Wikipedia:HNP

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Hatnotes are short notes placed at the top of an article, normally to provide links to other similarly named articles or disambiguation pages. For more information about methods of disambiguating articles, see Wikipedia:Disambiguation.

Contents

Format

In most cases, a standard Wikipedia:Disambiguation template should be used. This permits the form and structure to change gracefully and uniformly over time. Currently, each note should be italicized and indented, without a bullet before the item. A horizontal dividing line should not be placed under a note, nor after the final item in a list.

Summarize or not?

Some hatnote disambiguation templates include a summary of the present article's topic; others do not. For instance, in the article Honey, one might use the template {{otheruses4}} to produce:

This article is about the insect-produced fluid. For other uses of the term, see Honey (disambiguation).

Alternatively, one might use {{otheruses3}} to produce:

For other uses of the term, see Honey (disambiguation).

Either of these two styles is acceptable; the choice of style in a given article is based on editors' preference and what is likely to be clearer and easier for the reader. Where an article already has a hatnote in one of these styles, editors should not change to the other style without good reason.

Placement

Shortcut:
WP:HNP

Place hatnotes at the very top of the article, before images and templates (like navigational and "series" templates). There is no consensus at the moment whether to place hatnotes above or below maintenance templates (like the "cleanup", "unreferenced", and "POV" templates). Use your best discretion or voice your opinion on the talk page at the current discussion.

  • In terms of document structure, it is awkward to have article content, then meta content, then article content again. Analogously, in HTML it would be bad form to put <title> and <meta> tags within <body>.
  • In terms of accessibility, not everyone is using or has the CSS functionality that "floats" images and templates to the right or left, which in turn gives many people the perception that a hatnote placed after an image or template looks OK. Imagine if someone without CSS landed on this version of the Bread article but happened to be in the wrong place. They'd have to scroll, or perhaps in the case of a blind user, have their screen reader trodge through a long "cuisine" template before reaching the navigation aid they desire. Likewise, those who redistribute Wikipedia content may choose to change or eliminate CSS entirely. (To test the CSS-less realm in Firefox, go to View, Page Style, No Style.)
  • The Wikipedia guidance on accessibility recommends that "Disambiguation links should be the first elements of the page."
  • Similarly, Wikipedians may decide to change the look of the hatnote templates in the future, for example to the style currently used on the German Wikipedia. If such a change were made, hatnotes that look fine now despite not being at the very top of the article would visually clash with proximate images and templates.

Examples of proper use

Two articles with similar titles

This article is about the village in England. For H. P. Lovecraft's fictional town, see Dunwich (Lovecraft).
Dunwich (pronounced Dun-Itch) is a town in the county of Suffolk in England, the remnant of what was once a prosperous seaport and centre of the wool trade during the early middle ages, with a natural harbour formed by the mouths of the River Blyth...

When two articles share the same title, except that one is disambiguated and the other not, the undisambiguated article should include a hatnote with a link to the other article. It is not necessary to create a separate disambiguation page. {{otheruses4}} may be used for this.

Linking to a disambiguation page

For other uses, see Monolith (disambiguation).
A monolith is a monument or natural feature such as a mountain, consisting of a single massive stone or rock. Erosion usually exposes these formations...

When a term has a primary meaning and two or more additional meanings, the hatnote on the primary topic page should link to a disambiguation page. {{otheruses}} may be used for this.

In many cases the hatnote also includes a brief description of the subject of the present article, for readers' convenience:

This article is about the mazelike labyrinth from Greek mythology. For other uses, see Labyrinth (disambiguation).
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate maze-like structure constructed for King Minos of Crete and designed by the legendary artificer Daedalus to hold the Minotaur...

The template {{otheruses1}} may be used for this.

Ambiguous term that redirects to an unambiguously named article

{{Redirect}} or a related template can be used when an unambiguous article name is redirected to from an ambiguous term:

Johann Sebastian Bach


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Bach)

"Bach" redirects here. For other uses, see Bach (disambiguation).

Johann Sebastian Bach (pronounced [joˈhan/ˈjoːhan zeˈbastjan ˈbax]) (March 21, 1685 O.S.July 28, 1750 N.S.) was a prolific German composer...

Examples of improper use

Trivial information, dictionary definitions, and slang

When notes feature a trivial detail or use of a term, or links to overly specific and tendentious material, they are unwarranted.

During a siege, to invest a town or fortress means to surround it with a contravallation and a circumvallation.
Investment is a term with several closely-related meanings in finance and economics. It refers to the accumulation of some kind of asset in hopes of getting a future return from it...

In this case, there is no direct disambiguation, and the note listed is bound to be uninteresting to most readers. The proper disambiguation simply links to a separate Invest (disambiguation) page.

Legitimate information about the topic

A previous version of the Aisha article showed:

Ayesha is sometimes used as a woman's name. Once popular only among Muslims, it was briefly popular among English-speakers after it appeared in the book She by Rider Haggard.
Aisha or Ayesha (Arabic عائشه `ā'isha = "she who lives") was a wife of the Islamic prophet Muhammad...

This is a typical and highly improper misuse of disambiguating hatnotes. Instead, the information belongs in the body of the article, or in the articles about the book, or in a separate article about names, or all three places. Hatnotes are meant to reduce confusion and direct readers to another article they might have been looking for, not for information about the subject of the article itself.

