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Archive 15

Where next? part 1 of 2 – intentional links to DAB pages

With more links appearing daily, clearly we need to keep up the good work to keep those numbers low, but I wonder if this is a good time to think about where to go from here. - Certes, 5 December 2018

That got me thinking. My first idea was given names and surnames (those now constitute my planned part 2). On further consideration, I felt that intentional links to DAB pages might be a simpler place to start.

The vast majority of links through (disambiguation) qualifiers are perfectly good. There is, however, a small number where an editor has clumsily evaded a DABbing problem by linking through a (disambiguation) qualifier. These are extremely difficult to spot, invariably annoying, and sometimes totally useless. (I have seen links like that where there was nothing relevant on the DAB page. Almost all could be redlinked or {{ill}}-linked after searching.) This proposal is designed to address that problem. I do not think it conflicts or overlaps with, or would require modification of, anything else.

I propose the following scheme:

1. A new bot, User:IDL bot – to flag problems
2. A new template, Template:Intdablink (shortcut Template:Idl) – to mark problems as solved

(1) User:IDL bot would look for and log links to pages in Category:Disambiguation pages and its subcategories. It would ignore links which can be presumed good, such as:

• Links from pages in Category:Disambiguation pages and its subcategories
• Links from pages in Category:Given names and Category:Surnames and their subcategories
• Links from inline templates such as {{distinguish}}, {{for}}, {{other uses}}, {{see also}} and {{main}}
• Links marked with the new template Intdablink (see below)

IDL bot would place its finds in a new maintenance (do not delete if empty!) category, Category:Articles with unassessed links to disambiguation pages. I suggest a daily run. I doubt whether it would be worthwhile generating a list of such links. I also doubt whether it would be worthwhile creating monthly subcategories. This looks like a largely one-off task, in which new problem links will be rare.

IDL bot will of course pick up good intentional links to DAB pages, e.g. in hatnotes which don't use templates, in main text, and as see-also links. That can't be helped. This is where template intdablink (and the heavy lifting) come in.

(2) The idea behind Template:Intdablink is to provide a standard wrapper for an intentional link to a DAB page, to show that an editor has reviewed it and considers it correct. It would be much more compact than e.g. my current technique of adding <!--intentional link to DAB page-->. I doubt whether the sort of editor who introduces the type of error under discussion would notice its existence, so the risk of misuse should be small.

Its syntax would be {{intdablink|page=|pipe=|date=}}.

• Only the page= field would be compulsory
• pipe= would parse as the Boolean value 0 (if empty) or 1 (anything else)
• date= isn't strictly necessary, but it might sometime prove useful. One example might be, if an editor wanted to check why Intdablink was put on (and who by). The date would be in the usual month + year format (no day). Perhaps that bot (whose name I forget) which dates maintenance tags could be persuaded to adopt Intdablink.

Examples:

• {{intdablink|FizBuz}} would render as [[FizBuz (disambiguation)]]
• {{intdablink|FizBuz|pipe=yes}} would render as [[FizBuz (disambiguation)|FizBuz]]

Intdablink would populate Category:Articles with assessed links to disambiguation pages. It isn't immediately obvious when that category might be useful; but it looks straightforward to populate; and if it ever is needed, it's there.

In an ideal word, adding Intdablink would also depopulate Category:Articles with unassessed links to disambiguation pages. That looks like overcomplication and much more trouble than it would be worth. It would be necessary to check for other links on each page before depopulation. It would be much simpler just to regenerate Category:Articles with unassessed links to disambiguation pages on each IDL bot run.

IPL bot would also update a very simple report each time it ran: date, #unassessed, #assessed, #total. That would show the progress and encourage editors.

I know nothing about writing bots or templates. I therefore propose leaving those tasks to the hordes of eager volunteers. It would probably be a good idea to do some preliminary testing before going live, to estimate the amount of work which this proposal would create. I would be very willing to help clear up the resulting dog's breakfast.

As I am sure that there must be things which I have got wrong or overlooked, or which could be done more simply, I now sign off as Narky Blert (talk) 21:31, 9 December 2018 (UTC), and throw this idea open for

Comments

That looks like an interesting idea and a workable design. It's certainly worth an initial run to count the potential problems. Mainspace has 372,000 wikilinks to "Something (disambiguation)"; I can't easily tell how many of those have the attributes listed above which mean they're probably good. Certes (talk) 22:47, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

• A tremendous number of those are from heavily used templates. I suspect that the large number of links to Executive order (disambiguation) means that a WP:DABCONCEPT page is needed there. bd2412 T 23:01, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

Yuck. Executive order (disambiguation) is a misleading mess. There is no equivalent in UK. A statutory instrument is a piece of secondary legislation proposed by the government (the executive) which has no force of law until it's been approved (usually nodded through) by both Houses of Parliament (the legislature). SIs can only be made if an existing Act of Parliament allows for them. The English and Welsh High Court is a senior branch of the judicature, roughly comparable to US district courts, totally independent of the executive. The Northern Ireland High Court is similar, as is the Scottish Outer House. The Scottish High Court of Justiciary is very different, and has no equivalent in those other two jurisdictions. Narky Blert (talk) 02:19, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

Based on a dump I copied a few months ago, Executive order is the most linked (disambiguation) title. Here are some other popular targets, a mix of dab pages and redirects to dabs at the base name. Links from templates such as {{American TV by channel number}} will be counted multiple times, once per transcluding article.

Many of these have since been fixed, though we're still no wiser as to the identity of Winifred Wagner's father. Certes (talk) 00:06, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

Even links in hatnotes aren't necessarily right. For example, many of the links into Aberdeen (disambiguation) are from hatnotes such as that on Aberdeen and Rockfish Railroad, which can be removed per WP:NAMB. Certes (talk) 00:43, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

Winifred's dad is exactly the sort of problem I had in mind. (I didn't know that one, and have no answer; though I'm strongly leaning towards unlink.)

John Williams unlinked. Ref added (it predates mention of him in WP). He wasn't notable: non-RS source. Narky Blert (talk) 09:43, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

I had overlooked footnote-type templates. They could certainly be added to the 'presumed innocent' class. For the moment...

Both those and inline/hatnote templates could subsequently be moved out of the 'presumed innocent' class. I deliberately excluded the latter because my Intdablink idea won't work with them. {{see also|FizBuz (disambiguation){{!}}FizBuz}} uses the {{!}} pseudo-pipe, and my idea doesn't allow for it - I think it would render as [[[[FizBuz (disambiguation)|FizBuz]]]]. That may be an idea for later.

I today touched about 50 articles after moving an ambiguous link used in two templates to an unambiguous link and redirecting the original link to a DAB page as {{R from ambiguous}}. My proposal may be something to be adopted in (relatively) easy stages.

I'm all in favour of WP:NAMB. I see far too many silly hatnotes pointing to DAB pages in pages with qualified titles which you wouldn't be reading unless you already knew what you were looking for.

I am holding back my given name/surname idea for now. It is closely similar to this one; I will refine it if we can find a way to get this one working. Narky Blert (talk) 01:42, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

At the risk of going off on a tangent, I would like to simplify the {{see also|FizBuz (disambiguation){{!}}FizBuz}} syntax. It's a pain to get right, and I've had several such additions reverted as being pointless because it's just a redirect. Something like {{See also dab|FizBuz}} would reduce the typing and add an air of authority, as well as marking exclusions which don't need to be checked. Certes (talk) 02:06, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

It may be a tangent, but it's pointing in the right direction. I agree about the fiddliness.

It's a more general problem. Last week, I reverted nine edits by two IP editors who had removed the (disambiguation) qualifier from see-also entries on DAB pages. (Because they were IP editors, I had no good way of telling them off.) I've reverted at least three admins and at least three 10-year editors for doing the same or similar things. Newbies can be forgiven, but editors like that should know better – or at least wonder why someone went to the trouble of adding the more complicated syntax. Narky Blert (talk) 09:58, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

I've had the same problem, with some of the same pages/editors as Narky Blert. I really like the {{See also dab|FizBuz}} idea - it makes disambiguation in hatnotes and See also's simpler and more clear. Leschnei (talk) 14:26, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

I intended the template for the specific case of a hatnote that links to Foo through its redirect Foo (disambiguation), like the final Springfield example in WP:INTDAB, but your comment raises a couple of issues. Firstly, I picked a poor name: it's too easily confused with a link in the "See also" section near the bottom of a dab. Secondly, most of the links of the type I intended are of doubtful merit per WP:NAMB anyway: the page on which they lie is usually called something more specific than Foo and is not where someone would land when looking for some other thing called Foo. For example, I recently fixed the hatnote on WXYZ-TV but I should probably have boldly axed it. Certes (talk) 15:12, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

I have a standard edit summary when reverting removal of a (disambiguation) qualifier, or when correcting an edit which didn't include one - "I repaired your edit - Links to DAB pages must go through the (disambiguation) qualifier per WP:INTDABLINK". I may have got the tone about right, because I often get a smiley in response.

{{other uses dab|FizBuz}} might be a better example, because {{other uses}} without parameters generates a link to Pagename (disambiguation). Similarly with {{other people}}. Narky Blert (talk) 15:26, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

• The bot which dates maintenance tags is User:AnomieBOT/source/tasks/TagDater.pm. Narky Blert (talk) 14:03, 12 December 2018 (UTC)

DABCONCEPTS?

I realize that it is a bit outside of the gnoming that this project usually delves into, but I have a fat stack of WP:DABCONCEPT drafts in various states of construction that will ultimately take the place of a variety of poorly thought-out disambiguation pages. Just in the past few months, we have completed Stranger, Rivalry, and Rethinking for this purpose, and I think these came out quite nicely. bd2412 T 20:10, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

Merge from/to templates.

When a disambiguation page is proposed as a merge target, the templates used to make that proposal (e.g. {{merge to|Foobar}}, {{merge from|Barfoo}} create a link which registers as a disambiguation link. See Bank of American Fork (building) for a live example. Can we do something to prevent our system from reporting those as links needing to be fixed? bd2412 T 05:24, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

I quite like these, as I do {{requested move}} which also gets picked up by User:DPL bot. I pick them up on my rounds, and often contribute from a WP:DPL POV (frequently with a bucketful of policy- and practicality-based ice-cold water). Narky Blert (talk) 04:20, 15 December 2018 (UTC)

Here's an example of one which I haven't yet got round to doing anything about: Talk:List of lucky symbols#Proposed merge of Lucky charm into List of lucky symbols. Narky Blert (talk) 04:37, 15 December 2018 (UTC)

Here's another, where I recently voted in a still-open discussion: Talk:Sap (disambiguation)#Merger proposal. Narky Blert (talk) 04:42, 15 December 2018 (UTC)

Template:S-rail-national

Goubangzi railway station and Xingcheng railway station link to the DAB page Jinzhou railway station instead of to Jinzhou railway station (Jinzhou). Template:S-rail-national seems to be another of those railway templates with code impenetrable to all but initiates and no means of disambiguation. The fact that the {{dn}} tags, and the hidden notes on them, have been around since August 2017 says something. Narky Blert (talk) 08:18, 15 December 2018 (UTC)

 Fixed: Although it doesn't say so, {{S-rail-national}} is designed for British article titles in the form Sometown (Countyshire) railway station. Adding Jinzhou to {{National Rail stations}} should work but I don't think it would be welcome. I've changed the articles to use {{CR stations}} and added Jinzhou there. Certes (talk) 11:59, 15 December 2018 (UTC)

I also fixed similar problems in Vilvoorde railway station (via {{BE-S stations}}) and Gullipadu railway station. The latter just needed the {dn} removed, as redirect Tuni (Indian Railways station) already exists. Certes (talk) 12:12, 15 December 2018 (UTC)

Ligurian language

We have a few links to dab Ligurian language. These come from passing language code "lij" to Module:Lang via templates such as {{Infobox Italian comune}}. It has been suggested that we resolve this by removing the disambiguation page and promoting the current language to primary topic. What does the team think? Certes (talk) 14:34, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

• That seems like the normal thing to do. bd2412 T 14:37, 9 December 2018 (UTC)
• We don't contort the topic structure of our articles into weird shapes simply because of a (incidentally non-exsitent) issue with a template. Of course, a case could be made that one of the two is a primary topic, though that's far from clear: the two topics seem to have attracted comparable level of scholarship and the absence of a primary topic has not, to my knowledge, been challenged before, and it has been assumed in the only RM we've had so far. Unless a new RM results in a move, the solution is simply to add an entry to the override table used by Module:Lang. – Uanfala (talk) 14:47, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

@Uanfala: Adding lij to variable override in Module:Lang/data might work. Perhaps a template editor can test this by pasting Module:Sandbox/Certes over Module:Lang/data and previewing Camogli without saving. (My usual workaround of fiddling around with Special:TemplateSandbox only seems to work for previewing changes to protected templates, not modules.) Certes (talk) 15:16, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

Because many language names in Module:Language/data/iana languages and the other code/name source modules have language names with parenthetical disambiguators or qualifiers, Module:Lang removes those dabs before it creates the language wikilink. Adding a parenthetically disambiguated language name to Module:Lang/data just results in the dab's removal – yeah, that's how it's supposed to work, and yeah, I did test it.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 16:21, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

Well, in that case then either this behaviour needs to change or we'll have live with the module generating links to dab pages as parenthetical disambiguators are used to distinguish identicaly named languages on wikipedia as well. – Uanfala (talk) 16:44, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

If there are two Ligurian languages, and one is ancient, shouldn't that be at Ancient Ligurian language (comparable to Ancient Greek)? bd2412 T 16:55, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

That does sound more natural, but it could be seen as either confusing: "ancient" here would only be a descriptive term (as in "a word in the ancient Ligurian language") rather than part of the name ("a word in Ancient Ligurian") as is the case for Ancient and Modern Greek (where one language is descended from the other; unlike Ligurian where the two languages are unrelated). I'm not claiming the current situation isn't a mess though: the article got renamed after an RM, then one editor unilaterally (albeit not without good reason) moved it back, somehow in the whole process the talk page ending up at a different title from the article. – Uanfala (talk) 17:07, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

At this writing, Module:Lang is used in just shy of 850,000 pages. I think that this is the first time that anyone has mentioned this particular dab issue. If there are other articles / dab pages with similar problems, make a list of them here so that fixes can be applied in a systematic way.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 17:31, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

Not the first time. I distinctly remember raising the specific issue of lij on an infobox Talk Page several months ago, possibly as long as a year ago. Narky Blert (talk) 20:55, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

I also found a 2015 discussion which highlights a few other minor consequences beyond article space. Certes (talk) 21:12, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

There are also 100+ other languages to take into consideration. Here's a rough list which includes a few false positives such as Vulgar language. Certes (talk) 21:24, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

@Trappist the monk: Thanks for testing. That's as I feared when I saw the gsub to remove " (foo)". We do have a conflict: the module can only link to the title "displayed text language" and we do want the displayed text to read "Ligurian". Could we make a pair of simple module changes: in Lang/data, add to override:

• in Lang/data, add to override: ["lij"] = {"Ligurian", link="Ligurian (Romance language)"},
• in Lang, change name_from_code to something like this (untested)

That should satisfy both requirements and be backwards compatible. Certes (talk) 17:48, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

I still think that the dab page should go away in keeping with MOS:DAB and, that Ligurian (Romance language) should be moved to Ligurian language. I suppose that 'Ligurian language' could be made into a redirect to 'Ligurian (Romance language)'. In this way, lij would work correctly for the modern Ligurian.

The long-standing (before we invented Module:Lang) standard method for handling language names that don't match en.wiki article names is redirects. There is a redirect Ancient Ligurian language so a simple solution to that language's article is to override xlg 'Ligurian (Ancient)' in Module:Language/data/iana languages with 'Ancient Ligurian' in Module:Lang/data.

If we decide that we must change the module code, I think that I would propose the creation of a new link={} table in Module:Lang/data that associates a language code with its matching en.wiki article. Then it's a simple test to create a wikilink from that:

if link then																-- when |link=yes, wikilink the language name
	if language_name:find ('languages') then
		return make_wikilink (language_name);								-- collective language name uses simple wikilink
	elseif lang_data.link[code] then
		return make_wikilink (lang_data.link[code], language_name);			-- language name with wikilink from override data
	else
		return make_wikilink (language_name .. ' language', language_name);	-- language name with wikilink
	end
end

—Trappist the monk (talk) 20:45, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

Yes, a separate link table would work equally well, though I'd swap the if and elseif so a link table entry works even if the name contains "languages". Certes (talk) 21:12, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

All fixed, apart from Category:Articles containing Ligurian-language text and Category:User lij which would require changing another nest of widely used templates, and Wikipedia:Slogans which is a nasty hack. Thanks to the good monk and everyone else who's helped. Certes (talk) 13:40, 17 December 2018 (UTC)

Bajwa

What should we do about Bajwa, and especially its link from {{Ethnic and social groups of the Punjab}}? That template's other entries are mainly articles about castes etc., with a few surname pages, so I'm reluctant to add an INTDABLINK. Certes (talk) 11:19, 22 December 2018 (UTC)

It was a mildly horrible mess, but one thing jumped out at me: Bajwa was a pure {{surname}} page and not a DAB page of any kind. I WP:BOLDly recategorised it, so it's off our books. Narky Blert (talk) 21:46, 23 December 2018 (UTC)

November Challenge

When I started getting interested in DABfixing, Category:Articles with links needing disambiguation contained the best part of 11,000 entries dating back to 2012. I helped get that number down to 4,500, then watched as it drifted out to 7,000.

There are now consistently fewer than 1,500 entries, and the oldest are from 2016. I have just given that year a good going-over; 85 entries in 8 months remain. Can those numbers be reduced still further? Narky Blert (talk) 07:28, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

Yes, it's great to be down to 1,500 pages with {{dn}} tags. Just as importantly, we're down to about 4,688 pages with bad links (marked or not), and it's been halving annually (Less's law?) Well done to October's top disambiguator Narky Blert and everyone else who's helping. Certes (talk) 10:51, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

It's easier to score well in the DAB Challenge if you work a list which contains those pages which have been around since the beginning of the month, rather than fire-fighting the most recent outbreaks. The first time I went through DPL, it took me six months. It's now down to about one (8th or 9th cycle, fortunately I've lost count). Narky Blert (talk) 13:08, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

The "from the top 1000 disambiguation pages" phrasing at the top of the list might be outdated for the first time next month. The January list might contain all mainspace links to disambiguation pages. Amazing! Dekimasuよ! 22:28, 27 December 2018 (UTC)

Never underestimate the power of editors to make bad links. bd2412 T 22:41, 27 December 2018 (UTC)

Phantom links to DAB pages

This group is an oddity. None of the problem pages caught by Disambiguation pages with links contains anything which looks like a link to the relevant DAB page. Some of them look as if they might once have done, through a template; but I can't see anything obviously wrong in any such template, and WP:NULLEDITs on the articles and templates don't clear the bad links. I've been seeing all these problems for several weeks. There's no connection between the topics, so the problems may be independent of each other.

• Central
• Demographics of Macedonia
• List of Frontline episodes
• Montenegrin people
• Politics of Korea
• Regions of Greece

Thoughts, anyone? Narky Blert (talk) 20:07, 25 December 2018 (UTC)

@Narky Blert: As you suspected, each of these cases was different. I've fixed all except Korea, where {{Infobox country}} prepends "Politics of " to the name. Its |linking_name=X parameter would allow us to link to "Politics of X" instead, but it's not clear what we would set X to. It could also break several other links, as the infobox uses the same parameter for several purposes. There may be an argument for writing a BCA over Politics of Korea. Certes (talk) 20:53, 25 December 2018 (UTC)

I would agree with a BCA for this topic. There are politics of Korea that are local to Korea, and then there are politics of Korea in other countries that are about Korea, and the whole thing is circumscribed by the issues of the region. bd2412 T 21:12, 25 December 2018 (UTC)

A BCA might work for Korea, but it wouldn't for another pair of countries where a similar issue might arise: Congo, where the colonial and post-colonial histories are independent of each other. There's usually a work-around for Ireland. Narky Blert (talk) 02:07, 26 December 2018 (UTC)

A workaround is to pick a hitherto unused suffix such as |linking_name=Korea in exile, then create redirects from "Politics of Korea in exile", "Flag of Korea in exile", etc. to the desired targets, leaving the title without a page if we don't want a link. Certes (talk) 12:00, 26 December 2018 (UTC)

I just noticed the |politics_link= parameter which we can change, but only to an actual link. (If the target doesn't exist, the text will be red rather than black.) I'll set this to something harmless like Government, unless someone can think of a better destination. Certes (talk) 18:15, 26 December 2018 (UTC)

@Certes: Does the nowiki trick work on |politics_link=? I.e., <nowiki>BlackLinkName</nowiki>. It works in some but not all templates which autogenerate links. Narky Blert (talk) 17:50, 29 December 2018 (UTC)

Good idea, but it doesn't work in this case. It only works where the template or module logic goes "if page exists then link to page else show black text". Here we always get a wikilink (which is red if the page doesn't exist). I previewed Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea with nowiki, but it turned the link into broken wikitext. Certes (talk) 18:24, 29 December 2018 (UTC)

Template:Station link

We have an new template linking to rail station dabs: {{Station link}}, which usually appears as its redirect stl. The solution is to read the code after stl, prefix it by Module:Adjacent stations/, and edit the Lua code. For example, Line 21 (Guangzhou Metro) was linking to dab Changping station. The cause is {{GZM stations|Changping}}, which is a wrapper around {{stl|GZM|Changping}}. Looking up the code GZM gives us Module:Adjacent stations/GZM. In this case, that is a require statement, which is Lua's version of a soft redirect, telling us that this edit fixes the problem. Happy coding, Certes (talk) 13:27, 10 January 2019 (UTC)

Another auto-generated link to a DAB page

In 2018 PSAC Football Championship Game, Template:Infobox NCAA football yearly game is calling the DAB page West Chester. The problem seems to be that 2018 West Chester Golden Rams football team doesn't exist; because Slippery Rock pipes nicely as 2018 Slippery Rock football team. Narky Blert (talk) 18:10, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

I'm not sure the game article should exist; it's completely unsourced and possibly not notable. In fact, I'm going to redirect it to 2018 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference football season, and I'm not sure that should exist either. The editor who created these articles is blocked indefinitely for persistent addition of unsourced content, and these articles are not being maintained properly. I have suspicions about the accounts involved too. Dekimasuよ! 19:10, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Links via template to Military of Libya

Many articles such as Egyptian Armed Forces use {{Africa topic|Military of}}. This creates a link to dab Military of Libya. This is a similar case to Communism in India reported above (which remains unresolved), but with less justification for a BCA. Any suggestions please? Certes (talk) 23:06, 25 January 2019 (UTC)

All 'Continent topic' templates are examples of 'What could possibly go wrong with this beautifully simple idea?', and are a pain in the bottom.

The context of this template suggests that it should link to some composite of Libyan National Army, Libyan Navy and Libyan Air Force – possibly a new BCA to replace the current redirect. I have no other printable suggestions. Narky Blert (talk) 14:55, 27 January 2019 (UTC)

Template:Pagelist

I fell across Template:Pagelist earlier today. It seems to have no way of handling ambiguous links, either by [[]] or by {{!}}. Nor does it seem to have a means of suppressing links.

The article in question was nanoparticle; search for printer. I compromised by changing the unqualified to a fully-qualified link; although in that pagelist item, I would have preferred to delink both paper and printer as irrelevant, and to use a more relevant link for ink such as ink#Carbon or toner. Narky Blert (talk) 23:36, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

That's right: Pagelist forces a piped link even when it's not necessary, so using {{!}} to link to Foo|Bar will just produce [[Foo|Bar|Foo|Bar]], i.e. a link to Foo displaying the text Bar|Foo|Bar. We could suggest an enhancement, but I doubt that replacing this particular template call by simple links will upset anyone. Certes (talk) 00:17, 1 February 2019 (UTC)

I bit the bullet, got rid of {{pagelist}}, and went for toner and laser printer. I imagine that we all know what paper is.

