Late on this, but here's some potential social if we want to get something on this:
• Did you know there are more than 200 "John Smith"s on Wikipedia? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Smith • Need to disambiguate disambiguation? We have a page for that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disambiguation_(disambiguation)
Excuse the maths, it's just after 3am here… :)
Joe
On 12 August 2015 at 20:38, James Alexander jalexander@wikimedia.org wrote:
Ok, the John Smith disambig page is absolutely hysterical to me....
James Alexander Community Advocacy Wikimedia Foundation (415) 839-6885 x6716 @jamesofur
On Wed, Aug 12, 2015 at 2:35 PM, Katherine Maher kmaher@wikimedia.org wrote:
This disambiguation thing is pretty funny. We should do something with it at some point :)
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Beutler Ink hello@beutlerink.com Date: Wed, Aug 12, 2015 at 8:00 AM Subject: WP:60 • Week 38 | Anti-Disambiguation-arianism To: katherine@wikimedia.org
Zen and the art of topical disambiguation
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Hi Katherine, Welcome to Week 38: "Anti-Disambiguation-arianism"
• • •
Disambiguation is a concept that got little public attention before Wikipedia (like the @ symbol was little-used before email). When a Wikipedia article needs a title http://t.hsms10.com/e1t/c/*W1sCvKq5_zhZ-W2hDMWz4Dth9D0/*W2Ll-Vx4vNSJ4W1n9Scp9lMGmL0/5/f18dQhb0Sq5F8YHrlsW8jkN972qwv1yW2stjD_2shjyLMf57bRXD6prW39DrXV6bL3GGW69_jjk7Z5nq9W6RwTBw6b-xmrN96Lsb1bGbydN8p180kc97nyW51S7QV5CnpkWW8nWjdD90G7thN8S3yR5bY02SW4s8d3z1nJ8cBW8pmbSQ1mhW2DW3Vpgs_96zRPSW6bT6L38RRjRDW5Ckvrl3Lpx8sW4j6Ww-5m3ZGGW96dt4S4r1QvYW6yGFm77cvxVfN8q5qBxVQf4XW5vDhTY8lG2_KW5zK1wl3HwqkHW2CfWV26MjZCgW8qC4dg2DmF5QW64KRvQ10y2NjW1mbSdy8t34sTW8tyf2Y8p_T1WW24Xk6r8p047bW5G80Tk2zgZ6vW7dFbvJ1pGnlkW3Gv64L35WrMMW2D69S362LXX0N8GclM4PNmfhW3Cdk0d3wv7SmW4bGymk2TffRxVMcqz12YDvqsW6Gn-jV6_98lRW2nRzM357_lMyVS-Wy82fcfKmW1vhnSS3X2_2hW8sB1k25rbrmGN7shYpxmRw0WV9ZLfD6318kF111, but another topic already is using that name, what do you do? By devising a method to reduce the ambiguity.
