On 26/11/2007, Charlotte Webb charlottethewebb@gmail.com wrote:
On 11/25/07, Steve Bennett stevagewp@gmail.com wrote:
I'm talking about when some kid thinks it's a crazy coincidence that the character Voltaire in their favourite computer game has the same name as an actual historical figure.
That would belong at [[Voltaire (disambiguation)]], rather than in any "trivia" section. Think outside the box, damn.
Well, not really.
The inclusion of "also by this name" things on disambiguation pages is well-accepted, and I know of a few cases where disambiguation pages have been created just to get a silly "see also" phrase out of an article.* But the presence or absence of a disambiguation page with the information won't stop people wanting to include it in a trivia section - different motives.
Headnotes/disambiguation are there for the cases where you want to take an incoming reader and direct them to the place they really wanted to go. Trivia sections - or at least this aspect of them - are for informing the reader who wanted to read about this particular topic about how it links to another unrelated topic.
If your goal is to make sure that people looking for Voltaire the wrestler get there, you use disambiguation. If your goal is to make sure that people reading about Voltaire learn this neat thing about there also being a wrestler, you use a trivia section.
And I think most of the additions are from people wanting the latter, not the former.