So, that's another template to be aware/wary of. Narky Blert (talk) 00:04, 2 February 2019 (UTC)

You'd be surprised. Perhaps we need a Disambiguator's Guide to Templates showing how to make each of the common cases produce an equivalent of [[Foo (qualifier)|Foo]]. Certes (talk) 00:56, 2 February 2019 (UTC)

Another template linking to a DAB page

The 'runner-up' field in the infobox in Bids for the 2006 Winter Olympics links to DAB page Sion rather than to Sion, Switzerland in some obscure manner or other. Narky Blert (talk) 14:07, 3 February 2019 (UTC)

 Fixed, and I've added it to the essay as a general technique. Certes (talk) 14:35, 3 February 2019 (UTC)

Yet another template...

At least one field, and I imagine a lot more, in Template:International football competition statistics autogenerates a link which may be incorrect with no obvious fix: see |least time difference 2 goals-team= in 2002 FIFA World Cup statistics. Narky Blert (talk) 17:44, 6 February 2019 (UTC)

I can't say anything about other problematic links, but the solution in this particular case can be found further down in the same section, in the "oldest scorer" entry. Using "United States - MS" produces the correct link to the U.S. men's national team article. I've made the fix. --ShelfSkewed Talk 18:50, 6 February 2019 (UTC)

Template:Year in Japan

Template:Year in Japan inserts the year as a raw number - which is fine for recent years, but is NBG for low numbers which are DAB pages, and may not work at all for BCE. See the field 'Other events of 70' in the infobox of 70 in Japan. Narky Blert (talk) 10:33, 12 February 2019 (UTC)

I fixed that last month, but some IP reverted it without discussion or explanation. I've restored my edit. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 11:06, 12 February 2019 (UTC)

Disambiguating links made by templates

I've made the first draft of an essay in a sandbox. Suggestions for content improvement and a better title are welcome. Certes (talk) 14:28, 2 February 2019 (UTC)

I think that essay could be expanded to a guide for disambiguators, incorporating the tricks we've learnt from bitter experience and tears. I've added some ideas to that sandbox's Talk Page. Narky Blert (talk) 14:39, 3 February 2019 (UTC)

We have Wikipedia:Disambiguation pages with links/Guide, which was mostly written in the early days of Wikipedia. I can tack my essay onto the end of that if no one suggests a more suitable home for it. Certes (talk) 09:55, 10 February 2019 (UTC)

Merged. @Narky Blert: your helpful comments at User talk:Certes/sandbox would make useful additions to Wikipedia:Disambiguation pages with links/Guide. Certes (talk) 13:32, 12 February 2019 (UTC)

@Certes: Will do, no point in reinventing the wheel. I've got some notes in my sandbox which could go there too. In particular, the 'What to do if the link doesn't appear in the edit box' section is incomplete. Narky Blert (talk) 13:50, 12 February 2019 (UTC)

Template:Adjacent stations

Template:Adjacent stations contains |leftn= and |rightn= fields with no obvious way to disambiguate them. See Pointe-aux-Trembles station (Via Rail); the two links should be to Ahuntsic station (Via Rail). Narky Blert (talk) 18:01, 12 February 2019 (UTC)

This one falls under the penultimate paragraph of Wikipedia:Disambiguation pages with links/Guide#Station succession (which I just rewrote). Fixed here. Certes (talk) 13:10, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

North Macedonia

Beware that North Macedonia has moved, creating some new links to dabs. Work still seems to be in progress: the page has had over 100 edits today. Related pages are also on the move (Macedonian culture moved twice while I was investigating one problem) and links are being updated, including those generated by complex templates such as {{European topic}}. It may take a few days for things to settle down. Certes (talk) 23:22, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

My estimate of a few days was optimistic. Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Macedonia)/2019 RFC is about to open. Edits made before then may be unstable. Certes (talk) 16:10, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

Dab pages from this month's DAB challenge that have missing entries

The following is a list of the dab pages with one more incoming link from this month's DAB challenge that also appear in today's list of dab pages with missing entries. Of course, the missing entries report doesn't catch all missing entries, and there might be the occasional false positive as well.

Anyone interested in helping to add those missing entries? If you do any from the list, it will be helpful to mark it with {{done}}.

• Dab page ← list of articles missing from the dab page -- link to dabfix
• 99 ← 99 (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) -- dabfix  Done Certes (talk) 17:19, 12 February 2019 (UTC)
• Action ← Action (newspaper) -- dabfix  Done Certes (talk) 17:19, 12 February 2019 (UTC)
• Against All Odds ← Against All Odds (biography) Against All Odds (book) -- dabfix  Done Certes (talk) 03:23, 14 February 2019 (UTC)
• Ali Khan ← Muhammad Ali Khan (Kokand) -- dabfix  Done (added several people but not that one) Certes (talk) 03:23, 14 February 2019 (UTC)
• Anwar Ali ← Anwar Mohamed Ali -- dabfix  Done Certes (talk) 00:11, 15 February 2019 (UTC)
• Art fair ← The Art Fair -- dabfix  Done Certes (talk) 00:11, 15 February 2019 (UTC)
• Aslam Khan ← Muhammad Aslam Khan -- dabfix  Done Certes (talk) 00:11, 15 February 2019 (UTC)
• Astro ← Astro (album) -- dabfix  Done Certes (talk) 00:11, 15 February 2019 (UTC)
• Beloved ← The Beloved (1940 film) The Beloved (Faulkner novel) -- dabfix  Done Leschnei (talk) 15:33, 14 February 2019 (UTC)
• Boost ← The Boost -- dabfix  Done Leschnei (talk) 02:37, 14 February 2019 (UTC)
• Brainstorm ← Brainstorm (magazine) -- dabfix  Done Certes (talk) 02:42, 15 February 2019 (UTC)
• Breach ← Breach (Walk Alone) -- dabfix  Done Certes (talk) 02:42, 15 February 2019 (UTC)
• Carr ← Carr (Essex cricketer) -- dabfix  Not done (separate name page; redirect to a minimal mention) Certes (talk) 02:42, 15 February 2019 (UTC)
• Contractor ← Contractor (1779 EIC ship) -- dabfix  Done Certes (talk) 12:19, 15 February 2019 (UTC)
• Dani ← Dani (footballer, born 1990) -- dabfix  Done but no room for everyone with given name Dani Certes (talk) 12:19, 15 February 2019 (UTC)
• Function ← Function (musician) -- dabfix  Done Certes (talk) 23:03, 18 February 2019 (UTC)
• Gračanica ← Gračanica (Bugojno) -- dabfix  Done Certes (talk) 23:03, 18 February 2019 (UTC)
• Kalyani ← Kalyani (Vidhan Sabha constituency) -- dabfix  Done Certes (talk) 01:15, 19 February 2019 (UTC)
• Labour ← Labour (constituency) -- dabfix  Done Certes (talk) 01:15, 19 February 2019 (UTC)
• Laguna ← Laguna (Madrid Metro) -- dabfix  Done Certes (talk) 01:15, 19 February 2019 (UTC)
• Original (disambiguation) ← Original (catamaran) -- dabfix  Done Leschnei (talk) 13:47, 15 February 2019 (UTC)
• Overload ← Overload (Georgia Anne Muldrow album) -- dabfix  Done (I may have removed more than I added) Leschnei (talk) 13:47, 15 February 2019 (UTC)
• Salem ← Salem (Lok Sabha constituency) Salem (comics) Salem (record label) -- dabfix  Done Certes (talk) 11:50, 19 February 2019 (UTC)
• San Lorenzo ← San Lorenzo (Morovis) -- dabfix  Done target already listed but added others Certes (talk) 11:50, 19 February 2019 (UTC)
• Santa Clara ← Santa Clara (Lisbon) Santa Clara (musician) -- dabfix  Done Certes (talk) 12:07, 19 February 2019 (UTC)
• St. Catherine ← St. Catherine (album) -- dabfix  Done bd2412 T 02:22, 19 February 2019 (UTC)
• Storyteller ← Storyteller (Alfie Boe album) The Storyteller (sculpture) -- dabfix  Done bd2412 T 02:23, 19 February 2019 (UTC)
• Trinity (disambiguation) ← Trinity (Tommy Flanagan album) Trinity (comics) Trinity (supercomputer) -- dabfix  Done Leschnei (talk) 16:40, 12 February 2019 (UTC)
• Zhang Wei ← Zhang Hong Wei -- dabfix  Not done Wei is a "middle" name; no other missing entries Certes (talk) 11:50, 19 February 2019 (UTC)

Thanks in advance! – Uanfala (talk) 21:42, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

All done, but there are plenty more missing entries. You can filter by count: I've done those with 10+ and am working on 9. Beware that there will be false positives like Dragnet_(1967_TV_series,_season_4) which probably shouldn't go onto Dragnet. Certes (talk) 11:50, 19 February 2019 (UTC)

Technical difficulties...please stand by

In case anyone was wondering, there is a massive ongoing outage of the Toolforge database. That means no updates to the DAB Challenge or any of the other dplbot pages, and no Daily Disambig, until it gets fixed, which probably won't be until Tuesday at the earliest, and maybe later. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 19:04, 16 February 2019 (UTC)

Ah, that explains it. Thanks for the update. DPL bot fell over terminally for me at about 18:20 UTC on 15 February 2019. I thought it looked pretty major. I've had at least four different error messages when trying to load DPL bot pages. Let's hope they get the update right when they go live. I expect horror numbers in TDD regardless. I've been reduced to a little slow and inefficient manual searching in a non-refreshed version of a Disambiguation pages with links, and catching up on a non-urgent Wikisource proofreading project which I'd put on the backburner. Narky Blert (talk) 21:56, 16 February 2019 (UTC)

I've also moved on to other areas for now, but Category:Articles with links needing disambiguation and Dabfix are still working. Certes (talk) 10:50, 17 February 2019 (UTC)

DPLbot tools web pages are now back up, and reporting that the last runs (three days ago) failed. Dabfix is back. Certes (talk) 22:14, 18 February 2019 (UTC)

The database server is up, so the webpages are responding, but some of the tables are missing or corrupt so the updates won't run. I'm waiting to see which if any tables can be restored; if they can't be, then I can re-initialize them, but some history (and perhaps this month's Challenge stats) may be lost. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 23:30, 18 February 2019 (UTC)

Disambiguation pages with links - "This page is updated once daily; the last update occurred 3 days 21 hours 16 minutes ago." "Database error: Table 's51290__dpl_p.dab_link_count' doesn't exist".

IMO that is far more important than things like the DAB challenge. I predict that when WP:TDD next updates, Table 1 Column 1 will have risen from 4,154 to over 6,000. (We may be able to hold it around there; but I don't expect it to start dropping significantly if at all, nor to see anything close to the record low of 953 on 2 January 2019 again anytime soon. That would need a fourth editor to hit hard on Disambiguation pages with links, as has happened a few times before. Last December, we were tripping over each other.)

On 16 February, Category:Articles with links needing disambiguation from February 2019 stood at 140. It's now at 137. That means that essentially no new DABlinks have been found for four days. Narky Blert (talk) 06:55, 19 February 2019 (UTC)

Yay! DAB pages with links working again, and only 5,445 pages. 615 with two-or-more is pretty unpleasant, though. Narky Blert (talk) 17:04, 19 February 2019 (UTC)

Red navboxes

I notice an increasing number of alleged navboxes which navigate between a few articles and a sea of redlinks. These come to my attention because one of the many topics lacking an article happens to share its name with a dab page. On closer inspection, most of the blue links lead to unrelated topics. Example edit, because our article Wagon is not about an obscure village. Are there any criteria for creating a NAVBOX? Is it grounds for discussion if, say, less than 10% of the links lead to relevant articles? Certes (talk) 11:33, 21 February 2019 (UTC)

It might be worth opening a discussion at WP:TFD.

I remember something similar from a year or so ago. I don't recall how I found it, but there was one of those difficult-to-navigate-or-understand oversized map templates with pushpin links, relating to Syria or thereabouts, where a dozen or two of the bluelinks were plain wrong (including some DABlinks). I raised the issue either on the template Talk Page, or in the relevant WikiProject, or both; saying that it would be a pity to throw all that hard work away, but if that template was ever transcluded there would be considerable cursing&swearing in this WikiProject. I don't know what happened, but I haven't seen it since. Narky Blert (talk) 08:40, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Germany national field hockey team

Can anyone see how 1989 Men's Hockey Champions Trophy and 1990 Men's Hockey World Cup are calling the redirect Germany national field hockey team, which points to DAB page Germany national hockey team? because I'm fuddled if I can. Mousing over every link in those articles one by one suggests that everything links correctly to Germany men's national field hockey team. WP:NULLEDITs have made no difference, and those bad links have been around for a week. I suspect that something nasty may be happening inside {{fh}} or {{fh-rt}} or both. Narky Blert (talk) 08:26, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

 Done It was from {{fhicon}}, which I've changed to link to the men's team like {{fh}}. This feels sexist, but fhicon already worked only for men and is used only for men. It should probably be moved to fhmicon and a new fhwicon created, but that's a decision for the hockey editors. Certes (talk) 11:29, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Democratic Action Party

Democratic Action Party was briefly a dab with many incoming links. It currently redirects to the Malaysian party but may change again, depending on the result of Talk:Democratic Action Party (disambiguation)#Requested move 17 February 2019. I've sat boldly on the fence, but other editors may have more helpful insights. Certes (talk) 02:26, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

"Careful, now!" David Lloyd George on Sir John Simon, allegedly, sometime around WWI: "The Right Honourable Gentleman has sat so long on the fence that the iron has entered his soul".

While researching that RM, I noticed that Democratic Party is a WP:SIA rather than a DAB page. That strikes me as an appalling idea. Narky Blert (talk) 03:30, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

Dab pages with missing entries in this month's challenge list

The list below includes all dab pages with missing entries (from this report) that have incoming links (according to this months' DAB Challenge list). The fundamental idea is to make sure a dab page is complete before fixing incoming links as some of these links could be intended for the missing entries. There's a massive caveat though: only some types of missing entries are tracked: for example, the report doesn't look for comma-separated or natural disambiguators, or for topics that are covered within other articles, or for articles that don't yet exist. So even after the missing entries identified here have been added, it continues to be possible that the intended target of a given incoming link can be something that's not on the dab page. Also, there might be occasional false positives in the list.

1. Absolute ← The Absolute (Ace Augustine album) -- dabfix
2. Advisory Council ← Advisory Council (Qing dynasty) -- dabfix
3. Album of the Year ← Album of the Year (Freestyle) -- dabfix
4. A Night to Remember ← A Night to Remember (Mad Men) -- dabfix
5. Anjali ← Anjali (2019 TV series) -- dabfix
6. Assyrian ← The Assyrian (horse) -- dabfix
7. Bapu ← Bapu (book) -- dabfix
8. Black Hand ← The Black Hand (1917 film) -- dabfix
9. Black Mountain ← Black Mountain (District Electoral Area) Black Mountain (Moffat County, Colorado) -- dabfix
10. Blow ← Blow (Martin Solveig song) -- dabfix
11. Boy (disambiguation) ← Boy (TV series) The Boy (Modigliani) -- dabfix
12. Cáceres ← Cáceres (Assembly of Extremadura constituency) Cáceres (Senate constituency) -- dabfix
13. Channel ← The Channel (nightclub) -- dabfix
14. Charles Eaton ← Charles Eaton (1833 ship) -- dabfix
15. Correspondence ← Correspondence (A Fiction) Correspondence (algebraic geometry) -- dabfix
16. Darius ← Darius (album) -- dabfix
17. Dawn (disambiguation) ← Dawn (1929 film) Dawn (Aimer album) Dawn (sculpture) -- dabfix
18. Dawn of the Dead ← Dawn of the Dead (game) Dawn of the Dead (soundtracks) -- dabfix
19. Demon (disambiguation) ← Demon (Gazpacho album) Demon (comics) The Demon (1926 film) -- dabfix
20. Dev ← Dev (mythology) -- dabfix
21. Development ← The Development -- dabfix
22. Dippy (disambiguation) ← Dippy (Diplodocus carnegii) -- dabfix
23. Director ← Director (Yonatan Gat album) -- dabfix
24. Disruption ← The Disruption -- dabfix
25. Diva (disambiguation) ← The Diva -- dabfix
26. Empire (disambiguation) ← Empire (Derek Minor album) Empire (program) Empire (show) Empire (skyscraper) The Empire (album) -- dabfix
27. Fury ← The Fury (Timms novel) -- dabfix
28. Gopalganj ← Gopalganj (Lok Sabha constituency) Gopalganj (Vidhan Sabha constituency) -- dabfix
29. Greatest Generation (disambiguation) ← The Greatest Generation -- dabfix
30. Green Line ← Green Line (Jerusalem Light Rail) Green Line (Lisbon Metro) -- dabfix
31. Heartbeat ← Heartbeat (Nneka song) The Heartbeat -- dabfix
32. Karthika ← Karthika (Malayalam actress) -- dabfix
33. Labour Party ← Labour Party (Bahamas) Labour Party (Thailand) -- dabfix
34. Mahesh ← Mahesh (Tamil actor) Mahesh (actor) -- dabfix
35. Modern World ← The Modern World The Modern World (novel) -- dabfix
36. Muslim League ← Muslim League (Opposition) -- dabfix
37. Neptune (disambiguation) ← Neptune (Pajou) Neptune (cruise missile) Neptune (ship) -- dabfix
38. Other ← The Other (King Tuff album) -- dabfix
39. Patrick Johnston ← Sir Patrick Johnston -- dabfix
40. Realism ← Realism (architectural history) -- dabfix
41. Sagamore ← Sagamore (ship) -- dabfix
42. Signs ← Signs (Jonny Lang album) Signs (band) -- dabfix
43. Stress ← STRESS (police unit) -- dabfix

If you fix a dab page, it will be a good idea to add {{done}} after its entry. Thanks in advance! – Uanfala (talk) 18:51, 2 March 2019 (UTC)

Another Wikidata item creating a blacklink and a spurious link to a DAB page

Adoration of the Shepherds (Lucas Cranach the Elder) includes {{Infobox artwork/wikidata}}, and is creating an unlinked call to the DAB page lime. d:Q46473788 includes a subcall for lime to d:Q575018 which makes clear what I had already guessed: 'lime' means lindenwood from Tilia. (There are articles on the wood in frwiki and ruwiki, but not in enwiki.) A bluelink in the article (labelled 'lime' rather than 'Tilia') would be useful. As usual with Wikidata, I got stuck at this point... Narky Blert (talk) 15:05, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

Once again, this results from enwiki's workaround for Wikidata's inaction on allowing links to redirects. Renaming the Wikidata item should work, but Linden and Lindenwood are also dabs. The given alternative of Basswood redirects to one species (Tilia americana, probably not used in Europe in 1515). My only practical suggestion is to rename the item to Limewood, and perhaps retarget that redirect from Tilia to Tilia#Wood. Certes (talk) 16:06, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

It's striking how often simplifications like this create an hour or more's work for several other editors, first in trying to work out what's causing the problem at both surface and deeper levels, and then in trying to solve it. Narky Blert (talk) 21:21, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

King of Nepal

What do we think of King of Nepal? Perhaps it should be a BCA or at least a SIA of the successive royal houses, including Licchavi (kingdom)#Rulers and History of Limbuwan. Certes (talk) 11:02, 7 March 2019 (UTC)

• I'd suggest a BCA, which would need only be short when the main articles are sizable. Some research may be needed as to how the Malla Dynasty fell in 1779 and the Gorkhali Dynasty succeeded it in 1768. Narky Blert (talk) 11:24, 7 March 2019 (UTC)

Emmanuel

Several pages have moved, including a dab. I would welcome replies at Talk:Emmanuel#Titles, redirects and links. Certes (talk) 11:39, 7 March 2019 (UTC)

Now reverted. Thanks to those who helped out. Certes (talk) 13:14, 7 March 2019 (UTC)

Template:Cycling race/stageclassification

In 2018 Tour of Iran (Azerbaijan), Template:Cycling race/stageclassification calls d:Q56754726. Wikidata in turn checks for the DAB page Aleksandr Smirnov, and generates one of those pairs of blacklink-in-article plus spurious what-links-here on the DAB page. Aleksandr Smirnov (cyclist) doesn't appear to exist in any WP (perhaps unsurprisingly, if his best result is 6th in one stage of an obscure stage race).

It also creates another (relatively harmless) pair for Nikita Sokolov, who's a footballer; I haven't checked the Q-numbers, but there could be 6 of those.

I could go off those templates which call Wikidata. Narky Blert (talk) 14:05, 16 December 2018 (UTC)

Smirnov is an old adversary; see #Yet another template calling Wikidata (revisited) above. There is hope: Wikidata have now agreed in principle to allow Wikipedia redirects to be associated with data items. However, as far as I know, the interface still physically prevents such associations and the Wikipedia infobox kludges, which fix that issue but cause problems such as this one, need to stay in place until that changes. Certes (talk) 14:22, 16 December 2018 (UTC)

Smirnov's got a mate: Daniel Muñoz in 2019 Tour Colombia, another one who seems to fail WP:NCYCLING. Strangely, there's a redlink in the very same template: Esteban Villareal. Narky Blert (talk) 11:16, 20 February 2019 (UTC)

Odd. There are several redlinks but they must have some way of blacklisting, as there is black text for William Muñoz. (The notable William Muñoz is a wrestler). I've dropped a note on Template talk:Infobox cycling race. Certes (talk) 11:55, 20 February 2019 (UTC)

And another one - João Rodrigues in 2019 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana. Narky Blert (talk) 16:58, 20 February 2019 (UTC)

JR is also in 2019 Volta ao Algarve. Narky Blert (talk) 18:07, 22 February 2019 (UTC)

Wikidata templates have now been removed from several cycling pages such as 2017 Colorado Classic. Certes (talk) 22:38, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

Toolforge update

Toolforge is having another one of its spasms. I'm AFK for the next few days so there won't be muchI can do. Not entiely sure what will or won't work for now. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 14:24, 16 March 2019 (UTC)

Confirmed. I'm working through the latest list I have. Here are the targets I couldn't resolve so far.

1. Ming campaigns against the Mongols 42 links, mainly via {{Inner Asia}}
2. Smart sensor 5 links
3. Gymnastics at the European Games 4 links – BCA?
4. Mendham, New Jersey 4 links

– Certes (talk) 17:30, 16 March 2019 (UTC)

Confirmed here also. Disambiguation pages with links broke on 16 March. I've been working on another gnomish project, but until that tool comes back the numbers in WP:TDD Table 1 Column 1 will continue to rise, because I am hamstrung. Narky Blert (talk) 09:47, 21 March 2019 (UTC)

Things seem to be more stable this morning. No guarantees, but at least at this moment the webpages are up. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 11:56, 22 March 2019 (UTC)

I de-disambiguated "Ming campaigns against the Mongols", because it merely lists campaigns, which were against the Mongols, and were by the Ming dynasty. bd2412 T 01:10, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

Drafts with disambiguation links.