What Wikipedia usually does is adds parentheses after the formal title, selecting a phrase that most closely describes what is unique about each one. For example, several dozen John Smiths have met Wikipedia's notability http://t.hsms10.com/e1t/c/*W1sCvKq5_zhZ-W2hDMWz4Dth9D0/*W6jCgGZ3shYJsN23qrqlJ-DdJ0/5/f18dQhb0SbTP8Y9YsWW7fz3SM4T_wzgW4WYDf-4WzD5sMsc-tTXD6prW39DrXV6bL3GGW69_jjk7Z5nq9W6RwTBw6b-xmrN96Lsb1bGbydW4sGQp72JcGqXW1n8D_Z1nrCGBW51LTg55DHNj2N8f6Z_Bc97nyW51_Pz58pmbSQW1mhW2D3Vpgs_W96zRPS6bT6L3W8RRjRD5CktzDW3nN9mn3ndm6jW49WVtr3VVg3wW3ynQc-6G2lbzN7NMdQN4cNXyW75WRHJ7s7N2jW78wSdg3-YSSPW1Lsydc3p1NxRW7JHnqw6sk3JTW7qjJqH1tkn4WW4lVRlg9knPdhW7s4r_b82JN3YW2DQ0Hx6xPrWsW78FfRw8T2vSRW5KJ3_P7sp1sqW6jqYxY9dys33N31JGMGkydxlW5gSHY56H5W2lW37P0d415hnZlW2ZYdB87ZcFxkW53vw_s14P6T2V5n9vD1McdTkW4J35Sn2N3DcwW84dr_J5vrx8jW773tGT8jKykPW5fYrGD3Hst_RW3zZTd75DYklbVrKGtg5qJfGrf3wqTQq04 requirement, so there are no less than six cricketers and seven footballers disambiguated only by their birth date http://t.hsms10.com/e1t/c/*W1sCvKq5_zhZ-W2hDMWz4Dth9D0/*W3j2ygq4TWy-bW75gT78502Q9N0/5/f18dQhb0SbTY8YHrCHW8jkN972qwv1yW2stjD_2shjyLVf5c9R57mvFqW3BJFQw7MN5VxW7vl0GW7NrMWRW6YTq0R4zN4xVW1BkNFr2gNgHQW1ly7qx1ksGJhW1R4_lX1V5BRbW12xxk_1M7k4-W1slWZl6DHVvxW5Y46-41tmXX4W5-2t5m20WxtkW36dP-r68QsSXW1-ZK0j2Y7Dl7W6pzHWB79p91kW2tk5vH2z_scnW6x2RKS5-lMJcW5sSp7n42cwz1W32Qq896259wZW2V2YQh6z0w46W4GmGLN6fYnD_W6K1l4d4LXb4qW3Rp5fR6tTH_tW35bn_S41CC5LW3xjbFy41JfjTW2N9l0N2_2hjwW6NMRTS70l0z4W50WdSP47T_26W5gWV4P3Xzwy4W82G-VB8yL2YnW4Ps9ks3BJsgQVcZLWR86kZnlW8SlcC657T_pbW6VBJ892nmCsmW1YD4481Ngx1fW519-Yt9bvYP1N6xM5dVVprGVW3pm8MR8ScDwSW56nkzB3-h57mW32N7N95WGdW8W2qVp1X39GZgM0 .
And all relevant examples (including similar spellings) are collected on a single page, the disambiguation page. One of my favorite ironies of Wikipedia: disambiguation has its own disambiguation page, naturally found at Disambiguation (disambiguation) http://t.hsms10.com/e1t/c/*W1sCvKq5_zhZ-W2hDMWz4Dth9D0/*W75bFpS1cfry2W1BccM750kptm0/5/f18dQhb0Sq5H8YXMxCW8jkN972qwv1yW2stjD_2shjyLMf5b0xXD6prW7cmS1s6bnWj5W5Dz8sp69NG0_W4vFpLQ97x8_0W2MND6F41HphRW3SYgR64DlgB4W2LhNXg4QzxvkW3SLYcb49JfBwW3C8bwH40vph_W5cBvfd4rDgrjN2HCrMJ-zhhVW47YlYy4bfcHbW47Xx4z3C811XW4-THSY8cBYyyW2Hyb609dH8_6W6V4mf74q_dR4W8gjY6L8WBKbVW56sy_82NhXK3W31_yWq2Pxs5JW2M_8s-4ctR6kW4hLQnT8SQ-JnW9fGlZ94dtdHGW7sD2X-2qz4kSW4BKvqL52QCnfW9cLSD02rjLRzW2NdXXC9dKXdtVLmFDf7JdQf2MsQHGZ67PNyW4c0nqh7J-VTmW30rlZV4lBZ6FVnpxyl1Q68w6W1MMh8v25k-XtN1s5WGPRbrg5W27r3hz6M7gtQW2-PWWW4QDgwJVWWh6w1LXY17W4xp2S82-zmd3W7R5yCZ7C0LfVW1tjsrt5wwTW4MNDyx-mXsvhf8QzgLJ11 .
• • •
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