Shortcut:
WP:RELATED

Linking to articles that are highly related to the topic

This article is about the scientific study of extraterrestrial life; for treatment in popular culture, see Extraterrestrial life in popular culture.
Extraterrestrial life is life that may exist and originate outside the planet Earth. Its existence is currently hypothetical: there is as yet no evidence of extraterrestrial life that has been widely accepted by scientists...

Instead of using a hatnote, it is better to summarize Extraterrestrial life in popular culture under a subsection of Extraterrestrial life in conjunction with the {{main}} template. Alternatively, it could be linked to in the See also section.

Shortcut:
WP:NAMB

Disambiguating article names that are not ambiguous

Tree (set theory)


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Tree (disambiguation).

In set theory, a tree is a partially ordered set (poset) in which there is a single unique minimal element (called the root) and in which the set of elements less than a given element is well ordered...

Here, the problem is that the reader would not have ended up at tree (set theory) if they were interested in other types of trees, as tree does not redirect there.

However, a hatnote may still be appropriate when even a more specific name is still ambiguous. For example, Matt Smith (comics) might still be confused for the comics illustrator Matt Smith (illustrator).

A hatnote may also be appropriate in an unambiguously-named article when an ambiguous term redirects to it, as explained in the "Proper uses" section above.

External links

A previous version of the Hurricane Katrina article contained:

If you are trying to locate someone missing in Hurricane Katrina, or register yourself as found, you can use the site www.disastersearch.org [1]
Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall near New Orleans, Louisiana, on August 29, 2005, was one of the most destructive and expensive tropical cyclones to hit the United States...

The use of external help links in Wikipedia, though noble, cannot reasonably be maintained. In special cases, a link to an "External links" section with several links may be appropriate, but POV favoritism can be obstructive. In this case, the hatnote was removed entirely.

Non-existent articles

Hatnotes should not be used for articles that do not exist since the notes are intended to point the user to another article they may have intended to find. The exception is if one intends to create the linked article immediately. In that case, consider creating the new article first, before saving the addition of the hatnote.

NB: The section below is transcluded from {{Otheruses templates}}.
This box: view  talk  

Otheruses templates

To discuss these templates as a whole, please see Wikipedia talk:Disambiguation If you wish to discuss general wordings, rather than the wording or formatting of this specific template, don't post here, or else what you say will probably go unnoticed.

For a summary page on how to use these templates, see Wikipedia:Otheruses templates (example usage).

Generic

For example, {{dablink|For other senses of this term, see [[etc...]]}}. This template is adaptable, but fails to standardize hatnotes.
(Similar to Dablink, but used for messages that wouldn't make sense on mirrors of Wikipedia, such as a link in the main article namespace that links to one in the Wikipedia namespace. See Wikipedia:Avoid self-references for more details.)

Otheruses

{{About}} is the main template for giving other uses; it redirects to {{otheruses4}}.

  • {{otheruses4|USE1|USE2|PAGE2|USE3|PAGE3|USE4|PAGE4|USE5|PAGE5}} (fully specified):

Variations

There are also variations of {{about}}. These serve the same purpose, and are marginally easier to use for each individual purpose, but overall, it is complicated to have so many different templates; it could be argued that the time saved using them is lost as other editors have to familiarise themselves with them.

All of these templates are special cases of {{about}}.

Note: {{about}} will produce the same result.

Note: {{about|USE}} will produce the same result.

Note: this simply adds "(disambiguation)" to what you input as PAGE.

Note: {{about|||PAGE}} will produce the same result - note the two empty parameters.

Note: this is for when there is both a singular and plural disambiguation page; it only works when the plural is formed simply by adding "s" at the end.

Note: this is for when there are two disambiguation pages, such as noun and adjective, or singular and irregular plural. There are only two parameters and at least one is required.
Note: this cannot be recreated with {{about}} - only with {{dablink}} or {{for}}.

  • {{This|USE|PAGE}}:

Note: {{about|USE||PAGE}} will produce the same result - note the empty parameter.

For (other topic)

{{for}} (and {{for2}}) can be used instead of {{about}} to not include the first part - "This article is about USE". However, this can also simply be achieved with an empty first parameter in {{about}}.
For example, {{For|OTHER TOPIC|PAGE}} becomes {{About||OTHER TOPIC|PAGE}}.
{{for3}} is somewhat different, appending the word the in its mention of the second parameter, then generates a link using either the second or (if present) the third parameter as a parenthetical. {{the}} is simply a rendering of {{for3}} without bothering with the optional first argument.


Other people

  • {{otherpeople4|USE1|USE2|PAGE}}:

Other places

Otherhurricaneuses

For articles on storms.

Otherusesof (topic)

Redirect

"Not to be confused with"...

Notes

Do not use subst: with these templates, as that will prevent:

  1. propagating changes as the template is modified; and
  2. the What links here (WLH) listing.


Please do not edit these templates unless you know what you are doing

These templates may be used in thousands of articles, and changing the syntax could therefore break thousands of articles. If you wish to edit a disambiguation template first ask yourself:

  1. Is there already another template that will do this job? We have lots of disambiguation templates already, see Category:Disambiguation and redirection templates.
  2. Do I really need a template for this? Will it ever get used on any other articles, or should I just use {{dablink}} instead?
  3. Do I know what will happen if I change the parameters around? Will it break existing uses of the template, and if so, can I fix them all?


See also

Wikipedia content modification information:

  • This page was last modified on 7 September 2008, at 12:43.

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