Can we start tagging drafts with large numbers of disambiguation links, so they do not get moved to mainspace until those issues are resolved? bd2412 T 00:20, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

Should we request a version of the Articles With Multiple Dablinks report for Draft: namespace? Certes (talk) 01:34, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

I really don't think this is worth the bother. Most drafts don't ever make it to mainspace, and I don't think anyone should be spending time making minor improvements to stuff that will most likely get automatically deleted after six months of inactivity. And for the drafts that do get judged to be otherwise mainspace-worthy, their readiness for mainspace shouldn't be predicated on something as minor and as easily fixable as the presence of dablinks. – Uanfala (talk) 01:56, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

I am not proposing that we as a project focus our efforts on fixing links in drafts, but that a tag should be added to drafts that have a lot of them. As to the number that translate to mainspace, I have seen it happen enough that it irks me as a disambiguator. A draft with a large number of disambiguation links is absolutely not ready for mainspace, particularly given that the creator of the draft is usually in the best position to know the correct solutions for each link. bd2412 T 13:09, 30 March 2019 (UTC)

Ferrous

Please see Talk:Ferrous#Make it into a disamb page? before fixing links to dab Ferrous. Thanks, Certes (talk) 11:33, 30 March 2019 (UTC)

I donned lab coat, safety glasses, and rubber gloves, and commented. Narky Blert (talk) 22:44, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

A new newsletter directory is out!

A new Newsletter directory has been created to replace the old, out-of-date one. If your WikiProject and its taskforces have newsletters (even inactive ones), or if you know of a missing newsletter (including from sister projects like WikiSpecies), please include it in the directory! The template can be a bit tricky, so if you need help, just post the newsletter on the template's talk page and someone will add it for you.

– Sent on behalf of Headbomb. 03:11, 11 April 2019 (UTC)

Weird overlinking

The discussion (which has probably run its course) at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#Excessive and irrelevant linking, even down to syllables of words may be of interest to other DABfixers. Narky Blert (talk) 17:39, 12 May 2019 (UTC)

A search finds some of them. An edit filter limited to IP editors might deter new cases. Certes (talk) 18:22, 12 May 2019 (UTC)

Preventing DAB page links

Most new DAB page links are because the editor doesn't know the thing is a DAB link. There is a behavior buried in Preferences that displays DAB links in orange:

Preferences>Gadgets>Appearance>"Display links to disambiguation pages in orange

I think that should become the default Wiki behavior. New DAB links would drop hugely. Cptmrmcmillan (talk) 16:16, 28 April 2019 (UTC)

I'd missed that trick. I've enabled it, and will see what I think. (I've had the embarrassment of having my own articles turn up in User:DPL bot reports, and guiltily fixing the link before anyone else noticed.)

Some Wikipedias, notably Russian, do this already. (Russian WP highlights DABlinks in a sort of purplish box.) Narky Blert (talk) 20:15, 1 May 2019 (UTC)

There is a major flaw in that orange highlight gadget, which IMO makes it unusable for general editors: it doesn't distinguish between correct and incorrect links to DAB pages. See e.g. the hatnote to Apple, in which Apple (disambiguation), Apple Blossom (disambiguation) (a redirect) and Apple tree (disambiguation) all appear in orange - and they're all good links per WP:INTDABLINK.

A gadget of that kind would only be useful to general editors if it used the User:DPL bot rules as to what to include and to exclude. I cannot recommend it as a default setting in its current form. Narky Blert (talk) 20:42, 1 May 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for your comment, Narky Blert. I meant default for registered account editors, not the general public. Account holders can tell by context whether the link is accidental or intended, and fix accordingly. Maybe just check the box automatically for new accounts. I think most of our editors would use it if they knew about it. Cptmrmcmillan (talk) 05:32, 2 May 2019 (UTC)

I may revert one or two edits a day by editors who have introduced new direct links to DAB pages in hatnotes and see-alsos, or have removed the "unnecessary" (disambiguation) qualifier. (My edit summary seems to be helpful; I often get a smiley.) As those editors have included ten-year veterans and admins, I wouldn't be so sure. Our trade is somewhat specialist. Yrs, Narky Blert (talk) 06:57, 2 May 2019 (UTC)

I can't recommend the orange gadget highly enough to other DABfixers. In addition to the more obvious advantages, I've found (by eye) and fixed one of those difficult-to-spot, lazy and annoying links though the (disambiguation) qualifier where a specific meaning was intended. Narky Blert (talk) 14:54, 3 May 2019 (UTC)

I use User:Anomie/linkclassifier, which does a similar job. Dab links get a yellow background, and various other features are highlighted. For example, redirects go green, which is a cue to consider bypassing them when editing a navigation template for other reasons such as disambiguation. Certes (talk) 16:25, 3 May 2019 (UTC)

Here's another idea. Since there's a bot that sends out the DAB notice, add a note saying there's a way in Preferences to spot them and include the above breadcrumb trail. Cptmrmcmillan (talk) 02:11, 14 May 2019 (UTC)

I think that's an excellent idea. The sort of editors who take action after a User:DPL bot nastygram could well find it helpful. Narky Blert (talk) 18:01, 14 May 2019 (UTC)

Two other groups of editors who might find it useful – WP:AFC and WP:NPR reviewers. Both would be in a good position to drop a friendly word into the ears of inexperienced editors, even if they don't themselves fix DABlinks. Narky Blert (talk) 19:16, 15 May 2019 (UTC)

Another child of Template:Europe topic generating a link to a DAB page

Biodiversity of Europe, in Biodiversity of Albania and Biodiversity of Kosovo, linking to Biodiversity of the United Kingdom. As is usual with these 'Continent topic' pages, impenetrable code and no obvious way of fixing the error. Narky Blert (talk) 06:22, 17 May 2019 (UTC)

I think Biodiversity of the United Kingdom is a broad concept. The entries on that dab are subtopics of a single topic with no article, rather than alternative meanings of an ambiguous term. Certes (talk) 08:50, 17 May 2019 (UTC)

...also, Biodiversity of Great Britain or Biodiversity of the British Isles might be a more appropriate scope, as most flora and fauna find the Irish Sea more of a challenge than the Irish border. Certes (talk) 10:29, 17 May 2019 (UTC)

A BCA was my first thought; apart from British Overseas Territories#Biodiversity, which is a tad more wide-ranging.

The Irish Sea teems with fauna and flora, though many of the species aren't too keen on the land.

'Great Britain' comprises only England, Scotland and Wales. 'British Isles' adds the island of Ireland and the Isle of Man. Narky Blert (talk) 14:31, 18 May 2019 (UTC)

All true. I overlooked the sea wildlife. What I meant was that few land species will have GB+NI as their range; they'll either be limited to GB or will spread into (the Republic of) Ireland. Certes (talk) 15:03, 18 May 2019 (UTC)

I will refrain from making WP:POV remarks about the DUP.

That aside, I agree: Biodiversity of Great Britain and Biodiversity of Ireland (the island) might be better chosen topics. Snakes provide an obvious example. Narky Blert (talk) 00:11, 19 May 2019 (UTC)

Template:International football competition statistics

{{ifcs}} is yet another template which autocompletes at least one field, possibly wrongly, with no obvious way to override.

The example I found was |fastest yellow sub opponent1= in 2002 FIFA World Cup#Disciplinary statistics, linking to the DAB page United States national football team rather than to United States men's national soccer team. I suspect the problem extends to all the team/opponent fields in the template. Narky Blert (talk) 14:40, 18 May 2019 (UTC)

Yes, the template has a fundamental problem: it assumes that Someland national football team is (or redirects to) the right article. That's true for most countries but not the U.S., where the popularity of both women's soccer and American football mean that men's soccer isn't the primary topic. It needs a major rewrite. Is there is a template somewhere which converts country name to men's association football team name? I seem to remember finding one a while ago (which I immediately broke because the Isle of Man has two such teams). {{fb}} almost does the job but includes an unwanted flag with no obvious way of furling it, e.g. United States. Certes (talk) 15:53, 18 May 2019 (UTC)

BD2412 reported the problem last year. I finally found {{Nft}} and boldly deployed it in {{ifcs}}. (Nft claims to require subst: but it seems to work perfectly without subst: here.) I still think that the identity of the team who watched their opponents receive the fastest yellow card of the tournament is too fine a detail to deserve intricate template coding. Certes (talk) 13:56, 19 May 2019 (UTC)

This is slightly more complex than I thought. {{ifcs}} worked fine until last year, when this edit triggered a bot to substitute the Nft template everywhere including in the {{ifcs}} template. Code such as {{Nft|{{{fastest yellow opponent1}}}}} was replaced by a link to "{{{fastest yellow opponent1}}} national football team", using the default title format because Nft doesn't know of an exception for a country called Fastest Yellow Opponent 1. This may or may not turn out to be the right page, depending what country gets passed to the template later. I've added more code to dissuade the bot from substituting the template before the country is identified. Certes (talk) 15:08, 19 May 2019 (UTC)

Template:s-line

In Boulder Railroad Depot, Template:s-line amusingly links to the redirect Denver station which points to the DAB page Denver railway station while leaving no trace of how it's doing so. Narky Blert (talk) 13:34, 24 May 2019 (UTC)

Following the guide, I've added Denver to {{UP stations}}. Viewed in isolation, that edit is correct, as the UP used Union Station for most of its lifetime. That probably produces the correct link in the article, though Denver Union Station lists four predecessor stations which may also have been used by Boulder services. Certes (talk) 15:53, 24 May 2019 (UTC)

UK motorways

Several dabs such as M3 motorway have incoming links. I hope that these will soon disappear. Details: Template talk:Ukmotorwaysmall. Certes (talk) 17:50, 28 May 2019 (UTC)

 Fixed in {{Ukmotorwaysmall}} and {{Ukmwaysmall-svg}}. Certes (talk) 09:47, 16 June 2019 (UTC)

Sticky targets

A few pages are sticking on the Disambiguation pages with links report.

• Habsburg Empire (550 links) – new dab replacing a redirect to House of Habsburg – does this title have the best destination?
• University of Brussels (21) – generally Anna K. Demic studied at the [Free] University of Brussels, with no further clues in text or references
• Table (11) – mostly about tabular (i.e. flat) bones
• Gender feminism (7) – a dab between subtly different views
• Jewish national movements (6) – mostly via Jewish nationalism, retargeted from Zionism
• United People's Party (Malaysia) (6) – generally Willie Wynne (UPP): 12,345 votes, with no further clues in text or references
• Sustanon (5) – a dab between subtly different drugs
• European people (4) – awaiting BCA
• Mathematical formalism (4) – I've asked WikiProject Mathematics to help
• West Chester, Ohio (4) – probably West Chester Township, Butler County, Ohio but no actual evidence
• Subcarpathia (3) – a dab between subtly different regions

Please can anyone help? Certes (talk) 15:35, 17 June 2019 (UTC)

I tackled Gender feminism, resolving all of the links except one that I labeled with a {{dn}}. One of the redirects, however, is problematic: academic feminism. Nothing links to it, and there seems to be no article with any explanation of it, so it probably should get deleted. I’ll leave that to others, since right now I’m not up to any XFD.

I also fixed the links for tabular. — Gorthian (talk) 08:07, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

I finished Sustanon. Those two articles need to be merged under that title. — Gorthian (talk) 20:36, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

Perth Australia Temple

Perth Australia Temple calls the redirect Kenneth Johnson to the DAB page Ken Johnson - click Expand next to Additional information in the infobox to view. I have no idea where it's getting the link from, and there doesn't seem to be anyone relevant on the DAB page. Narky Blert (talk) 12:28, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

 Fixed in {{LDS Temple/Perth Australia Temple}}. He appears for Groundbreaking in the hidden Additional information at the bottom of the infobox. Certes (talk) 12:53, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

List of Moscow Metro stations

If anyone can find out how List of Moscow Metro stations is linking to the DAB page Kosino instead of to Kosino (Moscow Metro), you've done better than I managed. Narky Blert (talk) 15:54, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

Found it. In the listings for the 7 line, the connection icon to 15 from Lermontovsky Prospekt was piped to Kosino. Fixed. --ShelfSkewed Talk 16:47, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

SIAs

They've been mentioned before, but is this project interested in SIAs with links? I took The Telegraph as a random example: 126 pages linked there, of which 117 needed editing (mainly to The Daily Telegraph), including one I couldn't fix ({{dn}} is dubious and messes up the formatting). Nine are legitimate links to the list; I didn't mark them since The Telegraph (disambiguation) is also dubious. The first SIAs on the list are Captain and Diagnosis. Each has about 600 incoming links which, at a quick glance, seem as accurate as The Telegraph's, and with 3,000 SIAs this is the tip of the iceberg. It's not urgent but might keep us busy while the reports are broken. Any thoughts? Certes (talk) 19:19, 21 March 2019 (UTC)

I'm not sure that The Telegraph is a legitimate topic for an SIA. bd2412 T 00:00, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

I think a dab would be better but that was tried in August 2018 and reverted. Perhaps the argument is the topics are all of a kind (i.e. newspapers) but I don't see what advantage an SIA has over a dab here. The page basically conforms to MOS:DAB apart from the easily changed header and footer. A dozen new bad incoming links have appeared in the past week. Certes (talk) 01:45, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

I'm gradually working through the SIAs and finding plenty of bad links. I also fixed a few mislinks to Daily Sun, which is an article about a newspaper (not to be confused with Daily Sun (newspaper), which isn't). Certes (talk) 13:30, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

SIAs worry me; but a discussion such as this should perhaps be conducted at WP:SIA rather than here.

I'm not even going to refer to the guidelines. As I see it, SIAs fill an uneasy gap between (1) lists which fail the notability requirements of WP:LISTN, and (2) DAB pages, which per MOS:DAB should contain neither orphan redlinks nor citations. (I enthusiastically delete orphan redlinks from DAB pages when it's clear that there's nothing there (in particular, vanity posts). However, if there's a prima facie assertion of notability, such as being an inhabited place, I don't even look into them, whatever WP:DABMENTION might say. If I go into a non-English WP to solve a DABlink problem, I often add a {{ill}} link in the English DAB page, because – IMAO – WP:IAR and WP:5P5 override MOS:DAB. An {{ill}} link on a DAB page points readers towards useful information. And, you never know, but someone might write the English article (I've done it myself).)

However, SIAs are too often grab-bag pages containing items which have nothing in common but similarity of name. For me, that's DAB territory. Just about every SIA I've looked at while tracking down a DABlink has contained at least one bad incoming link. That is not good for the encyclopedia. Narky Blert (talk) 22:00, 14 April 2019 (UTC)

Dreamy Jazz has boldly tagged The Telegraph as a dab and no one has complained yet. I've fixed the 73 bad incoming links which appeared in the two months since my previous pass. If the edit sticks then perhaps we can do the same to the other SIAs. On a related note, I'm working with editors active at Trove to get their Australian newspaper archives linked to the correct enwiki articles, e.g. linking this entry to Telegraph (Brisbane), which should make it easier to get certain assisted edits right. Certes (talk) 11:03, 24 May 2019 (UTC)

Certes. I thought that The Telegraph really aught to be a disambiguation page as it only contains blue links and was tagged with the {{WikiProject Disambiguation}} banner, which should only be on disambiguation pages, which was tagged back in 2011 by Jim Michael (diff). Dreamy Jazz 🎷 ^{talk to me | my contributions} 13:29, 24 May 2019 (UTC)

Personally, I think that DAB pages should allow a bit of explanation text. For example, I would say that Daily Sun (newspaper) should be a disambiguation page, because it really is only a collection of blue links (after stripping the one red link). Dreamy Jazz 🎷 ^{talk to me | my contributions} 13:41, 24 May 2019 (UTC)

I have boldy changed Daily Sun (newspaper) Dreamy Jazz 🎷 ^{talk to me | my contributions} 13:44, 24 May 2019 (UTC)

Last year, dab tags were replaced by newspaper SIA tags on several pages, leaving them in dab format. Yesterday, I restored a few of the dab tags and duly fixed the incoming links. However, my edits have now been reverted, which I suppose makes future bad links someone else's problem. Ah well, it was worth a try. Certes (talk) 08:48, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

Certes, my apologies. When I reverted your edits, I was not aware that this was a topic of discussion here, nor of some of the history. I’m tentatively trying to get back to editing after a rather long break, so I’m still catching up.

As I said on your talk page, I still think there’s a role for SIAs in the encyclopedia. I don’t think turning them into dab pages just because they look similar and because we have abundant dab-page tools is a good solution. — Gorthian (talk) 22:46, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

European route E15

Another of those templates whose workings I have no temptation to try to understand. It's often difficult enough to locate where in the text the bad link is being generated. In European route E15, {{Jct|country=GBR|M|8}} links to the DAB page M8 motorway instead of to M8 motorway (Scotland). Similarly, {{Jct|country=GBR|M|9}} links to M9 motorway instead of to M9 motorway (Scotland). Narky Blert (talk) 10:31, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

 Done. The solution for this one is to add |dab1=Scotland to {{Jct}}. For reasons I don't understand, simple calls to several specialised templates are currently being systematically replaced by complex calls to Jct, and unfortunately some of those changes don't work. Certes (talk) 10:44, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

{{Jct}} is one of those templates I dread running across. It often creates difficult-to-find and -to-solve problems. It's also one of those templates where adding a {{dn}} tag can attract complaints from other editors that you've messed up the formatting of a page; to which I find not replying often a better option than saying what I think.

There's a great deal to be said for WP:KISS. Narky Blert (talk) 20:38, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

I've added a note to the Guide. Presumably for the M8 the tacit reply would be a Glasgow kiss... Certes (talk) 21:47, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

"Twa' the bonne' off an' pu' the heid in him!" WW2 9th Battalion Cameronians, whose conscripts included members of The Beehive Boys, from one of the less genteel Glasgow suburbs.

('The bonne'' means 'his bonnet'; because you've sewn broken safety razor blades under the ribbon of yours.) Narky Blert (talk) 21:52, 6 July 2019 (UTC)

Broad-concept articles

Broad-concept articles aren't dab pages, and so links to them are perfectly acceptable. However, there are dab pages that should be converted to broad-concept articles, and links to them probably don't need fixing. Some of these dab pages are explicitly marked as needing conversion (via a template that places them in Category:Disambiguation pages to be converted to broad concept articles), so I'm wondering if they shouldn't be excluded from the monthly reports. – Uanfala (talk) 14:52, 20 June 2019 (UTC)

I wouldn't - just as red links prompt editors to create articles, the appearance of pages needing conversion to BCA's should prompt editors to create the needed BCA. Also, whether a title should host a BCA is a matter of judgment. One editor may tag a page as needing this, but another editor might disagree and remove the tag. bd2412 T 15:02, 20 June 2019 (UTC)

Just to clarify, I don't object to tacking them using the category. My point was that people shouldn't be rushing to fix links to them. Orphaning an article is practically irreversible, so if there's any disagreement about whether it should be a dab or a BCA, then for the purposes of this project it's better to treat it as a BCA until agreed otherwise. – Uanfala (talk) 20:56, 20 June 2019 (UTC)

That depends what "treat it as a BCA" means. If it means maintaining direct links to the page, that may be a problem. bd2412 T 20:59, 20 June 2019 (UTC)

"Treat it as a BCA" = don't do anything about the links. If it's then decided that a particular page should in fact be a dab page, then people can start fixing the links. The opposite scenario is what we have currently: links are always repointed away from dab pages flagged up as potential BCAs, and when a dab page is eventually converted to a BCA it has become orphaned even though it shouldn't have been, and there's no easy way to track down the previously "fixed" incoming links. – Uanfala (talk) 21:48, 20 June 2019 (UTC)

When tagging a page as a potential BCA, perhaps the disambiguation tag should be removed, as it's no longer a dab (even if it happens to obey MOS:DAB). Certes (talk) 23:05, 20 June 2019 (UTC)

A potential BCA is merely potential until the BCA has been made (which might never happen; consensus might develop that the term is truly ambiguous). I think the thing to do is to try to get the BCA made as quickly as possible. bd2412 T 01:15, 8 August 2019 (UTC)

Another link to a DAB page hidden deep within a template

990s transcludes the DAB page 999 rather than AD 999. (This is a consequence of a recent WP:RM.) Expert help needed, as usual. Narky Blert (talk) 17:02, 9 August 2019 (UTC)

And 910s transcludes 911 rather than AD 911 (after another RM). Narky Blert (talk) 17:07, 9 August 2019 (UTC)

I've raised this at WT:WikiProject Years#Year template. The fix looks simple but I tested it and it didn't work, so I suspect that another template I failed to find needs similar changes too. Certes (talk) 18:22, 9 August 2019 (UTC)

not sure what to do

Track record

This is an both an article and a disambiguation page. Any suggestions what to do to resolve this besides using this very tedious (to type) link track record

Thanks. Stretchrunner (talk) 16:31, 9 August 2019 (UTC)

"An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Stagehand (horse), you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Track record (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 08:10, 9 August 2019 (UTC)"

@Stretchrunner: I've created the redirect Track record (horse racing), which points to an {{anchor}} by the entry in the glossary; and added it to the DAB page. Narky Blert (talk) 16:58, 9 August 2019 (UTC)

Thanks. Much appreciated.Stretchrunner (talk) 17:09, 9 August 2019 (UTC)

@Stretchrunner: I have in fact come across this specific problem of links to track record in horse racing articles before; but because I didn't know about Glossary of North American horse racing was unable to resolve them in a way I felt even satisfactory. As a result of your posting here, no-one should have your or my problem ever again. 21:59, 9 August 2019 (UTC)

Template:Linked species list

The instructions in Template:Linked species list don't work for redlinks. In Dryopteridoideae, I can pipe Phanerophlebia successfully as Phanerophlebia{{!}}Phanerophlebia (well, duh!), but I can get neither of the described DABbing methods to link to the redlink Phanerophlebia (plant). Narky Blert (talk) 13:22, 11 August 2019 (UTC)

Sinai

I need your advice on Talk:Sinai, as I am in a discussion with a colleague about the primary topic of Sinai. The colleague seems determined to change it to a link to a disambiguation page, breaking hundreds of links in the process. The Banner talk 08:36, 15 August 2019 (UTC)

Two transclusions

400s (decade) transcludes the DAB page 404 instead of AD 404, and 990s transcludes 999 rather than AD 999. Narky Blert (talk) 15:39, 27 August 2019 (UTC)

The simplest solution affects the displayed text so I've raised the matter again at WT:WikiProject Years#Year template. Certes (talk) 16:11, 27 August 2019 (UTC)

Another auto-completing template

In the infobox of Field hockey in India, |sport=field hockey expands to [[India national field hockey team|India]]; which is a redirect to a DAB page. There seems no easy way either to insert 'men's' or 'women's' between 'India' and 'national' into this compound string, or to distinguish the visible part of the link as anything other than 'India'. Narky Blert (talk) 16:45, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

 Fixed. Certes (talk) 18:13, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

That one had been sitting around since April 2018. The {{dn}} tag had suppressed the link, so that the problem had not appeared in any User:DPL bot report for the last 16 months. Narky Blert (talk) 23:17, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

Here is a list of dn tags without a link. It contains some false positives. [1] Certes (talk) 18:39, 27 August 2019 (UTC)

I go through Category:Articles with links needing disambiguation from time to time, picking off problems which have already been solved or in which the bluelink has been taken off, and very occasionally having a bright idea about an ancient problem. That was how I (re)discovered this one. Narky Blert (talk) 17:11, 28 August 2019 (UTC)

Another autolink

In Laurentides—Labelle, Template:Infobox Canada electoral district has the fields |fed-rep= and |fed-rep-link=, completed as David Graham (a DAB page) and David de Burgh Graham (the correct link) respectively. fed-rep-link isn't working, and the article is linking to the DAB page. Narky Blert (talk) 14:50, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

 Fixed. It would be nice if the template accepted a |fed-rep-link= parameter, but it doesn't. Certes (talk) 15:31, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

Or, I venture to suggest, if it notified before saving that you were trying to use a non-existent parameter, as some well-behaved templates do. Narky Blert (talk) 03:45, 5 September 2019 (UTC)

A problem here is that 200+ pages have |fed-rep-link= (literally; no link text given) so it looks as if someone expected the parameter to become supported and it might be a good idea to add it. Certes (talk) 10:44, 5 September 2019 (UTC)

Agreed.

