Forum:Disambiguation pages

I've been considering the BioShock Wiki's system of disambiguation pages for several months, ever since BlueIsSupreme started revamping them. I didn't bring it up before because the process was already started, and redoing things would mean a lot of extra work. However, Halofan2417's recent edits made me think of it again.

The issue is this:

Although our way of doing disambiguation is mostly consistent, it is not the norm for most wikis. To make this clear:

Current system on BioShock Wiki:

 * Scenario
 * 1) There are two or more articles with the same or similar name. i.e. Alpha Series. One of them is about the Big Daddy type, and one is an Audio Diary.
 * 2) Both pages get moved to new names: Alpha Series (Big Daddy) and Alpha Series (Audio Diary)
 * 3) Alpha Series is made into a disambiguation with links to the two articles.

However, this is not the way it is done on other major wikis, such as Wikipedia.

Wikipedia systems:

 * (You can read about their entire system and reasons here: Wikipedia:Disambiguation)


 * Scenario 1
 * 1) There are one or more articles with the same or similar name. For example, Quartz.
 * 2) One of the articles is clearly the most commonly used meaning of the word. 90% of the time when people search for the word "quartz" they expect to find information about a mineral.
 * 3) This article (about the mineral) gets to keep its name . All other articles are moved to more specific names, like Quartz (band) or Quartz (graphics layer)
 * 4) A disambiguation page is made at Quartz (disambiguation) with links to all of the articles.
 * 5) The top of Quartz and a few other "Quartz" articles get the Template:About (which is the same as our Template:For) to either link to the disambiguation page or to another more related page.


 * Scenario 2
 * 1) There are one or more articles with the same or similar name. For example, Rock.
 * 2) There is more than one commonly used meaning for this term, and people are just as likely to be searching for one as the other.
 * 3) Both articles are moved to more specific titles. (Rock (geology) and Rock music)
 * 4) A disambiguation page is made at Rock with links to all the other aticles.
 * 5) Many of the other articles get the Template:About placed at the top, or another similar template.

Yada, yada, the point is...
We need to consider the disadvantages of the way our wiki does disambiguation.


 * Disadvantages of our system
 * A visitor searching for "Alpha Series" on this wiki or through Google will most likely be sent to the disambiguation page. This person, seeing a page devoid of content, is confused or bored and does not stick around to read the articles. Instead they leave to find other sites with the information they want.
 * If 90% of the time when a person searches for "Aplha Series" they want the Big Daddy type, why should we make them click through extra links to reach it? The Wikipedia Scenario 1 would be far more appropriate in this case.

This recent confusion with Halofan2417's edits shows that we need to decide what system is best for our wiki and enforce it consistently.
 * It's not rocket science...

So, I ask all of you (who actually care and bothered to read the junk above): what should we do with the disambiguations of BioShock Wiki? Keep the current system, or switch to the Wikipedia way? Your thoughts? ~Gardimuer   { ʈalk } 21:59, December 9, 2010 (UTC)