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Description
The "distinguish" template produces a hatnote to point out to our readers the existence of one or more articles whose title(s) is, or are, similar to the page in question. It is used in cases where the distinction between the titles is generally obvious and does not need further explanation.
For those cases where an explanation is required, please use the templates {{For}} and {{About}}. For use on category pages, the corresponding template is {{Category distinguish}}.
Usage
Here is an example of its standard usage on the article about the mathematical Astroid:
{{distinguish|Asteroid}} →
This hatnote can be used to distinguish the topic from multiple other topics, as for Corundum or Bangala language:
{{distinguish|Carborundum|Conundrum}} →
{{distinguish|Bangla language|Mbangala language|Ngala language}} →
The |text= parameter can be used to create customized text, in case context is required. An example is on the article Phobos (mythology), which contains a customized hatnote to distinguish it and "Phoebus" (a redirect of Apollo). Both links lead to topics about Greek gods, so the parenthetical disambiguation in "Phobos (mythology)" is insufficient to disambiguate the two. Since it is typically not preferable to link a redirect in a hatnote, the article "Apollo" is linked to directly and a short explanation fills in the necessary context:
{{distinguish|text = Phoebus, an epithet of the Greek god [[Apollo]]}} →
Note that a final period is automatically added at the end of the sentence, and that only one blue link is used per disambiguated topic (i.e, do not type ...an [[epithet]] of the [[Greek]] god [[Apollo]].
When the target is a disambiguation page, display of the parentheses may be avoided by escaping the vertical bar using the magic word {{!}}:
{{distinguish|Crossfire (disambiguation){{!}}Crossfire}} →
The escape is necessary, otherwise the template will read the next text as another topic:
{{distinguish|Crossfire (disambiguation)|Crossfire}} →
When to use
This hatnote is generally used when readers have misspelled their desired title, and the error would be apparent by simply displaying the alternative term without further explanation. For example, consider a reader looking for the punctuation mark who instead ends up at coma:
Readers are presumed to recognize that they actually wanted comma by merely looking at the spelling, and this case generally requires no further explanation.
However, {{distinguish}} is not suitable when the difference is not readily apparent without additional details. Consider a reader looking for a game they believe is named Reversi:
In the above hatnote, it is not generally apparent how the suggested Reversis is different from Reversi, which is also a game.
In this case you should use {{about}} instead of {{distinguish}}. The difference is to provide explanation upfront without requiring the reader to click through and differentiate the terms on their own.
{{Distinguish}} should only be used when the ambiguity exists for a portion of the readership that is sufficient to warrant a hatnote. Care should be taken to avoid trivial uses.
TemplateData
TemplateData for Distinguish
A hatnote used when there is an ambiguity in an article's title.
| Parameter | Description | Type | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name of article | 1 | Name of article that you want to link to | Page name | suggested |
| Optional additional article to link (2) | 2 | Optional additional article to link | Page name | optional |
| Optional additional article to link (3) | 3 | Optional additional article to link | Page name | optional |
| Optional additional article to link (4) | 4 | Optional additional article to link | Page name | optional |
| Custom text | text | Custom message in wikitext; e.g. "[[foo]] and [[Bar (computer science)|bar]]" produces "Not to be confused with [[foo]] and [[Bar (computer science)|bar]]." | String | optional |
| Self reference | selfref | If set, marks note as being a self reference, to not be shown when content is reused | Boolean | optional |
Redirects
- {{Confused}}
- {{Confuse}}
- {{Misspelling}}
- {{Nottobeconfusedwith}}
- {{Ntbcw}}
See also
- {{About}}
- {{Category distinguish}}
- {{For}}
- {{Redirect}}
- {{R from misspelling}}