It seems to have taken unusually long to find an ambiguous politician. Narky Blert (talk) 21:12, 5 September 2019

(UTC)

WikiProject?

I see that the project page has been removed from Category:Active WikiProjects. It's certainly active (I contributed this morning) and seems to qualify as a WikiProject. It's not called WP:WikiProject Something, but then other stuff exists, which I think is a legitimate argument for organisation even if deprecated for content. Perhaps it's merely a subproject within WP:WikiProject Disambiguation. What does the team think? Certes (talk) 13:49, 5 September 2019 (UTC)

I WP:BOLDly reverted the unexplained edit which had removed it. Narky Blert (talk) 21:15, 5 September 2019 (UTC)

DAB Challenge leaderboard hasn't been updated in 13 days

Anyone know why the DAB Challenge leaderboard hasn't been updated in 13 days, or how to fix it? Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 18:51, 19 September 2019 (UTC)

I don't know. The section is transcluded from User:JaGa/Short leaderboard and was updated hourly by JaGa's DPL bot, which still seems to be carrying out its other tasks properly. Certes (talk) 23:30, 19 September 2019 (UTC)

It has updated again. Thanks to JaGa or whoever fixed it. Egsan Bacon (talk) 02:13, 21 September 2019 (UTC)

I posted on User Talk:DPL bot yesterday. Thanks are due to R'n'B for fixing the problem. Narky Blert (talk) 18:26, 21 September 2019 (UTC)

Template:Linked species list

Template:Linked species list doesn't accept either bluelinked ([[|]]) or pseudo-piped ({{!}}) overrides. See Dryopteridoideae, and the ambiguous link to Phanerophlebia (which should be to the redlink Phanerophlebia (plant)). Narky Blert (talk) 12:02, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

Fixed, after a fashion. Module:TaxonItalics does unhelpful things to the text it receives unless the link begins with apostrophes, so I added some. There is probably a better solution. Certes (talk) 15:40, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

Template:Infobox political party

By some devious means or other, Template:Infobox political party in People's Party of Georgia (country) is calling the DAB page Politics of Georgia rather than the more specific and arguably more helpful Politics of Georgia (country). Narky Blert (talk) 05:08, 25 September 2019 (UTC)

Fixed with |country_dab1=Politics of Georgia (country). Certes (talk) 11:09, 25 September 2019 (UTC)

Chamber of Horrors (Part 2)

I have a second collection of {{dn}} links which seem to me near-insoluble and may be "who cares?" My inclination would be to unlink the lot, but am posting here in case anyone can see merit in rescuing any of them as redlinks. This is basically a mass call for second opinions.

• African Civilization Society – Professor Robert Campbell [2], probably no one on the dab
• Biddulph Valley line
• Freethinkers Society
• Handforth – possibly Richard Brooke (antiquary)  Done I found that quote in a scanned copy of his Handford Hall and Cheadle Church in Cheshire. Narky Blert (talk) 12:25, 27 September 2019 (UTC)
• Judkin-Fitzgerald baronets
• Nero Hawley
• Richard Houghton (died 1559)
• Two Women with a Candle
• Yamao Yōzō – this Colin Brown [3], probably no one on the dab

Yrs, Narky Blert (talk) 22:01, 9 September 2019 (UTC)

Template:MMP election box candidate

In Berlin Charlottenburg – Wilmersdorf, Template:MMP election box candidate links to the DAB page Other; with no obvious means of stopping it, except by <nowiki></nowiki> or {{dn}} tags, which break the formatting. Narky Blert (talk) 15:01, 6 October 2019 (UTC)

 Fixed by abusing {{MMP election box historic party candidate}}, which accepts parties without colour or name templates, such as Other. Certes (talk) 10:24, 9 October 2019 (UTC)

Template:Infobox Malaysia electoral district

Here we go again. The |fed-rep-party= field in Template:Infobox Malaysia electoral district converts UPP into a link to the DAB page (with qualified title, yuck) United People's Party (Malaysia). In Sri Aman (federal constituency) and Bawang Assan, the link should be to Sarawak United Party (PSB). It may be the same in Engkilili (state constituency) and Opar (state constituency); but because the MLA is redlinked, I can't be sure. Amusingly, bluelinking or pseudo-piping UPP, or changing it to PSB, renders as 'DCDCDC'. Narky Blert (talk) 12:12, 11 October 2019 (UTC)

 Fixed. The Engkilili winner Ngipa was a PSB member.[4] and the Opar winner Mina was in the same party as Ngipa.[5] Also, Engkilili and Opar were last contested in 2016, when the PSB was known as the UPP, and the rivals were better known as MUPP and SUPP. I've edited all four articles to use a new party code "UPP (2014)" which I just made up and added to {{Malaysian party colour/name/default}} and {{Malaysian party colour/colour/default}}. #DCDCDC is the RGB of the default {{Malaysian party colour}}: grey. Certes (talk) 13:49, 11 October 2019 (UTC)

Hōji

In 1247, 1248 and 1249, a template (probably Template:Year dab or Template:Year nav) links to the DAB page Hōji rather than to Hōji (era). Narky Blert (talk) 15:28, 11 October 2019 (UTC)

 Fixed in Module:Japanese calendar/data (called from {{C11–17 year in topic}}). Certes (talk) 16:06, 11 October 2019 (UTC)

Template:Infobox GAA player

Aaand another one! In Mary Geaney and Rena Buckley, |icallireland= in Template:Infobox GAA player expands as [[All-Ireland Senior Championship|All-Irelands]]; and All-Ireland Senior Championship is, inevitably, a DAB page. Matters are made no easier by the fact that they both won both the All-Ireland Senior Club Camogie Championship and the All-Ireland Senior Ladies' Football Championship. Compare Template talk:Infobox Gaelic Athletic Association player#A link to a DAB page, where a fix was found for players active in only one code. Narky Blert (talk) 09:59, 12 October 2019 (UTC)

I'm no expert on Gaelic sports. If camogie has similar status to football and hurling then we should use |icallirelandf= and request a new |icallirelandc= parameter. If not then we might just omit the camogie titles as we would for a less significant sport. For "dual" players (the template recognises only football and hurling), a table is produced. No one has won all-Ireland championships in both sports. though several such as Tomás Brady have other types of honour in both columns. Certes (talk) 09:48, 13 October 2019 (UTC)

Men play hurling, women play camogie: very similar sports. The two men's sports have pretty much equal status; I imagine the two women's sports do also; camogie may even have the higher, it's certainly commonly played in schools. One place to ask might be at Wikipedia:WikiProject Gaelic games, although it doesn't seem exactly lively. Narky Blert (talk) 15:15, 13 October 2019 (UTC)

I've had a go but I think this needs someone with a clue, either to produce a parallel template that works for female players or to add a new gender parameter. (Is there a standard name and value for that?) Other changes will be needed, some of which may not be obvious to the layman. For example, one number in the table should link to All-Ireland Senior Ladies' Football Championship rather than the male equivalent. Many such articles don't exist: Kildare Senior Camogie Championship is a rare exception. Certes (talk) 16:08, 13 October 2019 (UTC)

The answer already exists, and I've just fallen across it by accident (grrr): Template:Infobox GAA dualplayer. See Tom Irwin (dual player). Narky Blert (talk) 14:24, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

I'm afraid that's just another redirect to the same infobox. It deals well with football and hurling but not with camogie. Certes (talk) 14:45, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

As a former programmer I hate to suggest this sort of thing, but one solution could be to clone Template:Infobox GAA dualplayer to Template:Infobox female GAA dualplayer, and tweak it appropriately. Narky Blert (talk) 15:18, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

I agree that may be the least bad solution. Alternatively we could add a gender parameter. Raised at Template talk:Infobox Gaelic Athletic Association player#Camogie. Certes (talk) 18:46, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

Hatnote Question

I put a link to a disambiguation page in a hatnote at the top of an article. I got a message from User:DPL bot. I guess my question is whether, if the disambiguation page is primary, I am still supposed to put (disambiguation) in the hatnote just so that both the bot and human editors will know that I am doing that on purpose. Robert McClenon (talk) 16:38, 30 October 2019 (UTC)

WP:INTDAB has good advice. I usually copy the final example with {{!}}, which avoids displaying "(disambiguation)", but other editors prefer the alternative format above it. However, we can consider removing a hatnote altogether per WP:NAMB if the article's full title doesn't describe other entries on the dab. Certes (talk) 16:54, 30 October 2019 (UTC)

Template:S-rail-national

Template:S-rail-national is yet another railway station template which assumes that station names are unique and which has no obvious way of disambiguation. In this case, Halifax railway station in Elland railway station. Narky Blert (talk) 16:30, 30 October 2019 (UTC)

 Fixed with |county1=West Yorkshire. Certes (talk) 16:45, 30 October 2019 (UTC)

Nova Scotia and Massachusetts are counties? Oh nevermind, one size fits all. Narky Blert (talk) 21:40, 30 October 2019 (UTC)

{{S-rail-national}} with |county1= do a similar job for Great Britain as {{S-line}} with |state1= do elsewhere, if you pretend that Nova Scotia is a state. Certes (talk) 22:52, 30 October 2019 (UTC)

Today's annoying railway station template

In Alderson station, {{Adjacent stations|system=Chesapeake and Ohio|line=Main Line|left=Hinton|right=Ronceverte}} links to the DAB page Hinton station. Hinton station (West Virginia) says that it's that one. I seriously cannot find the energy to try to understand the mechanics of 'labour-saving' templates of this sort. It's enough bother to find out what's causing the error. Narky Blert (talk) 13:04, 31 October 2019 (UTC)

 Fixed in Module:Adjacent stations/Chesapeake and Ohio. The templates can be a good idea when an expert gets it right in one place and the results appear in many places. They're not so useful when the station was omitted or the results appear in only one place. Certes (talk) 13:27, 31 October 2019 (UTC)

User:DPL bot .... extend to redirect pages?

I'm looking ahead beyond some current work to restructure the top pages in the climate change subject area. When the dust has settled I expect "climate change" will be a redirect page pointing at global warming or "global warming" will redirect to climate change, or both with redirect to some other title, perhaps global warming and climate change. Whatever.... I'm thinking people will link to the redirect pages, and it would be nice to have something like User DPL bot to send them a notice.

Does that exist? If not, would it be helpful? NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 01:54, 31 October 2019 (UTC)

No; and I don't think so. Links to disambiguation pages are strongly discouraged. Links to redirects aren't. In some situations they are actively encouraged (see MOS:REDIR). Robotically bypassing suxh links would be undesirable. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 02:21, 31 October 2019 (UTC)

The redirects add value by ensuring that wikilinks will still lead to the best destination in a future where global warming and climate change are different articles, different sections of an article or otherwise distinguished. Certes (talk) 10:30, 31 October 2019 (UTC)

reset I'm not sure I expressed myself well, so please allow me to try again. The idea is KEEP the redirect pages and KEEP existing links to them. GOING FORWARD.... when an editor adds new content, .... would it be worth gently encouraging users to consider adding their new content with links directly to target articles, instead of adding links to redirects? NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 10:44, 31 October 2019 (UTC)

Sometimes, but it's hard to work out when. Linking to a {{R from misspelling}} is almost always a mistake. Linking to a {{R with possibilities}} is usually correct: someone may write the missing article. Many redirects are classified imperfectly or not at all. Certes (talk) 10:56, 31 October 2019 (UTC)

Thanks and this makes my point rather well... only really experienced editors even know about those nuances much less think about them. So a gentle message when a new link to a redir appears would help educate people and really shorten the learning curve. It doesn't mean they would be obligated to change their new redir link. Just think about it.... In that way, when a subject area gets an overhaul, there will be far less work of this sort to review. Seems like wins all around... greater gentle education, upfront increase in skillful linking, reduction of long-term maintenance chores. NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 11:15, 31 October 2019 (UTC)

This could be of interest to Wikipedia:WikiProject Redirect. I can imagine something along the lines of User:InceptionBot, which daily scans new pages and assigns them quality scores in various project areas. The task here would be the simpler one of reporting new links through redirects, no sub-classification necessary. Links which redirect to DAB pages could be ignored: User:DPL bot finds those. Narky Blert (talk) 13:14, 31 October 2019 (UTC)

There are already reports for redirect links which actually need correction; Wikipedia:Database reports/Linked misspellings and Wikipedia:Database reports/Linked miscapitalizations. But there is nothing wrong with linking to most redirects. I would assume that editors adding links have already thought about it, and actively chose the words they linked. Corpse redirects to cadaver which is an article about the subset of corpses that end up being used in medical research/training. There should probably be a separate article on the broad concept of corpses. If people want to write the word cadaver and link to it specifically, they will do so. If they write the word corpse and link to it, they probably have a reason for using the word corpse instead of cadaver. Plantdrew (talk) 16:33, 31 October 2019 (UTC)

Re the I would assume part..., that's kind of ironic. Just a couple days ago I was talking with someone about editors who link ambiguous titles without checking them, and end up linking something they never intended. I agree with your edit summary that redirects are NOTBROKEN but making decisions based on faulty assumptions of human nature might be. NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 17:10, 31 October 2019 (UTC)

An (ahem) problematic template

A template used in S̩, seemingly some sort of misbegotten child of Template:Latin alphabet/main, links to (count 'em) 116 DAB pages and 8 probably-wrong pages. I have no idea how it is doing that, but suspect from the pattern that some code is creating every possible two-character combination which includes 's' or 'S' and merrily linking to whatever it finds.

My suggestion would be to either kill it with fire or nuke it from space before it does further damage, but don't know which button to press or lever to pull. Other suggestions, or indeed actual button-pressing or lever-pulling, would be welcome. Narky Blert (talk) 23:15, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

 Fixed. I changed the parameter to {{Latin script}} from S to S̩. When the parameter is a straight letter A-Z, the block with letter pairs is shown, which we don't want because it's a dabfest. Certes (talk) 23:49, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

Template:Taxonomy/Stromatella

Template:Taxonomy/Stromatella calls the DAB page Stromatella rather than Stromatella (alga). This is another template where trying a piped or a pseudopiped link generates display errors. Narky Blert (talk) 17:44, 19 November 2019 (UTC)

 Fixed. The naive approach of setting the link= parameter to Stromatella (alga)|Stromatella (literally |, not {{!}} or other cleverness) works in such cases. That sets the link= parameter to Stromatella (alga) and creates an unnamed parameter 1 set to Stromatella which is used as the display text. Certes (talk) 18:04, 19 November 2019 (UTC)

I imagine it all depends on the exact sequence of operations in the template code, as well as on whether that code recognises an attempted override and executes a bypass. Good, eh? Narky Blert (talk) 22:59, 19 November 2019 (UTC)

can User:DPL bot be programmed to ignore certain articles?

I received a message from it after editing List of adjectival and demonymic forms for countries and nations, however this article intentionally links to disambiguation pages as it concerns the words themselves. If they are not already could such articles be whitelisted to prevent these DPL from being removed by mistake? Snizzbut (talk) 18:09, 21 November 2019 (UTC)

@Snizzbut: DPL bot has been programmed to ignore links ending in (disambiguation), even if they lead to redirects. If you really want to link to the disambiguation page X then you can link via the redirect X (disambiguation), as has been done with Abkhaz on that page. Further information: WP:INTDAB. Certes (talk) 18:23, 21 November 2019 (UTC)

A Wikidata problem

The infobox in François Barbé-Marbois is fetching a link to the DAB page statesman from Wikidata. The link is presumably buried somewhere in wikidata:Q708732. He's already listed as a politician, so this entry seems redundant (it's a weasel word - the leader of my party is a statesman, the leader of yours is a politician). Narky Blert (talk) 08:51, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

Yes, according to Wikidata he had occupation d:Q372436 which Wikidata links to enwiki page Statesman. Except for items about dabs (like d:Q48397), I don't think it's valid to link a dab there; it should be an article like the linked frwiki page fr:Homme d'État. We should probably edit d:Q372436 to link a more appropriate enwiki page but I don't see a better candidate. Articles like Public figure have their own separate Wikidata items. Perhaps we should just unlink the dab in Wikidata. Certes (talk) 10:25, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

Template:Infobox NCAA Ice Hockey Conference Tournament

It's one of those days. In 2017 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, 2018 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament and 2019 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, |MOP= in Template:Infobox NCAA Ice Hockey Conference Tournament expands to Most Outstanding Player; which, to nobody's surprise, is a DAB page.

In these three cases, the answer is WCHA Most Outstanding Player in Tournament. In others, it might be List of NCAA Division I Ice Hockey Tournament Most Outstanding Player. Narky Blert (talk) 17:17, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

The template needs to change. None of the other headings are linked, but this is a NOA. Perhaps it should link to Most valuable player, which is what the WCHA award was called until 2017. Otherwise we'll need a new parameter such as |MOPlink=, which should be an easy change. Certes (talk) 17:54, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

Template:DDSC

In Divorce demography, Template:DDSC produces a "(more info)" link to the DAB page Divorce in the United Kingdom, with no obvious way of stopping it. I assume that the figures are for the whole UK, but am not sure. If they are, then a link through the (disambiguation) qualifier would work; except that it seems that no-one gets divorced in Northern Ireland. Narky Blert (talk) 15:10, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

Another ambiguous link from Wikidata

In Jens Juel (diplomat), the caption in the infobox is creating a circular link to the DAB page Jens Juel. Narky Blert (talk) 12:41, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

 Fixed by adding an English media legend to d:Q744011. Certes (talk) 14:00, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

Template:Subin

If Template:Subin does provide a way of disambiguating a link (the documentation is bordering unintelligible), the one attempted in Lisa Dahlkvist for Jessica Samuelsson doesn't work. Narky Blert (talk) 12:55, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

 Fixed but it's not pretty. The wikitext in the article implies that a fifth parameter would be used as a wikilink target, but {{{5}}} isn't used in the template. It could be added, but I'm not sure what other assumptions that might disappoint. It also doesn't handle names such as Son Heung-min with surname before given name(s), let alone Park Jae-hong (footballer, born 1978). Certes (talk) 14:16, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

Yet another ambiguous link from Wikidata

The Wikidata import in the infobox in Julia Bax links to the DAB page Kaos. This link suffers from the trifling disadvantage that there is no relevant article in either English or Portuguese WP. Narky Blert (talk) 11:29, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

 Fixed by manually specifying the awards. I don't like doing this as the page may become outdated when more awards are added to Wikidata, but the alternative of fixing the templates to stop treating Wikidata titles as wikilinks doesn't seem imminent. Certes (talk) 12:41, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

A puzzle

Bids for the 2019 Pan American Games links to DAB page La Punta - according to User:DPL bot and what-links-here, but I can't see how. I bookmarked the page 6 (or possibly 12) weeks ago hoping that the problem would go away, but it hasn't.

My guess is that |candidate2= in Template:Infobox Pan American Games bid may be checking for an article, but ignoring the bit after the comma while creating a blacklink. Narky Blert (talk) 10:40, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

 Fixed in {{Infobox Pan American Games bid/Map}}. (As you say, {{Infobox Pan American Games bid}} does use {{#ifexist:{{{candidate2}}}..., but it doesn't manipulate the string to remove the suffix.) Certes (talk) 11:34, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Another railway station problem

The infobox in Munich East station calls the DAB page Taufkirchen in a very obscure manner, possibly by way of Template:s-line; very obscure, because Taufkirchen is only mentioned once in main text; where it links to Taufkirchen, Hugo-Junkers-Straße (MVV). There is also a hidden link to Taufkirchen, Lilienthalstraße (MVV). Narky Blert (talk) 15:45, 2 January 2020 (UTC)

 Fixed in {{MVV lines}} and added to the guide. Certes (talk) 17:13, 2 January 2020 (UTC)

Enigma - remaining dab link

What is currently wrong with the Enigma dab? It still hows one link. I fixed every reference in the article namespace I could find. The only ones left are redirects, and those seem legitimate. What's currently causing this to be flagged? Coastside (talk) 19:46, 7 January 2020 (UTC)

@Coastside: Where does it still show one link? Perhaps it was an article which used to link to Enigma within a navbox or other template which has been fixed. These can take time to disappear from the lists of links. Certes (talk) 00:36, 8 January 2020 (UTC)

@Certes: Thanks for the reply. It is currently #514 on the todo list of this Project page.Coastside (talk)

@Coastside and Certes: I base my ideas on guesswork and modified hand-waving rather than anything imagination-destroying like facts.

WP:DPL#To do (WPTD) is refreshed at the beginning of each month. It harvests the top 1000 from Disambiguation pages with links (DPwL), which is refreshed every 12 hours (except when WMF makes a high-level improvement, and it crashes). For most of the year, DPwL bumbles along with 5000-6000 entries. However, around Yuletide in 2018 and 2019 it got hammered down to under 2000 (perhaps Santa's elves had completed their factory orders early, and decided to do some WikiGnoming instead; the record low was 953, on 2 January 2019 – less than the number of flags in Category:Articles with links needing disambiguation!).

The top half at least of WPTD right now seems to be chockablock with things tagged as {{dn}} (i.e. too difficult). Not all DABfixers look at WPTD; I never do, I work from DPwL. Therefore I never mark entries in WPTD as done, because I don't see them. (There are also several other ways of getting at DABlinks.) Full-time DABfixers (we have no lives) now spend January looking for links to fix while trying to avoid tripping over each other. In the days when there were tens of thousands of links in DPwL (see WP:TDD#Table 1 Column 1), it was very likely that WPTD gnomes would get to any given link in WPTD first, and there would be no collision. Now that the number is down in the low thousands, anyone might.

An orphan link in WPTD like Enigma isn't a bug: it's a measure of this project's success. Wetware is outcompeting software. Narky Blert (talk) 22:07, 11 January 2020 (UTC)

A Template:jct problem

List of Nova Scotia provincial highways twice calls the DAB page Nova Scotia Trunk 32. (Search for the {{dn}} tags to find the links.) The links are assembled from data items passed to {{jct}}. While that has a wide variety of bells and whistles, none of them seems to enable overriding of the autogenerated link.

The first link (in the table) should be to Northwest Arm Drive. The second link (in the list) should be to Nova Scotia Route 332#History. Narky Blert (talk) 10:21, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

I've looked into this and tested what I think should fix it, but it doesn't work. I'm awaiting advice at Template talk:Jct#dab parameter. Certes (talk) 14:29, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

 Fixed in Module:Road data/strings/CAN/NS and the list. Certes (talk) 15:46, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

Potential nominated for deletion

The broad-concept article Potential has been nominated for deletion at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Potential. I note this here because the intent of the nominator appears to be to point all of the incoming links to that page to the disambiguation page currently at Potential (disambiguation). BD2412 T 19:53, 18 January 2020 (UTC)

Another railway station problem

Changping railway station (Beijing) links to the DAB page Zhangjiakou railway station. I think it's a reasonable bet that it's not meant to be the station which closed in 2014. Amusingly, the link is generated somewhere other than in the article. Narky Blert (talk) 17:47, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

 Fixed in Module:Adjacent stations/China Railway. Certes (talk) 17:59, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

Saturation (chemistry)

Hundreds of incoming links. Is there a best solution generally applicable to links to this title? BD2412 T 00:51, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

Yuck! This reminds me of Talk:Vinyl#Requested move 19 June 2017, which IMO came to the correct consensus, and the cleanup that necessitated; which was ten times the size this one will be.

