation page without realizing that it's a disambiguation page. Other times, the link existed before the disambiguation page was created. In either case, do not just remove the link to the disambiguation page.

Instead:

• Decide how the page should be disambiguated and the change the link so that it points at that more specific page instead of the disambiguation page.
• This link will be a red link because the page doesn't exist, which is fine.
• Then make a new link, which will also be red, to that disambiguated page on the disambiguation page itself with a short explanation of what that page is referring to.
• Use "What links here" on the sidebar to find any other links that need to be changed.

The step where you add the red link to the disambiguation page is important because it lets other editors know what disambiguation to use for that specific meaning and that the page needs to be made.

Thoughts? Improvements? I feel like I've used "disambiguation" and "disambiguated" way too much and that those parts might be unclear, but I'm not sure how else to phrase things. - Hoopla (talk) 01:48, 5 February 2019 (UTC)

I think it looks good -- Kingstoken (talk) 01:53, 5 February 2019 (UTC)

I think the sequence of steps needs to be flexible in case how to name the disambiguated page isn't obvious upfront. Changing the wikilink to the specific page doesn't have to happen until after the needed page is created. Otherwise, by the time it gets created, the specific page title that gets decided on might change and unless a redirect is created, those red links will stay as red links and no one looking at those pages will realize the page already exists--it could even encourage duplication. It may not be a big deal either way, but I don't want to encourage people to go out of their way to fix a lot of wikilinks upfront in case they need to be changed again.--aethel (talk) 03:26, 5 February 2019 (UTC)