Wikipedia:Disambiguation dos and don'ts

This is an information page.

It is not an encyclopedic article, nor one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Disambiguation pages. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting.

Disambiguation pages are not encyclopedia articles – they are navigation aids!

Users arrive at these pages with a specific article in mind. So when you edit these pages:

DO:
Limit descriptions to what's necessary.
Put the link at the start of each entry.^[a]
Sort entries; group by subject if appropriate.
Put the primary topic at the top, if one exists.
Use {{Wiktionary}} for dictionary definitions.^[b]
Fix incoming links to target the intended page.
Tag pages that need work with {{dab cleanup}}.

DON'T:
Don't include entries without a blue link.
Don't include red links unless used in articles.^[c]
Don't include multiple blue links in an entry.
Don't include references or external links.
Don't list dictionary definitions.^[b]
Don't list every article containing the title.
Don't pipe links except to format.^[a]

Also:

Do consider joining WikiProject Disambiguation.

Notes

^ ^a ^b Unless the linked article is not the ambiguous item itself, but part of the description.
^ ^a ^b Put the wiktionary template at the top of the page to link to dictionary definitions.
^ To see if a link is used, visit the link, then use the "What links here" tool. Entries with a red link must also include a link to an article mentioning the term.

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