Saturation (chemistry) is definitely ambiguous. The most likely (but not the only) meanings are Saturated and unsaturated compounds and Saturated solution (choosing a redirect as friendlier than the article title, saving readers who know the subject an unnecessary click on a bluelink). If the topic is organic chemistry, the probable meaning is a compound; if inorganic, a solution; but neither is guaranteed. The presence of one or other of those nouns in nearby text will be a good indicator. Narky Blert (talk) 09:03, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

I'm making a start on the ones which are from their titles most obviously about organic compounds. In some cases, a redirect is better than a pipe. Narky Blert (talk) 09:18, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

That sweep got about 160 of them. Narky Blert (talk) 11:26, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

All fixed or flagged. The difficult ones, with no obvious targets, mainly involved absorption (like a sponge, liquid into solids, more physics than chemistry), adsorption (molecules onto solids, physics as well as chemistry), inorganic mixtures (a solid-state effect), or were terms of art, or possibly the wrong word. Narky Blert (talk) 18:42, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

Template:North America topic

It's been a while since I came across one of these one-size-fits-all uncustomisable templates. In Outline of North America, Template:North America topic, customised as 'Ecoregions of North America', calls the redirect List of ecoregions in the United States, which points to the DAB page Lists of ecoregions in the United States. Narky Blert (talk) 16:52, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

One view is that the link leads to the right page but that page should be a list of lists rather than a dab. There is an active debate at WT:D#Disambiguation pages for composite titles derived from an ambiguous term and, most relevantly, in the following section about Korean actors. Certes (talk) 17:04, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

In Outline of North America, Template:North America topic (under the heading 'Ecoregions of North America') also links directly to the DAB page Lists of ecoregions in the United States. For added confusion, the same article also calls Lists of ecoregions in the United States (disambiguation) from somewhere else. Narky Blert (talk) 15:48, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

The discussion I linked above didn't reach a conclusion but I still don't see Lists of ecoregions in the United States as a dab. Perhaps the singular should be, but the plural looks like a list of lists to me. Certes (talk) 16:41, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

I've recategorised DAB page Lists of ecoregions in the United States into Category:United States-related lists. Narky Blert (talk) 10:29, 8 February 2020 (UTC)

Bids for the 1976 Winter Olympics

Has this or something like it come up before? In Bids for the 1976 Winter Olympics, the runner-up field in the infobox, buried in a template, links to DAB page Sion instead of to Sion, Switzerland. Narky Blert (talk) 11:45, 21 February 2020 (UTC)

I've simply replaced Sion by Sion, Switzerland. This seems reasonable as not everyone knows where this Sion is. It may be the best we can do, as the text is used in two formats: near the top to redlink Sion, Switzerland bid for the 1976 Winter Olympics, and more conventionally at the bottom. Using clever syntax wrecks one or both of them. Certes (talk) 12:35, 21 February 2020 (UTC)

FIBA player template

On Morocco national basketball team there are several links to Association Salé in the Past roster section. The template uses 'dab =' to disambiguate the player's name but I don't see a way to disambiguate the club. Is there a trick? Leschnei (talk) 14:45, 29 February 2020 (UTC)

 Fixed. |club=AS Salé (basketball){{!}}AS Salé should work but I've used |clublink= since it exists. Certes (talk) 16:16, 29 February 2020 (UTC)

Thank you! Leschnei (talk) 02:59, 1 March 2020 (UTC)

Another labour-savingcreating template

In List of armies by country, {{army|Uganda}} generates a link to the DAB page Uganda Army, with no obvious way of overriding that to link to Uganda People's Defence Force. Narky Blert (talk) 15:28, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

If my request at Template talk:Country data Uganda is granted then this should fix itself. If not then you might notice that several other countries use a simple wikilink instead; I couldn't possibly comment. Certes (talk) 16:48, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

 Fixed. Certes (talk) 16:56, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

Buried deep in templates

2018–19 Borussia Mönchengladbach season and 2018–19 Hannover 96 season both call the ambiguous redirect Michael Lang (footballer). After a bit of a struggle (I had to click on every 'show' in the articles), I've tracked him down to {{Bundesliga matches|2018–19|MÖN}} and {{Bundesliga matches|2018–19|HAN}} respectively. In both cases, it should be Michael Lang (footballer, born 1991). Narky Blert (talk) 11:47, 6 March 2020 (UTC)

 Fixed in {{2018–19 Bundesliga matches}}, which may not be the most obvious repository for match summaries. Certes (talk) 12:31, 6 March 2020 (UTC)

Template:Infobox GAA player (bumping)

Template:Infobox GAA player remains the same problem; see Wikipedia talk:Disambiguation pages with links/Archive 15#Template:Infobox GAA player, opened 12 October 2019. Narky Blert (talk) 11:06, 8 March 2020 (UTC)

Redirects with malformed or misspelled (disambiguation) qualifiers

I have opened a discussion at Wikipedia talk:Criteria for speedy deletion#Proposed new CSD criterion: R5, for redirects with malformed or misspelled (disambiguation) qualifiers which may be of interest to editors who follow this page. Narky Blert (talk) 19:47, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Changes to the DAB Challenge

As of April, I will be making a long-overdue change to the DAB Challenge. The "Bonus List" will be eliminated, and the "Monthly List" will be expanded from 1,000 items to contain all disambiguation pages with incoming links as of the start of the month. The practical impact of this is minimal, since the two lists have overlapped for a while now, and all disambiguation pages with links were on one list or the other. There will only be one leaderboard going forward, the webpages dedicated to the Bonus List will stop working at some point on April 2 (there may be some error messages until I have a chance to swap out some files on the server), and the Monthly List pages will have more entries, but otherwise there should be relatively little change to how the monthly challenge operates. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 19:05, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Sounds sensible to me. Narky Blert (talk) 19:54, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Additional namespaces for contest?

I'd like to renew my previous suggestion to please consider expanding the contest to other namespaces (e.g. Book, Category, File, Portal). Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 03:39, 5 April 2020 (UTC)

Template:Election box winning candidate with party link no change

The disambiguation page Total has four incoming links from Template:Election box winning candidate with party link no change (e.g. 1940 United States Senate election in New York). What template would be a good replacement so there is no link to Total? Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 18:08, 5 April 2020 (UTC)

{{Election box winning candidate no change}} looks suitable. Certes (talk) 18:36, 5 April 2020 (UTC)

@Certes: Thank you! I added this template to Template:List of election box templates. GoingBatty (talk) 20:25, 5 April 2020 (UTC)

Template:Canadian cabinet member navigational box header

Template:Canadian cabinet member navigational box header has a couple of cute features. (1) The |ministry= field requires underscores, or it doesn't render. It appends (Canadian politician) to the name. (2) There is no way of disambiguating. See Charles Stewart in Wilfrid Gariépy; the link should be Charles Stewart (premier), because there have been three notable people called Charles Stewart (Canadian politician). Narky Blert (talk) 10:02, 6 April 2020 (UTC)

 Fixed in {{Canadian cabinet member navigational box header/header text}}. I've also changed the template to accept spaces as an alternative to underscores. Two ministers served in Enter ministry number but that was already the case before my edits. Certes (talk) 11:31, 6 April 2020 (UTC)

Navbox x-word

Editors considering improving {{Navbox x-word}} may be interested in this tea party. Certes (talk) 21:26, 13 April 2020 (UTC)

Template:Infobox political party?

In the infobox of Irish Republican Brotherhood, there is a link to DAB page Elections in Ireland, possibly obscurely generated by Template:Infobox political party. It isn't clear whether this refers to Elections in the United Kingdom or Elections in the Republic of Ireland or both; Elections in Northern Ireland can perhaps be ruled out. Narky Blert (talk) 08:53, 16 April 2020 (UTC)

It may be best to remove the wikilink. Irish Republican Brotherhood doesn't mention elections and they aren't mentioned in any election articles. The IRB coincided with elections to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which are barely mentioned in Elections in the United Kingdom, and the first few RoI and NI elections. IRB president Michael Collins was Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State but is listed there as a Sinn Féin member, so perhaps IRB members stood for election under a different banner. Certes (talk) 10:48, 16 April 2020 (UTC)

Removing the link was my thought also. A secret society with a taste for violence rarely stands in elections as such, only under the name of their political wing. There have been more recent examples on both sides of the divide in Northern Ireland, Narky Blert (talk) 15:23, 16 April 2020 (UTC)

 Fixed. Certes (talk) 16:26, 16 April 2020 (UTC)

Fauna

What should we do about Fauna of Slovakia and Fauna of Slovenia? Their entries are subsets of the title so they shouldn't really be dabs, in the same way that United States isn't a dab listing Alabama, Alaska, etc. They have legitimate incoming links, including some through {{Fauna of Europe}}. Certes (talk) 11:05, 26 April 2020 (UTC)

Ah, LittleWink dealt with one while I was writing that. Certes (talk) 11:06, 26 April 2020 (UTC)

Template:UAAPathlete

In UAAP Season 71 men's basketball tournament, Template:UAAPathlete calls the DAB page Joshua Webb rather than the redlink Joshua Webb (basketball). All the usual tricks (|dab=, |d=, pseudo-pipe) generate a LUA error. Narky Blert (talk) 10:10, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

 Done This one's |link=, with the added feature that the name appears in black (rather than the usual red) until the article is created. Certes (talk) 10:21, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

DAB Challenge still says April

Could someone please check the DAB Challenge page? It still states we're in April. Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 14:35, 2 May 2020 (UTC)

I've linked to here from User talk:DPL bot#DAB Challenge still says April. Narky Blert (talk) 10:41, 4 May 2020 (UTC)

This issue is fixed, but now there is a new one -- apparently all the edits on the leaderboard before approximately 17:00 UTC today got erased. I'm sure I must have done something wrong to cause this, but I can't figure out what. My apologies to those whose edit counts were erased. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 18:42, 5 May 2020 (UTC)

I'm still smarting from the January 2019 challenge, when I was beaten into second place by an editor who had fixed 42 links... Narky Blert (talk) 08:10, 6 May 2020 (UTC)

Another auto-completing template

In Communist Party of Georgia (Soviet Union), the infobox links to DAB page Politics of Georgia. It isn't clear to me how it's generating the link, but my guess would be from the unlinked field |country=Georgia. Narky Blert (talk) 08:15, 19 May 2020 (UTC)

 Fixed with |country_dab1=Politics of Georgia (country). Certes (talk) 12:43, 19 May 2020 (UTC)

Template:UAAPathlete

In UAAP Season 78, Template:UAAPathlete calls DAB page Rafael Barreto, with no obvious way of either unlinking or of redlinking as Rafael Barreto (swimmer); a pseudopipe breaks the code. Narky Blert (talk) 13:36, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

 Fixed with the top secret |link= argument, discovered by examining Module:PHL sports team. Certes (talk) 14:12, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

German politicians

Following the addition of new templates, German politicians are currently dominating the disambiguation reports. We've been discussing the matter at User talk:Olaf Kosinsky. Certes (talk) 22:51, 25 May 2020 (UTC)

Nobots compliancy

On top of my talk page there is {{nobots|allow=SineBot}}; yet the bot posted a message on my talk page despite this. Can anybody investigate why the bot is not complying with a template it's supposed to be compliant to? Thanks, RandomCanadian (talk / contribs) 13:53, 25 May 2020 (UTC)

I've notified User talk:DPL bot. Certes (talk) 14:10, 25 May 2020 (UTC)

This is a bug in the Pywikibot framework that the bot uses. Surprised it hasn't been detected before now! I'll submit a bug report. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 23:47, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

@RandomCanadian: According to Template:Bots/doc#Syntax, {{nobots}} is not supposed to be used with parameters. (None of the code under "Example implementations" on that page supports Nobots with parameters.) If you change it to {{bots|allow=SineBot}}, it should work as expected. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 13:04, 27 May 2020 (UTC)

@R'n'B: I have changed it; but aren't these two templates supposed to have nearly the same functionality? In any case, {{nobots|allow=SineBot}} is supposed to have the same effect as {{bots|allow=SineBot}}. Thanks, RandomCanadian (talk / contribs) 16:06, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

These templates are special because most of their functionality comes not from what they expand into when rendering the page, but from the individual bots parsing the page text and looking for strings like "{{nobots}}". The reasons for using a template rather than some other distinctive text string like "**NOBOTS**" are so that the text doesn't display in the rendered page, and to allow side-effects such as inclusion in Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery. Certes (talk) 16:24, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

Jammu and Kashmir

There's a recently created dab page at Jammu and Kashmir, with a few thousand incoming links. I'm not sure for how long this is going to stand as a disambiguation page (the question has been contentious), and it may well get turned into a redirect again, so starting to fix incoming links might not be a wise thing to do. All the more so as the articles listed there are themselves ambiguously named: Jammu and Kashmir (state) (the likely target of most links) will probably need to be moved at some point, as the other two articles listed on the dab page are also states: one of them a historic state, the other one a potential future state. – Uanfala (talk) 22:08, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

Adding that I've tried to temporarily un-tag is as a dab page – to save everyone the trouble, but one editor has vehemently objected. – Uanfala (talk) 22:16, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

Well, it's a disambiguation page and so it needs to be tagged as one. The question is not that contentious, the creation of the disambiguation page enjoyed consensus at well-attended RfD by a 2:1 margin. That being said, the best solution that was largely amenable in the RfD would be to write a WP:BCA on the topic, so perhaps it should be tagged with {{broad-concept article}}? Disambiguation pages tagged with that template should not be on the DPL list. Best, -- Tavix ^(talk) 22:28, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

The creation of this dab page was the result of a rather facile closure of a little-attended RfD that goes against the existing consensus established in the rather more thorough previous discussions. Well, whatever, that's wikipedia, it doesn't work well all the time. The topic structure of the related articles will definitely need to be re-examined, and yes, one of the available options is for Jammu and Kashmir to be a broad article about the whole region (rather than a BCA), but we sort of already have such an article, and it's located – for better or for worse – at Kashmir. – Uanfala (talk) 22:38, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

The RfD was well-attended, but my apologies that it didn't go your way. So, links that don't refer specifically to the state of India, the princely state, or the union territory should go to the region article, Kashmir. -- Tavix ^(talk) 22:47, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

The RfD might have been well-attended by RfD standards, but it was a great deal less attended than the discussions on the project page. I don't believe a flimsy "consensus" based on drive-by votes in an obscure venue overrides the community consensus. – Uanfala (talk) 12:06, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

Is this a case like Punjab, where the term refers to a region and also to various past, current or future political entities which include some or all of the region? Certes (talk) 22:51, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

Yeah, it's similar situation. But it's made more complicated by the recent split of the state into two units, one of which bears the same name as the former state, and the fact that this state of affairs isn't likely to remain long-term. – Uanfala (talk) 12:06, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

Over 500 links to Punjab were for Punjab, India or Punjab, Pakistan. I suspect that we may be able to improve a few of the 2750 links to J&K too, once we have confidence in the articles' long-term titles. Certes (talk) 12:55, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

Yes, but in spades. The Punjab question is fairly well settled (there's the historical meaning, the Indian bit and the Pakistani bit). For J&K, there's both the (hopefully uncontentious) historical meaning and also the more recent political, verbal and shooting wars. Narky Blert (talk) 20:00, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

A new RM has begun at Talk:Jammu and Kashmir#Requested move 30 May 2020. Certes (talk) 10:00, 30 May 2020 (UTC)

May 32

Well, the Toolforge database servers seem to be having conniptions again, so I’m going to extend the May contest for at least one more day to see if they settle down. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 23:30, 31 May 2020 (UTC)

I thought we might catch a break today, but no such luck. So, by the power vested in me, I am extending May for yet another day. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 23:10, 32 May 2020 (UTC)

Dispenser tools

Dispenser's excellent tools can no longer be reached via info.tm but are still usable via their IP address. Certes (talk) 11:47, 17 June 2020 (UTC)

Some kind soul has now amended Templates with disambiguation links etc. to use the IP address. If you're watching, thank you! Certes (talk) 20:45, 17 June 2020 (UTC)

"Disambiguation needed" blacklinks

Can anyone see why the {{dn}} tags in Raja Khishtasub Khan and Singh Khalsa are not showing as bluelinks, and also (presumably as a consequence) are not listed in Category:Articles with links needing disambiguation from March 2020?

If anyone can solve the puzzle, I suggest redating the tags to the current month. Narky Blert (talk) 16:50, 17 June 2020 (UTC)

I think it has something to do with situation noted in the message just above. The {{Disambiguation needed}} template was recently edited (diff) to remove the link to Dispenser's tool. All the [disambiguation needed] tags I checked are broken.—ShelfSkewed Talk 17:05, 17 June 2020 (UTC)

A probably related bug: the "show redirects only" link in "what links here" has gone AWOL. Narky Blert (talk) 11:38, 19 June 2020 (UTC)

Original issue fixed. Not sure about the "What links here" issue. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 11:58, 19 June 2020 (UTC)

The "What links here" change may result from this edit. Although rdcheck.py can still be accessed via the IP address given in the "before" part of that diff, the tool fails when it tries to access dispenser.info.tm internally. Certes (talk) 12:31, 19 June 2020 (UTC)

Note that there is built-in support for listing redirects in what links here making the external tool unnecessary. There are now three toggle links under Filters section of what links here to show/hide 1) transclusions, 2) links, and 3) redirects. I'm not sure when this change happened, but it is a big improvement over what was previously available. older ≠ wiser 13:09, 19 June 2020 (UTC)

Yes. rdcheck was once the only way to identify redirects to sections/anchors, or to list redirects alone. Those features are now in the built-in list too. Certes (talk) 18:30, 19 June 2020 (UTC)

Template:Flagg

In Flags of country subdivisions, Template:Flagg links to the DAB page Kalinga instead of to Kalinga (province). Eiether a bluelink or a pseudopipe breaks the formatting. The Isabela entry, immediately above, is a parallel case, and works. Narky Blert (talk) 12:13, 21 June 2020 (UTC)

 Fixed with |link=. Alternatively, we could have created {{Country data Kalinga}} modelled on {{Country data Isabela}}, but that might be unwise if Kalinga isn't the primary term for its topic. Certes (talk) 14:06, 21 June 2020 (UTC)

Template:Election summary partial council net party

In 2019 Hart District Council election, Template:Election summary partial council net party insists that DAB page Others must be linked, and won't take <nowiki> for an answer (it breaks the formatting). Narky Blert (talk) 16:32, 21 June 2020 (UTC)

 Fixed with {{Election summary partial council net}}. There is a choice of 237 templates to use here, so it's easy to go wrong. Certes (talk) 16:44, 21 June 2020 (UTC)

Coby (Disambiguation)

There is a discussion at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2020 June 6#Coby (Disambiguation) to which members of this WikiProject may wish to contribute. Narky Blert (talk) 12:08, 7 June 2020 (UTC)

The RfD has closed as Keep. My comments there attracted a robust response, and I apologise if that contributed to the unfortunate outcome. Certes (talk) 21:45, 21 June 2020 (UTC)

Template:World topic

Template:World topic is importing a link to DAB page Palestine from somewhere. See World. It should presumably be State of Palestine. Narky Blert (talk) 13:21, 28 June 2020 (UTC)

Easy to fix, but hard to fix without wrecking other stuff. I've raised it at Template talk:World topic. Certes (talk) 14:28, 28 June 2020 (UTC)

For some reason, these overcomplicated templates have reminded me of the coarse dictionary definition "wife (n) - a labour-saving device which is screwed on the bed and does the housework". Narky Blert (talk) 15:11, 28 June 2020 (UTC)

Infobox artwork

{{Infobox artwork}} will soon stop linking the artist's name automatically, which is good news when they are not the primary topic for the name. A bot will add [[brackets]] instead, so the change won't remove any links to dab or mislinks immediately, but it will make them easier to fix. More details here. Certes (talk) 17:32, 19 June 2020 (UTC)

@Certes: I feel a project coming on. If you can generate a list, I'd be happy to work through it to fix links which unhelpfully point to surname pages. Narky Blert (talk) 15:01, 28 June 2020 (UTC)

I have a hit list: User:Certes/Surname links. I started matching surnames to artworks, but it is easier and more productive to work through the surnames (as I already did with the top 100) fixing all their incoming links. Most are obvious. A few such as Botticini are ambiguous (though not strictly within WikiProject Disambiguation, as they link to the wrong article rather than to a dab) and will need help. Certes (talk) 16:08, 28 June 2020 (UTC)

@Narky Blert: I've worked through User:Certes/Surname links. Please see its new introduction for those I couldn't fix. Certes (talk) 00:38, 29 June 2020 (UTC)

Another labour-saving template

At The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in South Africa#Temples, a sub-template of {{LDS Temple list}} is calling the DAB page Umhlanga instead of Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal. The same error is also present in List of temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by geographic region and List of temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Narky Blert (talk) 07:59, 1 July 2020 (UTC)

All  Fixed with one edit to {{LDS Temple/Durban South Africa Temple}}. Certes (talk) 09:47, 1 July 2020 (UTC)

Zico

Zico has been moved to a partial disambiguation: Zico (footballer). Zico is now a dab with 1,148 incoming links. Should we fix these, revert the bold move or find another solution? Certes (talk) 10:20, 1 July 2020 (UTC)

I guess the solving of de dablinks in templates have solved the majority of this. Beside that: the hero status of Zico will fade over time (not his notability). The Banner talk 10:42, 1 July 2020 (UTC)

I suggest reverting. Changing a WP:PRIMARYTOPIC requires a WP:RM discussion. Narky Blert (talk) 14:03, 1 July 2020 (UTC)

Template:Decades and years

Template:Decades and years calls the DAB page 2084 rather than 2084 CE. See 21st century for an example. It is unusual for the WP:PTOPIC for a number this large not to be the CE year; but it is 64 years in the future, and there are other full title matches. Narky Blert (talk) 15:09, 1 July 2020 (UTC)

{{Decades and years/yearlink}} assumes that years after 1000 are the primary topic for their number. I've been chasing the problem for a while, as have GeoffreyT2000 at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Years#2084 and R'n'B at Template talk:Decades and years#Requested edit. Certes (talk) 17:08, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

Royal redirects

Several royal redirects have been retargetted to dabs. I've reverted King William IV but King Henry V, King Henry VII, King William III and King Henry VI are also in the top 20 of Wikipedia's most mislinked dabs. Should the English and UK kings reclaim these primary topics, or should we get on with fixing the links? Ping: Interstellarity. Certes (talk) 17:17, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

Hi Certes and thanks for reaching out. The reason why I changed the redirect targets is because when you type those names in the search bar without the King prefix, it leads to a disambiguation pages. I am neutral on whether these are the primary topics. If you think these articles are primary topics, you are welcome to open an RM discussion for the disambiguation pages to be moved to a primary topic scenario. Interstellarity (talk) 17:28, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

William IV etc. probably don't have a primary topic. I think King William IV does, being the only king on the dab. As for the other King redirects, I'd appreciate another opinion as to whether we should restore the status quo because they also have a PT or whether to mend all the broken wikilinks. Certes (talk) 17:48, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

@Certes: I have asked for a third opinion and one will come shortly. Interstellarity (talk) 17:53, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

Thanks! I hope that the disambiguation regulars will give us the benefit of their advice here, but of course anyone arriving via WP:3O is welcome to contribute too. Certes (talk) 20:41, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

Response to third opinion request:

@Certes and Interstellarity: Hi. The WP:DPT (via WP:POFR) suggest different ways on how to determine primary topic and none of which are absolute meaning that the final decision must be made by a consensus. Considering that it would take sufficiently long time to compare every disab statistics with the given topics (kings) I either suggest both of you to make a substentive research on the matters and make WP:RM or just fall back to the said status quo. AXONOV (talk) ⚑ 20:57, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

Discussion at Talk:William_IV

 You are invited to join the discussion at Talk:William_IV. Interstellarity (talk) 01:48, 4 July 2020 (UTC)

Template:Europe topic (again)

In Communism in France, Template:Europe topic creates a link to and calls the DAB page Communism in Germany. (That concept certainly deserves an article - Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and the Spartacus League spring immediately to mind.) Narky Blert (talk) 10:31, 6 July 2020 (UTC)

Yes, Communism in Germany is tagged as a BCA and that link is probably the best one available. Certes (talk) 11:38, 6 July 2020 (UTC)

Greatest of All Time

Greatest of All Time disambiguates one topic, not known as "Greatest of All Time". G14 suggests a redirect but this seems a little harsh. Would anyone like a go at improving it? Certes (talk) 20:33, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

Template:Cite Cambridge History of China

In Emperor Taizu of Jin and Emperor Jingzong of Liao, {{Cite Cambridge History of China}} is linking to DAB page Herbert Franke in the sort of way that looks easily breakable, with all sorts of potentially entertaining side-effects, if someone who doesn't understand template tries to link to Herbert Franke (sinologist) instead. Narky Blert (talk) 13:27, 11 July 2020 (UTC)

 Fixed in the template. Certes (talk) 13:45, 11 July 2020 (UTC)

1. REDIRECT Target page name

Indian film-related lists with many DABlinks - a heads-up

I have seen several of these recently, and had unthinkingly assumed that one or more editors had not been checking their links. I have now discovered an IP who has been deliberately bulk-removing the piped parts of good links. Not only DABlinks have been affected; I found an instance where a link to a film had been turned into one to Railway Station. Reversion is the easy answer.

The IP I found was 2A02:C7D:2235:800:F565:2240:84B6:8D03, which is stale; it hasn't posted since 4 July. If anyone finds another, post it here; if the <insert noun of choice> is still active, there may be a case for a rangeblock. Narky Blert (talk) 10:13, 10 July 2020 (UTC)

Other IPs within that /32 have made similar contributions, many of which have since been diligently fixed. See Special:Contributions/2A02:C7D:2235:800:*. (Only works if you enable /32 contributions display at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets, section Advanced, third of the five tickboxes.) If the problem persists then a range block might be in order, or if it is widespread we could request an edit filter. Perhaps you should propose the <insert noun of choice> tag for the next version of HTML, with a browser setting to store the reader's favourite profanity for substitution. Certes (talk) 11:25, 10 July 2020 (UTC)

I found seven including the live one I wanted, posted at WP:ANI#IP editors breaking links in Indian film-related lists, and with any luck we should have peace for a month.

A more sophisticated procedure might randomly select an adjective from column A and a noun from column B. Narky Blert (talk) 13:19, 10 July 2020 (UTC)

The <expletive deleted> is back again. I've posted at WP:ANI#IP editors breaking links in Indian film-related lists (Part 2). Narky Blert (talk) 09:30, 17 August 2020 (UTC)

Gas masks mess

I'd like to apologize for making a mess of DAB links. The common term "gas mask" seems to be used for:

• equipment used against war gas (especially in the two World Wars)
• elastomeric respirators that filter out toxic gasses and/or other things, and sometimes other types of respirator which don't actually filter gasses, only particles.
• ditto, but only if used in a conflict situation, such as against tear gas
• SCBAs (at least in military use)
• any piece of military equipment designed to protect people in the military from inhaling nasty things
• any piece of wartime equipment designed to protect civilians from inhaling nasty things
• anything that looks a bit like a World-War-era gas mask

This ontological confusion is also reflected on Commons. I created an article on elastomeric respirators, and decided, perhaps foolishly, that Gas mask should be a disambiguation page. After manually disambiguating the first fifty links to "gas mask" (except a few where I wasn't sure), using semantic redirects so that no-one would have to do this again if Gas masks in conflict got split into, say, a WWI article and a WWII article, I realized that there were actually 570-odd more links to go. And it seems I will have to wait until 1900 UTC to use a semi-automated tool to fix.

So apologies for making a mess, I will try to clean it up, and advice is welcome. HLHJ (talk) 00:03, 9 August 2020 (UTC)

• Reverted. Per WP:RM, it is mandatory to discuss a proposed move for disambiguation prior to moving. There is no indication here that the primary topic of the term is not the military usage. BD2412 T 01:06, 9 August 2020 (UTC)
  • FWIW, regarding "Per WP:RM, it is mandatory to discuss a proposed move for disambiguation prior to moving." From what I'm seeing, there's no part of WP:RM that specifically states that, but I do agree that this specific case needs discussion prior to moving. Steel1943 (talk) 03:16, 9 August 2020 (UTC)

I should have started a discussion, had I thought it through better. To be honest, at this point, I'm not sure I will go to the trouble; there are more useful things to do. There are quite a few links to gas mask that have nothing to do with warfare and should probably be pointing to elastomeric respirator, though. Thank you both for your advice. HLHJ (talk) 03:22, 9 August 2020 (UTC)

My impression was that there was language at WP:RM mandating discussion before disambiguating a title, but I see that such wording is not there. BD2412 T 14:27, 9 August 2020 (UTC)

I occasionally move pages without discussion when uncontroversial, such as moving incompletely disambiguated Foo (film) to Foo (1987 film), but I try to fix the resulting redirect and mis-directed links. Certes (talk) 14:43, 9 August 2020 (UTC)

Gas mask seems to have a primary topic. If so then we already treat it correctly: PT at the base name; hatnotes because there are few enough alternatives to list. If we were to change then might consider a broad concept article, as all meanings are variants on a mask which filters gas. We'd need a disambiguation page if articles like Gas Mask (film) or "Gas Mask" (song) existed.

Thank you for spotting the misdirected links. We should fix those, though some are not obvious. The first one I looked at, ( ) (album), simply mentions people wearing "gas masks" in a video, and the cited source doesn't reveal whether the kit in the props cupboard was ex-military. Certes (talk) 12:01, 9 August 2020 (UTC)

• Gas mask doesn't do too bad a job. It mentions the ones commonly used in the chemical industry, but without much detail. Those I've seen have one or a pair of disposable canisters, often filled with activated charcoal, and are used when the level of nasty (e.g. hydrogen sulphide) in the air doesn't justify an SCBA. Narky Blert (talk) 11:14, 17 August 2020 (UTC)

A relevant bot BRFA

The bot proposal at Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Usernamekiran BOT 4 may be of interest. The bot's intended task is fixing dablinks resulting from primary topic moves. – Uanfala (talk) 11:46, 22 August 2020 (UTC)

WP:FIXDABLINKS

Members of this project may be interested in the discussion at Wikipedia talk:Disambiguation#Rewriting WP:FIXDABLINKS (Links to disambiguated topics. – Uanfala (talk) 14:41, 23 August 2020 (UTC)

Surname pages with links

This is slightly off-topic, but we have many surname pages with incoming links. Some of them actually describe the surname, or at least a related clan or noble family, but many are effectively disambiguation pages by another name. To take but five examples, Pirandello, Cherubini, Pevsner, Primo de Rivera and Cimarosa had on average over 50 incoming links each which were intended for a listed individual. Only a handful of links from reader-facing namespaces remain, mainly See alsos from related names. Does the team think that these pages should be converted to dabs? I have many, many other cases to be taken into consideration, and should probably consult more widely before being bold, but this seems like a good place to seek wise opinion. Certes (talk) 16:09, 23 August 2020 (UTC)

This is a good place for an informal discussion, but any proposals need to be made at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Anthroponymy, which is the project that has custody over those pages. I certainly don't think there's a need for a non-dab surname article if all it does is list people, but I know some members of the project have strongly disagreed with this view. – Uanfala (talk) 16:18, 23 August 2020 (UTC)

OTOH, I would not want to see lists of surname-holders re-classified as disambiguation pages. But I do agree that most links to them are not really meant to be intentional links to an article about the surname. In many cases, I suspect there was originally a primary topic redirect and the surname list was written atop the list without much consideration of incoming link. For example, Pirandello started as a redirect to Luigi Pirandello, the father and apparently rather more notable that the son Fausto Pirandello. I think it might be good to include pages with {{surname}} in a separate section of DPL reports. Further, in some cases, editors create "NAME (disambiguation)" redirects, although I'm not sure how much these are used in links. I think a separate convention for marking intentional links to name pages would be preferable. Something like "NAME (surname)". That could make it easier and clearer to mark cases where the link to the name is intentional. older ≠ wiser 17:33, 23 August 2020 (UTC)

I once had an idea for a wrapper template around surname links to mark them as good, but like this one a whole lot better: provide a (surname) redirect to all {{surname}} and {{given name|type=both}} pages (i.e. everything in Category:Surnames and its subcategories; I've seen pages which were only in a subcategory) which don't have a qualifier (see Chu#Surnames for a complicated example), and funnel legitimate links to the name page through that

This would need a new guideline somewhere. I have enough trouble with anthroponymists removing (disambiguation) qualifiers (-17 bytes, often a giveaway) from see-alsos on name pages "because it should link straight to the article". It would also need a new {{R}} template, such as {{R to surname page}}.

It may be simplest to take on trust pages like Chung (surname) (linked from DAB page Chung). However, it might be worth looking for Fizbuz -> Fizbuz (surname)-type redirects, and WP:ROBIN-swapping them per WP:PRECISE. Narky Blert (talk) 15:22, 25 August 2020 (UTC)

Template:Infobox Romanian subdivision

In Victoria, Brașov, Template:Infobox Romanian subdivision automatically generates a link to DAB page Coat of arms of Victoria. Any link would be circular, and there's no point in having one at all. Narky Blert (talk) 08:45, 27 August 2020 (UTC)

 Done, badly. Certes (talk) 11:02, 27 August 2020 (UTC)

Python Wikipedia Robot

Wikipedia:Disambiguation currently mentions the Python Wikipedia Robot as a tool that may be helpful when dealing with dablinks. I'm rewriting the relevant bit of the guidelines and this mention will be dropped. It was added a very long time ago (definitely before 2007, the oldest version I checked), and I have no idea if it's still relevant. If it is, then maybe it could be listed among the tools here? – Uanfala (talk) 19:20, 14 September 2020 (UTC)

• Well, it definitely still exists (mw:Manual:Pywikibot), and it does have a tool for solving disambiguation links, although other tools that have been introduced in the intervening years are more user-friendly. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 20:41, 14 September 2020 (UTC)
  • Oh, what a cute tool! Solving dabs from the terminal should be fun :) – Uanfala (talk) 18:19, 15 September 2020 (UTC)
    • That has a fine command-line compiler feel about it. I'm disappointed that the commands have to be spelt out in full, rather than being one-letter mnemonics. Narky Blert (talk) 05:41, 16 September 2020 (UTC)
      • I've now added it to the list of tools [6]. – Uanfala (talk) 17:46, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

Joining the Group

I would like to join this group. How do I do that? Buufin (talk) 04:26, 8 October 2020 (UTC)

Island (disambiguation) and Lord Byron

I've run into an issue that I don't understand, so maybe someone can help me figure this out. There are currently 6 articles listed that link to the redirect page The Island, which in turn redirects to the page Island (disambiguation). All six of these articles are pages about works of Lord Byron. However, I can't find any link to The Island on these pages - they do, however, include the Template:Lord Byron, but this template only links to The Island (Byron) and not to The Island. On top of that, not every article that has this template is listed as linking to The Island, only these six. So I have no clue what's going on here! Lennart97 (talk) 15:06, 10 October 2020 (UTC)

I tried a null edit on two of the articles, and that got them out of the "what links here". I have no idea what's going on. – Uanfala (talk) 15:14, 10 October 2020 (UTC)

@Uanfala: Thanks! If it works, it works, I guess! I've done a null edit on three more of the pages to keep Island (disambiguation) out of the monthly list, but left one as it is, in case someone still wants to get to the bottom of this. Lennart97 (talk) 15:25, 10 October 2020 (UTC)

I've seen that sort of thing before. NULLEDIT is one of the first tricks to try.

The template was edited and quickly self-reverted on 10 October, so it was most likely a side-effect of that. Template edits can take several days to work through the system into articles (as can InterWiki links), unless given a little push. Narky Blert (talk) 16:41, 14 October 2020 (UTC)

Template:Infobox station strikes again

Saronno railway station calls DAB page Lodi railway station, presumably as an expansion from some sub-template or other because there's no Lodi in the article. The link should be to Lodi railway station (Lombardy). Narky Blert (talk) 07:22, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

The problem is the very user-UNfriendly template "adjacent station" what forces one to start digging in a submodule and add the name of the station somewhere in even another template. (I think). Draconian template that should be reworked. The Banner talk 08:46, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

I once had a talk page message from another editor, advising me against putting {{dn}} tags inside {{infobox station}}, because they break the formatting, and an expert will be along soon enough to fix any such problem anyway. Imagine my wry amusement when, the very next week, I fixed an ambiguous link in another instance of that template, and noticed who the immediately preceding editor had been. Narky Blert (talk) 09:31, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

 Done Per WP:Disambiguation pages with links/Guide#Station succession, this one required a fix to Module:Adjacent stations/Trenord. I agree that this data should be more accessible. Certes (talk) 10:52, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

Template:Jct

In the infobox of Thorpe Interchange, {{jct|country=GBR|M|3}} (another of my "favourite" templates - the location of the DABlink in the article wasn't immediately obvious) expands to point to DAB page M3 motorway not M3 motorway (Great Britain). Narky Blert (talk) 11:34, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

Similar problem in Charing Cross, Glasgow, but this time M8 motorway instead of M8 motorway (Scotland). I wouldn't be surprised if this kind of error is possible for several or all low-numbered UK motorways. Narky Blert (talk) 11:40, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

Both  Done by adding |dab1=. (M8 is the example in WP:Disambiguation pages with links/Guide#Road junctions.) Certes (talk) 13:31, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

Finding and fixing DAB links

The page United Kingdom legislation connected with the COVID-19 pandemic has been tagged as containing multiple links to disambiguation pages but I can't seem to find them or work out how to fix this. Would appreciate if someone could take a look for me.

I don't see any, so I am removing the tag. BD2412 T 21:16, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

Wire723 kindly fixed several links today. I see none outstanding either. Certes (talk) 21:32, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

Palestine

The Template:World topic contains a link to Palestine. This is already discussed at Template talk:World topic#Palestine but no solution since then. This is hampering our effort to clear out the links to disambiguation pages. Often a link to "subject (disambiguation)" is enough to fool the bot. Can that be used here? The Banner talk 12:04, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

When a navbox appears in article Foo, the link is to something like "Foo in Palestine". Is the example link in {{World topic}} itself a problem? What list of potential errors includes this link? It's not in Templates with disambiguation links, which presumably has it whitelisted. Any fix would require a change to Module:World topic. I don't think that any value for country["Palestine"] would work, as explained in the discussion linked above and here. In particular, setting it to Palestine (disambiguation) would change the navbox links to "Foo in Palestine (disambiguation)" etc., which rarely exist. Certes (talk) 13:21, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

I came across it in the article World that is listed on "Articles With Multiple Dablinks". The Banner talk 21:06, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

Ah, good point. As no one has responded on the template talk page, I've bitten the bullet and boldly fixed the module. Certes (talk) 22:11, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

Thank you. I noticed quite a decrease in articles to fix. The Banner talk 11:12, 20 October 2020 (UTC)

Template:Infobox artwork - a heads-up

{{Infobox artwork}} can generate phantom links to DAB pages. In Reclining Figure, Michael Dennis displayed as a blacklink; but it showed up in the DAB page what-links-here. Fortunately, my first-guess fix of [[Michael Dennis (artist)|Michael Dennis]] cured the immediate problem. Narky Blert (talk) 11:47, 24 October 2020 (UTC)

This reminds me of the {{Infobox journal}} problem. Narky Blert (talk) 12:13, 24 October 2020 (UTC)

@Narky Blert: It's caused by an #ifexist: check which adds the page to Category:Pages using infobox artwork with unlinked artist field if the artist is plain text (not a wikilink) and there is a page by that name (which is often but not always about the artist). I think you've found the best solution here. The solution when the artist has no article, but shares their name with someone who does, is less clear. It may never happen. Certes (talk) 12:52, 24 October 2020 (UTC)

@Certes: A useful tweak to that template might be (ifexist(name) && name!=article_title) add_to_cat(name). It accepts nowiki (see e.g. Albert Lindegger); but it's a cluttering nuisance to add, and sooner or later someone will surely remove it to make the innards of the page look cleaner.

The issue you raise looks mostly harmless. No bad bluelink, so it would only be noticed if someone happened to be diligently (or idly) looking through a what-links-here for oddities. Narky Blert (talk) 15:40, 25 October 2020 (UTC)

If I've understood your first point correctly, the template attempts to do that but fails due to a bug (it lowercases the artist before comparing to the mixed-case article title). I've raised this at Template talk:Infobox artwork#Pages using infobox artwork with unlinked artist field but can escalate it to an edit request if you concur. Certes (talk) 15:47, 25 October 2020 (UTC)

@Certes: Ah, so that's how it's cocking it up! I concur in whatever it takes to get the template to make a exact-match test without Unnecessary Lowercasing. (Fixing most of the articles in that cat is a piece of hit-and-miss, I did 30 in as many minutes.) Narky Blert (talk) 17:18, 25 October 2020 (UTC)

This search may be useful. The pages you're not interested in are still shown, but the search results show when the |artist= parameter equals the article title, e.g. "Benno Rothschild artist=Benno Rothschild". Certes (talk) 17:55, 25 October 2020 (UTC)

The contents of that maintenance category are now down from 102 to 33. I suspect that all but one of those are circular blacklinks.

It is a refreshing change to come across one of these fill-it-in templates which accepts normal blue- and redlinks, normal nowiki syntax, and (I expect also, though I haven't needed to try it) normal {{ill}} links. Narky Blert (talk) 18:41, 25 October 2020 (UTC)

I think we're down to St Lawrence and Mary Magdalene Drinking Fountain by John Robinson (a dab). The architect doesn't seem to have (or merit) an article. Certes (talk) 19:44, 25 October 2020 (UTC)

That was my all-but-one. I found a citation, and from that a good qualifier. The cat is now empty :) Narky Blert (talk) 06:21, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

Templates dwarf planet & minor planet

On 225088 Gonggong I diambiguated Sedna and Eris, within the templates Template:Dp and Template:Mp, to 90377 Sedna and Eris (dwarf planet) respectively. This was reverted with the edit summary "Template:Dp intends to not disambiguate these pages and lead these links to their respective minor planet articles;". I don't think this would be particularly helpful to readers interested in these topics. Would any template experts take a look and see whether this is appropriate?— Rod ^talk 09:09, 11 November 2020 (UTC)

{{dp}} needs to be forcefully pointed in the direction of WP:INTDABLINK and {{Dablinks/FAQ#What's wrong with links to disambiguation pages?}}. Narky Blert (talk) 11:04, 11 November 2020 (UTC)

{{dp}} handles link resolution and, only needs to be supplied with "Sedna" or "Eris". {{mpl}} doesn't, and needs a full article title. I've changed the two uses of mpl to dp in the hope that this compromise will suit everyone. The article text describes them as "likely dwarf planets". Certes (talk) 14:34, 11 November 2020 (UTC)

Template:Infobox country

In Korea under Japanese rule, |government_type= in {{infobox country}} expands to include [[Politics of Korea|Government]]. Unsurprisingly, Politics of Korea is a DAB page. More surprisingly, we have no article on Korean politics 1897-1945 (except this one itself, which covers 1910-1945). I've no idea what to do with this one beyond somehow disabling the expansion and link. Narky Blert (talk) 11:14, 11 November 2020 (UTC)

Fiddled per previous discussion. Certes (talk) 14:40, 11 November 2020 (UTC)

Template:Infobox American State Political Party

In Washington Progressive Party, {{Infobox American State Political Party}} generates a link to DAB page Politics of Washington; perhaps from the |state= parameter, because the template doesn't know about the ambiguity.

It might be worth checking how the template handles Georgia as well. Narky Blert (talk) 11:21, 11 November 2020 (UTC)

Fixed by implementing |politics_link= in the template and adding it to the article. I've amended similar articles which link to Politics of Washington (state). The Georgia articles link to US politics and there are no relevant New York articles. Certes (talk) 14:59, 11 November 2020 (UTC)

Template:Infobox country at games

In Refugee Olympic Team at the 2016 Summer Olympics, {{Infobox country at games}} autogenerates a link to DAB page Refugee Olympic Team at the Summer Olympics (piped under "overview"). I think it's doing it through |appearances=, but I can't work how to correct it. Narky Blert (talk) 10:56, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Raised at Template talk:Infobox country at games#Refugee Olympic Team. Certes (talk) 13:16, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Template:Middle East topic

In Religion in Oman, {{Middle East topic}} autogenerates a link to DAB page Religion in Palestine. (I do so love those "Area topic" templates.) Narky Blert (talk) 13:13, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Fixed with a new |PSlink= parameter. Certes (talk) 13:32, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Dragan Mladenović

Both UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying and UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying Group 9, in their Goalscoring sections, link to Dragan Mladenović (should be Dragan Mladenović (footballer)), not directly but through a template construction that I can't figure out, i.e. I can't find the sourcecode where this DABlink is actually created. Help would be appreciated!Lennart97 (talk) 15:29, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

Fixed in Module:Goalscorers/data/UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying. Certes (talk) 15:49, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

Thanks, @Certes:! Lennart97 (talk) 16:22, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

Template:Infobox Canada electoral district

In {{Infobox Canada electoral district}}, |prov-rep-link= doesn't work. See Richard Ames in Carleton-York. Narky Blert (talk) 09:15, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

The parameter was removed from the template in 2013. I've fixed the article but the parameter is still used in other articles, usually in a redundant way. Some of these would break if the template heeded the parameter, because it is holds other information (such as the party abbreviation) rather than the person article title. Another 1,000 or so infoboxes mention the parameter but give it no value. Pinging Arctic.gnome who may have more information. Certes (talk) 13:13, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

It's probably a leftover from the days when we didn't put piped links in templates. If the field isn't doing anything and isn't in the template documentation, there's no harm in leaving it on those 1000 pages. —Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs) 23:06, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for that. Job done then, I think. Certes (talk) 23:10, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

RFC - Make links to disambiguation pages orange by default

Those with an interest in disambiguation may be interested in the RFC - "Make links to disambiguation pages orange by default" at Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)#Make links to disambiguation pages orange by default.— Rod ^talk 17:04, 23 November 2020 (UTC)

Notification of bot for approval

Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Usernamekiran BOT 4 was submitted for a general authorisation to fix wikilinks to dab pages following page moves. There's already input from some associated with this project, but additional thoughts and eyes on the task would be appreciated. ProcrastinatingReader (talk) 13:37, 29 November 2020 (UTC)

Template:Infobox United States legislative district

The |residence= field in {{Infobox United States legislative district}} autocompletes by adding the name of the state. This is unhelpful in e.g. Florida's 105th House district, where Sweetwater, Florida is a DAB page. The link should be Sweetwater, Miami-Dade County, Florida, but the template won't accept either a pipe or a pseudopipe. It'd be possible to create Sweetwater, Miami-Dade County; but that would result in a non-standard display. Narky Blert (talk) 16:06, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

Setting |residence=Sweetwater, Miami-Dade County is not a bad solution, as it shows which Sweetwater the representative resides in. The parameter is not used elsewhere. It doesn't need a new redirect. I can't see a better way to fix it without adding parameters to the template. Certes (talk) 16:54, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

 Done Narky Blert (talk) 16:07, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Category:Starfire aircraft

Category:Starfire aircraft apparently contains a link to the dab page Starfire. How can this be fixed? Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 22:49, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

{{Aircat}} invokes Module:Is article to check that all but the last word of the category title (i.e. Starfire) matches an article. This one doesn't, so it goes in Category:Aircraft manufacture categories not using manufacture article title, which may be a "naughty list" suggesting that the Category:Starfire aircraft should be renamed to something like Category:Starfire Aviation aircraft. Checking whether a page is an article, or even whether it exists, records a spurious wikilink for the purposes of WhatLinksHere etc. (Starfire Aviation isn't an article either, but a redlink may be better than a link to a dab.) Certes (talk) 23:33, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

Template:Sclass-

In List of ship launches in 1988, {{Sclass-}} expands {{sclass-|Hendijan|support vessel}} to link to the DAB page support vessel; whereas according to Iranian support vessel Konarak the link should be to Auxiliary ship. Not for the first time, I've lost patience with this template's parameters, and invite someone else to have a go. Narky Blert (talk) 12:33, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

An optional fourth parameter allows us to disambiguate the ship type: {{sclass-|class name|ship type|format|qualifier}}. format would have to be left blank. However, that only lets us link to a title of the form "Support vessel (qualifier)", so we'd need a new redirect such as Support vessel (auxiliary ship). Certes (talk) 15:46, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

I've created redirects like that before, but they're seriously tacky when the only use is to stop a template making a mistake. Narky Blert (talk) 15:58, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

Yes, it does feel a bit like creating Apple (banana) → Banana just to appease a template which believes apples to be the only fruit. Certes (talk) 17:00, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

 Done, with pointed WP:ES's. Narky Blert (talk) 16:13, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Orange (banana) might be a more palatable example. Narky Blert (talk) 16:20, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

except that Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. Certes (talk) 23:40, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

Thomas Anstey Guthrie

Thomas Anstey Guthrie imports its infobox data from wikidata:Q3990574. That lists his |notable_works= as Vice Versa, which is a DAB page. It should be Vice Versa (novel). After a failed attempt to edit Q3990574, I gave up in disgust; I've had similar problems before, and have zero interest in learning how to edit that opaque and unforgiving interface. Narky Blert (talk) 07:00, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

I've struggled with this issue as well. Maybe it would be better to just replace the Wikidata-infobox with a regular infobox in such cases? Lennart97 (talk) 11:45, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

I've edited d:Q3990574 to fix its allegation that Guthrie achieved notability by writing our disambiguation page. Certes (talk) 15:34, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

Template:Infobox station

In Samrong BTS station, |line= in {{Infobox station}} autocompletes Yellow to Yellow Line, which is a DAB page. It should be Yellow Line (Bangkok), in whichever subtemplate it is hidden. Narky Blert (talk) 13:32, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

 Fixed I reverted the edit before yours, which moved the MRT Yellow Line from the MRT to the BTS. Certes (talk) 13:51, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

Bayshore station (Caltrain) has a similar issue: under 'former services', it links to 22nd Street station, should be 22nd Street station (Caltrain). Lennart97 (talk) 14:04, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

Sigh. An IP editor made intricate changes to several California stations without sources or edit summaries. It's probably a regular, as their first contributions were plausible changes to module documentation. I've left a note at WT:WikiProject Trains asking someone to confirm or revert the changes. Certes (talk) 23:01, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

Fixed by Pi.1415926535. Certes (talk) 23:38, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

DPLbot down

The DPLbot is down - I'm probably not the first to notice. But I can't quite figure out who currently maintains the bot - JaGa hasn't been active for a few weeks. R'n'B maybe? Lennart97 (talk) 21:08, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

User:DPL bot edited 40 minutes ago but dplbot Script Status shows that it isn't connecting to its database, so List of disambiguation pages with links etc. aren't working. Certes (talk) 21:42, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

@Lennart97: If the bot doesn't wake in a few hours, it may be worth leaving a message at User talk:DPL bot. I expect anyone capable of mending it watches that page. Certes (talk) 22:04, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

There is maintenance in progress on the Toolforge user database. Nothing anyone here can do about that until the sysadmins are finished with whatever they are doing. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 22:44, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

That clears it up. Thanks! Lennart97 (talk) 22:51, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

And ... we're back! --R'n'B (call me Russ) 02:29, 17 December 2020 (UTC)

List of Wikipedias

Here's another one that I can't fix: on List of Wikipedias#Detailed list, the Western Punjabi Wikipedia entry automatically links to Western Punjabi language through Template:WP7. It should just link to Punjabi language, but I don't see any options for disambiguation in the template. Lennart97 (talk) 22:32, 17 December 2020 (UTC)

 Fixed in {{WP7}}. Certes (talk) 23:12, 17 December 2020 (UTC)

József Horváth (footballer)

UEFA Euro 1976 qualifying Group 2 and UEFA Euro 1976 qualifying generate a link to the ambiguous redirect József Horváth (footballer) using an impenetrable piece of syntax I hadn't seen before - look in the Goalscorers sections. The link should be to József Horváth (footballer, born 1949). Enough to convince me to stop for the day. Narky Blert (talk) 13:59, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

 Fixed in Module:Goalscorers/data/UEFA Euro 1976 qualifying. Why on earth would anyone want to type in the goalscorer's name when you can simply write a program to generate it? Certes (talk) 14:40, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

Doncha just love boxed-up templates? Boardman, John in Epirus was a good 20 minutes worth. Narky Blert (talk) 20:43, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

Railway stations, again

In Bamberg station, {{s-line}} links to DAB page Lichtenfels, but |link1= doesn't work.

Sonneberg (Thür) Hauptbahnhof links to the same DAB page, by a means I'm unable to determine.

The correct link in both cases would be Lichtenfels station. Narky Blert (talk) 09:53, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

 Fixed in Template:RE-BY lines. Certes (talk) 11:07, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

United Airlines Flight 811

Could someone please check why United Airlines Flight 811 links to the disambiguation page Si? Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 18:31, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

Redirect Pan Am Flight 125 linked there due to extraneous text, which I've removed. Certes (talk) 18:35, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

Template:Lok Sabha succession box

In Manohar Tirkey, {{Lok Sabha succession box}} links to DAB page Alipurduars, and my attempts to pipe it to Alipurduars (Lok Sabha constituency) have yielded only unstylish results. Narky Blert (talk) 15:31, 27 December 2020 (UTC)

 Fixed in the article. Although called Alipurduars, it is the Lok Sabha constituency for Alipurduar. Certes (talk) 17:10, 27 December 2020 (UTC)

Wishlist results

The Community Wishlist Survey results are in. A suggestion to warn when linking to disambiguation pages finished in second place. A proposal to replace Dabfix was less popular. Certes (talk) 14:23, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

I have been told not to hold my breath for any action even if a suggestion does well in the comunity wishlist. Examples were given of items from the wishlist which gains lots of support, years ago, but that those with the technical skills to make it happen may have other priorities.— Rod ^talk 15:38, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

Canadian Masters

List of snooker players by number of ranking titles links to DAB page Canadian Masters; it should be to Canadian Masters (snooker). I suspect it's through |cm= in {{Snooker ranking title winners}} (that wasn't easy to find). Narky Blert (talk) 13:15, 2 January 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed in {{Snooker ranking title winners}}. Certes (talk) 13:39, 2 January 2021 (UTC)

DAB solver down

The DAB solver has been down for a few days already now. Since not even its homepage will load, I have no idea who is responsible for this tool, but I'm assuming there's someone here who knows! Lennart97 (talk) 13:44, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

@Lennart97: The link from Templates with disambiguation links use https:, which doesn't work, perhaps because the certificate relates to the domain rather than the IP address. Removing the s as in [7] does the trick. Certes (talk) 13:54, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

@Certes: Thanks! It's not just Templates, but all parts of the dplbot.toolforge that use https. Could this be updated? Lennart97 (talk) 14:00, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

Not easily. The owner of the host, domain and software hasn't edited for nine months, though we've chatted briefly on IRC. A replacement for Dabfix is on a wishlist, though, as noted above, we shouldn't hold our breath. Certes (talk) 14:11, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

That's a shame, but oh well, I'm happy to be able to use the solver again :) Lennart97 (talk) 14:16, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

Template:IN Assembly succession box

In Kartar Singh Tanwar, {{IN Assembly succession box}} expands Chhatarpur to Chhatarpur (Vidhan Sabha constituency), which is both ambiguous and unpiped. The correct link is Chhatarpur (Delhi Assembly constituency). Narky Blert (talk) 14:18, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed in the article. The display is still verbose, but that's a decision made in the template and consistent across all its uses. Certes (talk) 15:25, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

Leaderboard question

Could someone please help me understand why my 260+ edits on January 1 to fix disambiguation pages such as Midnight Star and Naval Intelligence Division are not included in January's leaderboard? Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 21:34, 2 January 2021 (UTC)

@GoingBatty: Are you certain all of the dablinks you fixed were created before Jan 1? Both Midnight Star and Naval Intelligence Division do not appear in January's monthly report, which they should have if there were multiple links to them at the moment January's report was generated, i.e. midnight on January 1. Lennart97 (talk) 13:41, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

@GoingBatty: It's as Lennart97 says: the leaderboard only takes note of links which existed at the beginning of the month. That's why the running leaderboard curves flatten as the month wears on, and why the DABfixers who firefight each day's new horrors rarely score well on it. Narky Blert (talk) 14:28, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

@Lennart97: They were on https://dplbot.toolforge.org/ch/dab_challenge.php or https://dplbot.toolforge.org/disambig_links.php at the time I made the edits in the early hours of January 1, but those change daily. Is Wikipedia:Disambiguation pages with links/January 2021 the stable report used for scoring (which appears was created on December 31)? Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 15:25, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

@GoingBatty: https://dplbot.toolforge.org/disambig_links.php is the general list, which includes all DABlinks, not just those part of the challenge; https://dplbot.toolforge.org/ch/dab_challenge.php and Wikipedia:Disambiguation pages with links/January 2021 only include links that are part of the challenge, but only show the top ~20 and top 1000, respectively. The full list is https://dplbot.toolforge.org/ch/monthly_list.php: all of the thousands of links on this list are part of the challenge. Lennart97 (talk) 15:31, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

To me, the number which matters most is the one in WP:TDD#Table 1 Column 1. If it's stable or falling, we're doing well. (Column 2 can be distorted by someone dumping a couple of thousand links on us, possibly by an unwise move or change of redirect target.) Narky Blert (talk) 16:01, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

Template:Infobox station, again

In Cranbourne East railway station, {{Infobox station}} calls DAB page Clyde railway station instead of Clyde railway station, Victoria. It look as if another editor may have tried to fix the problem using an unnamed parameter; I have no idea what's going on. Narky Blert (talk) 16:08, 4 January 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed in Module:Adjacent stations/Melbourne, and I've reverted the attempted fix. Certes (talk) 16:30, 4 January 2021 (UTC)

Portal:Rock music/Selected genres/11

Portal:Rock music/Selected genres/11 apparently has a link to heavy metal, but I can't find it there or in Glam metal. Could one of you please let me know what I'm missing? Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 23:28, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

@GoingBatty: Narky Blert explained it to me a while ago a few sections up, when I first encountered this issue and was equally confused :) (TLDR: Glam metal at some point contained a dablink which has already been fixed, but this change hasn't worked through yet into the portal page, which transcludes Glam metal; performing a null edit on the transcluding page makes this ghost-DABlink disappear.) Lennart97 (talk) 23:59, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

@Lennart97: Thanks! I tried purging the pages, but that didn't work. GoingBatty (talk) 00:25, 6 January 2021 (UTC)

North America topic

Yet another problem with one of these one size-fits-all templates. In Ecozones of Canada, {{North America topic}} expands "Canada" to Ecoregions of Canada, which is a DAB page. The link in the article should be circular, and therefore black bold. The only even partial solution I can see would be to turn the DAB page into an SIA; which would be thoroughly unsatisfactory, because one of the two entries is national and the other international. Narky Blert (talk) 13:52, 13 January 2021 (UTC)

Ecoregions of the United States redirects to a list, which isn't ideal either. The template tries to shoehorn in two related concepts – areas nominated by the nation and by the WWF – neither of which really have enough articles to support a navbox. The template documentation does advise Before implementing these templates in a topic, check for red links. I wonder if we should produce a custom navbox instead. Certes (talk) 15:58, 13 January 2021 (UTC)

Template:Infobox political party

In Democratic Party of Georgia, {{Infobox political party}} fails to distinguish between the country and the US state, twice; and the bluelink to List of political parties in Georgia is "inappropriate". Narky Blert (talk) 16:39, 13 January 2021 (UTC)

This one was actually quite simple: I changed |country=Georgia to |state=Georgia (U.S. state). Lennart97 (talk) 16:46, 13 January 2021 (UTC)

Template:Kansas House of Representatives

Can anyone work out what is going on with Template:Kansas House of Representatives? Several dab links to people included on the template were fixed several days ago and yet it still occurs over 100 times on Articles With Multiple Dablinks. I have tried opening the collasped template on each article & tried (unsuccesfully) to do a null edit to purge the cache. Ideas welcome.— Rod ^talk 09:23, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@Rodw: It's the same issue as usual, they're not really there; however, you have to null edit the pages that transclude the template, not the template itself. So if you were to purge all the Kansas politician pages that are currently said to link to the DAB pages, all the dablinks would disappear. In this case it might be easier to just wait it out and let them disappear on their own. Lennart97 (talk) 10:39, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Fransérgio

2017–18 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim season links to DAB page Fransérgio. The link should be to Fransérgio Barbosa. It's hidden at 2017–18 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim season#Group stage, in a 2nd- or 3rd-level subtemplate of {{Bundesliga matches}}. Having wasted 10 minutes getting that far, my patience ran out. Narky Blert (talk) 12:05, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

It's certainly somewhere in the Module: space, but I can't find the particular module. Very curious to see which one it is when Certes inevitably solves this one :) Lennart97 (talk) 12:53, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed. No module behind this one, just template {{2017–18 Bundesliga matches}}. Certes (talk) 13:04, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Germany national ice hockey team

Can anyone find the DABlink to Germany national ice hockey team in 2020 Deutschland Cup? It doesn't show orange in view mode, and a search for "ger" in edit mode turned up nothing obvious. A WP:NULLEDIT didn't clear the link-in. Narky Blert (talk) 10:51, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

In the infobox is a link (under final positions, runner up) to Germany is to Germany men's national ice hockey team. The Template:Infobox international hockey competition seems to automatically link to the country's national team if you look at the example (Sweeden).— Rod ^talk 11:36, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed. The flag beside the top scorer in the infobox used {{Ihicon}}, which doesn't know about the "men's" qualifier. This will be a growing problem as more and more Narnia Sportsball titles become dabs rather than articles. I've replaced it by a simple country flag as used in the 2019 event. Certes (talk) 12:17, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

Government of Taiwan

In Government of China, {{Asia topic}} calls DAB page Government of Taiwan. It looks superficially as if the problem could be solved by replacing "Taiwan" with "Republic of China" in the template, but I'm nervous of unintended consequences. Narky Blert (talk) 15:02, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed with |TW=Government of the Republic of China. Certes (talk) 15:09, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

May/June 1976

On May 1976, template:Calendar links to June 1976, while it should link to June 1976 (month). I've tried fixing that using the template's parameters, but either those don't work, or I'm doing it wrong. Lennart97 (talk) 12:46, 16 January 2021 (UTC)

Needs an enhancement to {{Calendar/month/link on}} similar to that for September 1913. It's a widely used template, and there may be similar cases, so I'll consult before changing it. Certes (talk) 14:44, 16 January 2021 (UTC)

The Red Wheel sprang to mind, but the two articles we have on the novels have qualified titles (and all four months are now hatnoted). Narky Blert (talk) 06:21, 19 January 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed by boldly creating {{Calendar/month/link on/article}}. Five other months have redirects but go to their own base name (or its target) so are not a problem, e.g. October 1970 (month). Certes (talk) 12:54, 19 January 2021 (UTC)

Another autocompleting template

In Theophilus Jones (soldier), |parliament3= in {{Infobox MP}} expands "Irish" to Irish parliament; which to no-one's surprise is a DAB page. The link should be to Parliament of Ireland. Narky Blert (talk) 15:27, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed by copying your own cunning trick. Certes (talk) 17:40, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

Buried in a template

The infobox in Kulmbach station calls the DAB page Lichtenfels. The link should be to Lichtenfels station. Narky Blert (talk) 08:45, 26 January 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed in {{RE-BY lines}}. Certes (talk) 11:47, 26 January 2021 (UTC)

Templates WIint & Jcttop

On Wisconsin Highway 150 there are links to Winchester and Clayton which should be Winchester, Winnebago County, Wisconsin and Clayton, Winnebago County, Wisconsin. The links are burried in Template:WIint where I can't see anything to edit, within Template:Jcttop. I have tried using "|ctdab=" but doesn't seem to work when there is both a county and state - I have given up.— Rod ^talk 12:03, 26 January 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed. Apparently it just needs the county name, and location= avoids the "Town of" nonsense. Certes (talk) 12:19, 26 January 2021 (UTC)

The 5 Search

Somehow, The 5 Search links to The 6, which redirects to DAB page The Six. I've gone over every mention of the number 6 in the article and I cannot find the link. Lennart97 (talk) 16:09, 22 January 2021 (UTC)

The getNextSeasonArticle function in Module:Infobox television season name attempts to find a following season by incrementing the number (and dropping trailing text, for some reason). It thus looks for a sequel called The 6, which happens to redirect to a dab with no relevant entry. I don't see any easy way to get rid of the link. Certes (talk) 17:29, 22 January 2021 (UTC)

Try banging at de wiki-door of the creator of the module. I am pretty sure this mistake will appear in more articles. The Banner talk 19:40, 22 January 2021 (UTC)

I'll ping Gonnym in case the creator has any helpful ideas. Certes (talk) 16:54, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for the ping, fixed the regex that caused that. However, no code can be bulletproof editors not wanting to follow simple template documentation. The 5 Search is a series-level article, which should use {{Infobox television}}, but instead uses {{Infobox television season}}. Unexpected behavior can certainly happen in cases like that. --Gonnym (talk) 00:06, 27 January 2021 (UTC)

Template:Infobox attraction - a DABfixing tip

I've come across this particular problem with this template before. {{Infobox attraction}} automatically wikilinks |manufacturer=; which can produce some remarkably silly results, e.g. various. The trick is to use |manufacturers= instead. See Pirates of the Caribbean (attraction) for an example. Narky Blert (talk) 04:29, 27 January 2021 (UTC)

Is Tank farm a dab page?

Could someone take a look at Tank farm - is it/should it be a dab page?— Rod ^talk 12:19, 27 January 2021 (UTC)

It's a standard (but low quality) single-topic article with a stray dab tag. This version, from before 2020's three IP edits, looks better. Certes (talk) 12:33, 27 January 2021 (UTC)

I agree. I have restored it to the disambiguation version. Lennart97 (talk) 14:26, 27 January 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject Bluelink patrol

Members of and visitors to this WikiProject are invited to comment on and to contribute to a new WikiProject - Wikipedia:WikiProject Bluelink patrol. The founders think that it complements but in no way infringes on any existing WikiProject - and also, that we cannot have got everything right. Narky Blert (talk) 22:02, 27 January 2021 (UTC)

List of crossings of the River Wear

I can't find the link to New Bridge on this page. There are no templates or other structures it could be hiding in. Where is it? Lennart97 (talk) 14:07, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

If you go into edit mode there is a link to a wikidata item Q99776242 but that is the only thing I can find.— Rod ^talk 14:26, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

The article uses {{Wikidata fallback link}} which invokes #ifexist: on the Wikidata item's title and/or label. That's enough to record a wikilink. Having determined that the Wikidata item has no Wikipedia article, the template's logic is "if a page of that name exists, it must be irrelevant so keep the title black, otherwise link in red to encourage creation". That's hard to do without recording a link, other than by using {{Linkless exists}} which has disadvantages. Certes (talk) 15:53, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

Thanks, that clears it up. Oh well, as long as there's no clickable DABlink, it's not really a problem I suppose. Lennart97 (talk) 16:09, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

I do think this is a problem. As long as it shows up somewhere as a live dab link, people will be wasting time trying to fix it and running into the same wall. I have more-or-less fixed it by creating a redirect where a hypothetical article would go and making Wikidata reference that rather than the dab page. BD2412 T 14:58, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

An issue with a highway link

In List of U.S. Routes in Washington#Special routes, the very first entry in the table, which currently links to U.S. Route 10 Alternate (Washington), should link to U.S. Route 10 Alternate (Washington-Montana). There's a |dab= tag, but I can't use it to link correctly as ", Washington" is automatically added to the end of the link. Is there a way to fix this? Lennart97 (talk) 14:32, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed by editing Module:Road data/strings/USA/WA to implement a new |type=US-Alt-plain for {{Routelist row}} in Washington, and deploying it in List of U.S. Routes in Washington#Special routes. Certes (talk) 15:53, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

Thanks! Lennart97 (talk) 16:12, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

Intentional DABlink registered as needing fixing

Another one, but different. Iron (metaphor) links to Iron Lady (disambiguation), intentionally and explicitly, as it should. For some reason, the monthly list still registers it as a DABlink needing fixing. Why could this be? Lennart97 (talk) 16:18, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

That link is correct but it also used to have a link to The Iron Lady which you fixed on 5 January, after the list was created. Certes (talk) 16:26, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

Whoops, that would have been good to mention but I completely forgot about it. Still, I would have expected for the page to disappear from the list anyway after fixing the erroneous link. If it doesn't re-appear on next month's list there's really no problem though. Lennart97 (talk) 16:47, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

National highways

There's a set of redirects, with many incoming links, titled "National Highway xxx" (e.g. National Highway 44), which are mostly redirects to pages in Category:Lists of roads sharing the same title. These are disambiguation pages in all but name, and need attention. Is there some way they could be added to this list of disambig pages with links? Colonies Chris (talk) 23:47, 27 January 2021 (UTC)

Good spot. I didn't like Route 44 much either - it had two links to U.S. Route 44 and one to R44 (South Africa) (which wasn't even on the list page(!)). The icon for the latter is buried in a template and I'm not going to go looking for it. There's a whole heap of other redirects which have no incoming links.

At first sight, it looks to me as if all such redirects should be turned into DAB pages with a see-also to the relevant list. They could be grouped to avoid multiplication; perhaps as Category:Letter-number combination disambiguation pages. For example, SR44 (currently a redirect to Button cell) could be at the basename, and State Route 44, SR 44 and SR-44 redirect to it. Compare A44, which is a DAB page. Narky Blert (talk) 07:09, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

To further complicate this issue, a lot of the "National Highway xxx" links actually intend to refer to a highway in India (e.g. National Highway 44 (India)), BUT all the Indian National Highways were renumbered in 2010 (see List of National Highways in India by old highway number), and Wikipedia articles have not been systematically updated to match that. So it's not sufficient just to resolve the disambiguation by adding a suffix (India); the highway number may need to be updated in the article; this is a non-trivial task as there's often no exact mapping between old and new numbers. Colonies Chris (talk) 10:44, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

Certainly non-trivial; I've been faced with problems like that more than once, and they aren't easy. Additional qualification may be the best solution, as with e.g. Interstate 105. Narky Blert (talk) 12:09, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

There are some links that have been qualified in that way e.g. National Highway 10 (India, old numbering). But links without that qualification might be numbered according to the new pattern, or they might never have been updated since the reorganisation. Colonies Chris (talk) 12:35, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

Even that qualifier is problematic - who says there won't be another renumbering some time in the future? IMO, (India, until 2010) would be better. WP:CANOFWORMS, but it needs fixing. Narky Blert (talk) 17:41, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

I suspect there's a mini-project just cleaning up unambiguously wrong links like this. Certes (talk) 16:15, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

I've checked 1–100. I was surprised to find only nine errors, all linked directly to the lists. I had expected links to Route 123 etc. by editors who carelessly assumed the world to have only one such road, but instead found explicit links such as [[List of highways numbered 123|Route 123]]. Certes (talk) 16:58, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

Another railway template-related link

At Huaihua South railway station, in the adjacent stations template, the next station should link to Zhijiang railway station (Hunan), not to Zhijiang railway station. Lennart97 (talk) 08:28, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed in the article and Module:Adjacent stations/China Railway High-speed. Certes (talk) 12:56, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

Issue with a redirect

The redirect 2020-21 Georgia US Senate runoff, while redirecting to 2020–21 United States Senate runoff in Georgia as it should, somehow contains a link to 2020–21 Georgia US Senate runoff (endash instead of hyphen), another redirect. I thought I had fixed it with this edit, but the link still appears in Special:Whatlinkshere/2020–21 United States Senate runoff in Georgia. As this link is in mainspace, it's preventing the runoffs DAB page to move from this month's "To do" to "Done". Can anyone figure out what causes this link? Lennart97 (talk) 16:07, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

It's the text This redirect is a modification of: 2020–21 United States Senate runoff in Georgia. caused by placing a link (via {{-r}}) within {{R from modification}}. Using simple text rather than -r would solve the problem at the cost of making the wikilink unavailable in the redirect's reason box. Certes (talk) 17:58, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

But the link contained in that text is 2020–21 United States Senate runoff in Georgia, not 2020–21 Georgia US Senate runoff. Per WhatLinkshere, the page somehow links to the latter. Lennart97 (talk) 19:21, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

Sorry, I misread; you're quite right. The link is caused by template User:AnomieBOT/Auto-G8, which does an #ifexist: check on its argument. Certes (talk) 19:51, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

I see, thanks! I'm not quite sure why this particular redirect has that template, and the others don't. It's not particularly necessary, right? Lennart97 (talk) 21:15, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

I'm also not quite sure but I think the idea is that if 2020–21 Georgia US Senate runoff (dash) gets deleted, 2020-21 Georgia US Senate runoff (hyphen) automatically gets a G8 tag because the latter's only purpose is as an alternative punctuation of the former, a case of {{R avoided double redirect}}. Certes (talk) 23:38, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

Alright, I suppose that makes sense. As I see no plausible reason why either redirect would ever be deleted, I'll remove the template. Lennart97 (talk) 12:04, 7 February 2021 (UTC)

@R'n'B: I'm not sure how your daily update of the monthly to do list works, but I assume it's automated in some way. Do you know why 2020–21 United States Senate runoff in Georgia is still listed as 'to do', while there really are no links to it now in mainspace? The same goes for Congo, by the way; nothing links there, but it's still under 'to do'. Lennart97 (talk) 15:21, 7 February 2021 (UTC)

• There can be false positives. If you look at Special:Whatlinkshere/Congo, for example, you'll see the first item listed is a redirect from Kongo, which shows an incoming (transclusion) link from Congo. The transclusion is generated by the {{redirect}} template on the Congo disambiguation page. This gets counted by my script as an incoming link, even though it isn't a real link. The Georgia Senate page seems to have several of these false links. You can manually move these to 'Done' if you want. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 16:00, 7 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks! I might do so. Will your script not move them back as "still has links to fix" next update? Lennart97 (talk) 16:07, 7 February 2021 (UTC)

No, there have to be at least 10 incoming links before it will move a page back. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 16:31, 7 February 2021 (UTC)

Good to know! Lennart97 (talk) 17:16, 7 February 2021 (UTC)

I presume you are discussing the list at Wikipedia:Disambiguation pages with links/February 2021 (which I don't normally look at) which is manually updated but if you look at the monthly dab challenge list which is automatically updated by the bot Congo has already disapeared.— Rod ^talk 17:03, 7 February 2021 (UTC)

I know! I was specifically talking about the former, which is indeed manually updated but also by R'n'B's script roughly every day. Lennart97 (talk) 17:16, 7 February 2021 (UTC)

Template:BRC

British Rail Class 59 contains a link to British Rail Class 70 (should be British Rail Class 70 (diesel)) through Template:BRC, which doesn't seem to have a dab parameter. This particular link is easily solved by simply not using the template, but it would be even better to give the template a dab parameter. Lennart97 (talk) 15:58, 9 February 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed in article and Template:BRC by adding |dab=diesel. Certes (talk) 19:03, 9 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks! Lennart97 (talk) 19:16, 9 February 2021 (UTC)

Kempten station

A subtemplate in {{Infobox station}} in Oberstdorf station and 7 other articles is calling the ambiguous redirect Kempten station. It should link to Kempten (Allgäu) Hauptbahnhof. Narky Blert (talk) 15:22, 14 February 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed in Template:RE-BY lines, though there is a risk of reversion as I have removed a use of {{stn}}. Certes (talk) 16:54, 14 February 2021 (UTC)

Bot needed

After a recent WP:RM, Cooperative gameplay needs retargetting from few hundred/thousand articles from the Cooperative game disambig to Cooperative video game. This is the usage in what seems to be 99% remaining cases. Even if the bot makes a few errors, those can be fixed on a case by case basis later. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 10:55, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

I fixed the templates yesterday, which will have mended many links, but 591 direct links via redirect Cooperative gameplay remain. The bot which performs this task has just had its approval withdrawn. (Perhaps we could invite those who did so to fix the links?) Certes (talk) 11:09, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

Certes, Since Cooperative gameplay doesn't refer just to video games, retargetting is a bad solution. This seems like a prime task for a bot, and a waste of time for a human being to manually retarget this. But I can volunteer to check the resulting 591 links to see if there are a few that need pointing back to board games or the game theory articles. _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 11:23, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

Yes, articles such as Pandemic (board game) should link to Cooperative board game. Others may need a link to Cooperative game theory. I'm not sure what we do with cases such as Gameplay which refer to the broad concept of cooperative gameplay across computer, board and other forms such as the escape room or Hanabi (card game). Certes (talk) 11:33, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

Certes, Well, Hanabi is a board game (card games are a subtype of board games). Ecape room is tougher. Probably link to Cooperation? _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 12:54, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

Template:Jct strikes again

Template:jct has a problem with Interstate 87: if it's told |state= Quebec, the link defaults to the DAB page. Affected articles - Quebec Autoroute 10, Quebec Autoroute 20, Quebec Autoroute 30, Quebec Autoroute 930 and State Route 314 (New York–Vermont). Typical syntax, from the last of those articles, {{jct|state=QC|I|87|A|15|to2=yes|location1=[[Montreal]]|location2=[[Albany, NY|Albany]]}}. Narky Blert (talk) 11:05, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed in articles and Module:Road data/strings/CAN/QC. In {{Jct}}, some route types have an optional "xx-" prefix to specify a state or province different from the junction's location. New York already allowed QC-A for Quebec autoroutes. I've added NY-I to the Quebec module. Certes (talk) 12:04, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

I just love undocumented features. Narky Blert (talk) 20:18, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

Another railway station, of course

The infobox of Elk River station links to Ramsey railway station whereas it should link to Ramsey station (Metro Transit). It does so at 'former services'. What confuses me is that under '[current] services' the link is fixed with a |link2= parameter, but this fix doesn't work for 'former services', even though it uses the very same Template:Adjacent stations. I must be missing something. Lennart97 (talk) 14:08, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed in Module:Adjacent stations/Great Northern Railway, though adding |link2=Ramsey station (Metro Transit) to the second {{Adjacent stations}} worked for me too (in preview, at least). Certes (talk) 14:29, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

Very strange, I triple-checked... but it doesn't matter now, thanks! Lennart97 (talk) 14:37, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

Template:Adjacent stations

In Juyongguan railway station and Nankou railway station, {{Adjacent stations}} links to DAB page Dongyuan railway station instead of Dongyuan railway station (Beijing). Narky Blert (talk) 14:38, 17 February 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed in Template:CR stations for Juyongguan and in Module:Adjacent stations/China Railway for Nankou. (They use different methods.) Certes (talk) 16:30, 17 February 2021 (UTC)

'Hidden' disambiguations

I've come across a couple of widely used links to articles that aren't strictly speaking dab pages, but which contain more specific sublinks; the original links could be tightened to go there directly.

• Member of the Legislative Assembly (or equivalently Member of Legislative Assembly, a redirect). Most of these should go directly to Member of the Legislative Assembly (India) or Member of the Legislative Assembly (Northern Ireland). There are also quite a lot for Canadian provincial parliaments, which don't have a clear link they should go to, except possibly for Ontario (Member of Provincial Parliament (Canada)). Perhaps there should be new redirects along the lines of Member of the Legislative Assembly (Saskatchewan), which would forward to either Member of the Legislative Assembly#Canada or Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan. What do other editors think?
• Member of Parliament. Most of these should go directly to Member of parliament, Lok Sabha or Member of parliament, Rajya Sabha or Member of Parliament (United Kingdom). Colonies Chris (talk) 15:02, 27 February 2021 (UTC)

  Yes, it's a problem. I've worked on a number of similar non-dabs and am currently helping to finish off Ministry of Defence (120 links for UK MoD, 120 US DoD, 100 others). This task may fall within WikiProject Bluelink patrol. Certes (talk) 15:31, 27 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks. I'll raise it on that page too. Colonies Chris (talk) 18:43, 27 February 2021 (UTC)

Another example is Leader of the Opposition. I fixed the incoming links I could fairly recently. Most referred to Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposition (Australia), and Leader of the Official Opposition (Canada), and some to the various Indian assemblies.—ShelfSkewed Talk 20:06, 27 February 2021 (UTC)

We should probably start generating a stable list of articles that share this issue (i.e., should exist as an article and will have some legitimate incoming links, but will also have many links that should be made more refined). Ideally this list will indicate the total number of incoming links (which can be bot-generated) and the number of incoming links known to be "good" links, so we can keep the number of "bad" links as low as reasonable possible at any given time. BD2412 T 20:23, 27 February 2021 (UTC)

Are we looking for set indices (broadly construed) where the title (or a redirect to it) is a term likely to mean one or other of the topics listed rather than the list as a whole? There are many examples; a few example groups are:

• Surnames (Schoenberg is usually Arnold Schoenberg, Paintal is invariably Paintal (comedian), ...) and other names such as Theogenes
• Lists of places sharing the same name such as First Lake
• Molecular formula set index pages such as C₂H₂
• Lists of roads sharing the same title such as Ronald Reagan Highway
• Set indices on storms such as Tropical Storm Abby
• several other subcats of Set indices

and not forgetting the useful but very incomplete All set index articles with links needing disambiguation. Certes (talk) 22:41, 27 February 2021 (UTC)

Frankly, I think that we are also looking for terms for which there is a clear primary topic (or at least a determination to this effect), but which are susceptible to incorrect links, such as Apple, Mouse, and Train. BD2412 T 23:24, 27 February 2021 (UTC)

Here are the 400 or so I check daily. (Numbers and letters is mainly for a different purpose but does catch a few mislinks for C (programming language) etc.) Some of the others that I've checked in the past but don't actively monitor are here. My main current activity is going through lists like this. That example is works of art having qualified titles beginning with F where the base name describes a different topic, e.g. the 70 articles which linked to Faust but referred to Faust (opera) or Goethe's Faust. Others are doing similar work: compiling and working through that list is basically what WP:BPAT does, and any help would be very welcome. Certes (talk) 00:25, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

How would you feel about making your monitoring page a project-space page? BD2412 T 00:52, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

I'd be very happy to do that, though until last month we had no relevant project. I should probably split User:Certes/misdirected links, leaving the top half as an essay and a integrating the rest into the proposed list. As for User:Certes/Backlinks, it's efficient to have each article/title allocated to one person, though I'd be happy to split my list and have someone take part of it on. (I might revise my comment about Numbers and letters: I caught an M → M-segment and a W → Watt today along with the perennial C → C (programming language) and overlinked numbers.) Certes (talk) 12:15, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

@BD2412: Apple is already on my Backlinks list. I checked Mouse/mouse and unlinked some that refer to a music producer, and changed others to computer mouse. I also changed one Train to Train (band). GoingBatty (talk) 01:41, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

I think we need a steady list of links to check when new links are added. BD2412 T 01:48, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

There will be thousands of them. BPAT has a list of recently completed investigations and a short archive but the work predates BPAT and I'm sure many editors continue to do good work without being aware of the project (or having decided to work independently). It's almost worth categorising them, if we can find a suitable euphemism for Category:Articles whose titles should hold dabs. Although there's more than one dimension to measure, subcategories are on a scale from "Links to here are always wrong" (I'm looking at you, Pirandello) through "check the topic" (links to East London are usually wrong if the article mentions South Africa but not England/London/UK) via "link not actually wrong but capable of improvement" such as Ministry of Defence down to obscure cases where we once found a single error and felt that the time to check again would be better spent elsewhere. Certes (talk) 10:44, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

@Certes: Maybe add a hidden category to the various hatnote templates? GoingBatty (talk) 15:05, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

That's an interesting idea. Everything with an {{other uses}} or similar has potentially bad links but they're too numerous to check and (I hope) most have no problems in practice. I'd therefore assumed that we would continue to curate the list(s) manually. I'm also going off the idea of categories because it is really titles (and redirects) rather than articles that are the problem. In the very unlikely event that we moved Apple → Apple (fruit) and Apple Inc. → Apple, the problem would still be with links to the title "Apple", not to the moved fruit article. Certes (talk) 15:26, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

• Set indices on Russia is a particular bugbear of mine. I don't think I've looked at any of those which didn't have at least one ambiguous link. Other countries geographically-challenged for placenames, notably Iran and Poland, make do perfectly well with {{geodis}} pages. It would probably need a WP:RfC to get rid of those SIAs; but in my opinion the community's judgment on PTOPIC/DAB issues can be very poor. I remember the final battle in the New York Wars, in which there were kilobytes of heated arguments that either the city or the state is PTOPIC - which to me is compelling evidence that neither is. See also Apple and Commonwealth (turn into DAB declined; by my count in the latter discussion, only 17 of about 750 links were pointing to the best target), and Madonna and Reading (PTOPIC declared; those two pages now have to be continually monitored for new bad links). Many !voters are only too happy to rely on the unstinting efforts of Somebody "Notme" Else.

WP:WikiProject Bluelink patrol/Archive was set up in rough-and-ready fashion to get the WikiProject started. It can doubtless be improved, perhaps by splitting. The goal is always to minimise duplication of effort. There's a wide range between "don't bother looking at this page, I check it daily" and "come back next decade, by which time a few more bad links may have accumulated". Narky Blert (talk) 15:30, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

Template:Val & watts v watt

On various radio station infoboxes Template:Val is used for power & when the unit "ul=" is "watts" it links to the dab page Watts. Is it possible to make this link to Watt?— Rod ^talk 16:28, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed. The only use of Val in radio articles was added by one editor over the last day or so. Certes (talk) 18:47, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

KILT (AM) fixed too. Courtesy ping: KD5TVI. Certes (talk) 22:50, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

Template:Chongqing Rail Transit Station

Another station template I can't get my head around. Template:Chongqing Rail Transit Station uses Template:CRTs which calls Template:Station link but trying to sort the link to International Expo Center station & make it find International Expo Center station (Chongqing Rail Transit) is beyond me.— Rod ^talk 12:01, 26 February 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed in Module:Adjacent stations/Chongqing Rail Transit. Certes (talk) 12:15, 26 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks it is fixed on Template:Chongqing Rail Transit Station but not on Template:CRT Line 6. Is it the same issue?— Rod ^talk 08:23, 27 February 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed in Template:CRT Line 6. That one was written differently, using {{BSsrws}} when it needed to use {{BSsplit}} (or – whisper it quietly – a simple wikilink). Other problems fixed in Template:NCM stations (to mend Line 2 (Nanchang Metro)) and The EXPO Garden Center station. Certes (talk) 13:05, 27 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks - yes wisper very quietly. When I have (inadvertantly) fixed a dab link to a station, using DisamAssist, with a simple wikilink, I have received "feedback" messages or edit summaries saying "no need to stop the stn" or similar.— Rod ^talk 12:36, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

A couple of years ago, I applied a {{dn}} tag to a railway station infobox; it wasn't a case for WT:DPL, because I couldn't work out the answer. I got a message on my TP, chiding me for messing up the formatting, thus making the page look ugly, and informing me that there was no need for the tag, because a railway specialist would assuredly fix any such problem without prompting within a day or two at most.

Imagine my wry amusement not ten days later when I encountered a similar problem (which as it happened I was able to fix) - and noticed who had been the immediately preceding editor, some two months earlier... Narky Blert (talk) 23:00, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

Famine in Sudan

At Global Hunger Index#Country rankings, Template:GHI generates a link to Famine in Sudan, a disambiguation page. I don't know how it does this, or how to change the link target. I'm also not completely sure what the link target should be, but I think an intentional dablink to Famine in Sudan (disambiguation) is the best solution, as two out of three entries on the dab page are relevant to Sudan and it's not really a problem that the third one isn't. Lennart97 (talk) 15:42, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

Another possibility would be to turn Famine in Sudan into a WP:BCA. Compare e.g. Famines in Ethiopia. Narky Blert (talk) 19:58, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

That would essentially mean merging both of the separate famine articles into Famine in Sudan, right? That certainly makes sense, as they're both very short, especially the 1993 one. Lennart97 (talk) 20:09, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

Not necessarily. A BCA could be an overview of the subject with links to the main articles, and also to other articles about famines in northeast Africa; which are, regrettably, not uncommon, though the ones in Ethiopia are the best-known in the West.

(I remember the Live Aid concert on TV in 1985. The Boomtown Rats did one of the first sets, with Bob Geldof obviously running on nothing but adrenaline and fumes, his voice almost gone (he'd been the driving force behind the whole thing, Lord knows how much sleep he'd had the preceding week) - and this fading 2nd-rank band totally nailed a 20-minute set in front of 72,000 people (you can find clips on YouTube). British Telecom phone lines were literally jammed solid for two-plus hours by people phoning in donations.) Narky Blert (talk) 22:40, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

• Definitely ripe for a BCA. This is not a Transport in Georgia situation where there are two different places called Georgia. These are two different instances of a phenomenon. BD2412 T 23:02, 2 March 2021 (UTC)
• Moving to a BCA would certainly solve the immediate technical problem, at the risk of attracting vague links such as He survived the famine in Sudan. However, the page does list distinct events. It's not a Transport in Georgia, but it may be a Siege of Vienna or an Athens Olympics. Certes (talk) 23:26, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

Conscious disambiguation triggers bot?

Hi, I am ever-learning here. Feeling good, mostly. Yesterday as part of some edits I added a specific link, which is also pointed to by a disambiguation page.

But looking at the disambiguation page, I saw it had relatively few out links, and multiple others were relevant to what I wanted, so ... the following is what I wrote, although below I disable endfootnote template (see Carl Jung) Archetypal images, also referred to as motifs in mythology ((efn-la|Also see general disambiguation of 'motif', covering visual arts, narrative, etcetera)), are universal symbols

I have found WP:HOWTODAB but is there another way? I am merely asking if it's technically possible. I would prefer the text the particular readable form as I wrote, which included the word but not parentheses, before even knowing this was a guideline/rule. I will rewrite it anyway with (disambiguation). Perhaps something exists like [ [:disamb:Motif#General%20concepts|general disambiguation of 'motif' ] ]... just curious. Tomacpace (talk) 07:21, 20 March 2021 (UTC)

@Tomacpace: I think you've done the best you can there. WP:INTDAB also has good advice, which you've already followed. Most links to Motif are errors, and catching them requires the small overhead of marking links like yours as good. Certes (talk) 13:50, 20 March 2021 (UTC)

Thanks, there is a lot of detail, and some days it's hard to find, some days it works and is easy. Appreciate your review and comments.Tomacpace (talk) 14:29, 20 March 2021 (UTC)

@Tomacpace: I add the (disambiguation) qualifier to about ten links a day. 99% are for technical reasons, in hatnotes and see-alsos. In the rare cases where such a link is desirable in main text, your edit here is exactly the way to do it. If it isn't clear from the text that the link is deliberate rather than lazy (and it is clear here), I'll add <!--intentional link to DAB page-->. Narky Blert (talk) 06:57, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

@Narky Blert: It is probably just me having impatience, sometimes. But it seems half the time after working something for a while, as soon as I become frustrated and ask, I figure it out a minute later, almost like it's meant to be. Thank you kindly for the explicit confirmation and more detail, very helpful. Tomacpace (talk) 07:13, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

Template:Officeholder table

In List of presidents of Germany, {{Officeholder table}} calls the DAB page None, and thee seems no obvious way to stop it (nowiki doesn't work). Narky Blert (talk) 14:37, 30 March 2021 (UTC)

That table treats everything except "?" as a link. Something like Independent could work (copy from Gauck below), but was Karl Dönitz still representing the Nazi party? If so then just copy from Hitler above. Certes (talk) 14:54, 30 March 2021 (UTC)

That seems the simplest solution, and I've done it. Compare the infobox in Flensburg Government; the Nazi Party wasn't formally dissolved until 10 October 1945, well after the relevant date of 23 May 1945. Narky Blert (talk) 15:20, 30 March 2021 (UTC)

Another railway template

In Changle East railway station, {{Adjacent stations}} calls DAB page Changle railway station with no obvious way to disambiguate to Changle railway station (Fujian). The same problem will occur in Fuzhou railway station if someone gets around to adding the template to that. Narky Blert (talk) 10:31, 1 April 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed in Module:Adjacent stations/China Railway High-speed. Certes (talk) 10:58, 1 April 2021 (UTC)

Template:mms

I am having trouble working out how to disambiguate links using Template:MOSMETRO stations.

• On Template:Lyublinsko–Dmitrovskaya line RDT there is a link to Maryina Roshcha which should be Maryina Roshcha (Lyublinsko–Dmitrovskaya line)
• On Template:Moscow Central Circle RDT there is a link to ZIL which should be ZIL (Moscow Central Circle)

I have fiddled about for ages trying to fix them but with no documentation I'm struggling. Can anyone help?— Rod ^talk 07:58, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

"Maryina Roshcha" here is a code rather than a station name, though the station name is identical to the code. Looking at the code of Template:MOSMETRO stations, the code has changed to "Maryina Roshcha10" to accommodate a new station on line 11 with a similar name. Similarly, ZIL becomes ZIL14. (The second parameter is unused.) In general, {{mms}} disambiguates stations by appending the line number as a suffix. (I'm not sure what to do if an ambiguous station is on multiple lines.) There is some unofficial documentation of station templates in general at WP:Disambiguation pages with links/Guide#Railway stations but it doesn't cover local variations such as mms. Certes (talk) 10:29, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

2021 Liga 1

A transclusion in 2020 Liga 2 (Indonesia)#West region is calling redirect-to-DAB 2021 Liga 1 rather than 2021 Liga 1 (Indonesia). Narky Blert (talk) 14:20, 8 April 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed with an extra initial parameter to {{Season link}}. Certes (talk) 23:50, 8 April 2021 (UTC)

Railways, again

A template in an infobox in Kuntsevskaya (Arbatsko–Pokrovskaya and Filyovskaya lines) (under "Route Map") is calling three DAB pages - Kiyevskaya, Smolenskaya and Arbatskaya. In each case, the link needs the qualifier (Arbatsko–Pokrovskaya line), as in the upper part of the infobox. Narky Blert (talk) 13:21, 19 April 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed in Template:Filyovskaya line RDT. It's similar to #Template:mms above, though in this case I think they needed a 4 added to target Kiyevskaya (Filyovskaya line) etc. These templates have had a few changes recently; I fixed three others yesterday and there may be more lurking. Certes (talk) 17:15, 19 April 2021 (UTC)

Carl Lawson

Don Quarrie links to DAB page Carl Lawson instead of Carl Lawson (sprinter). I think the link may be in {{Footer Commonwealth Champions 4x100 m Men}} (title in the article - Commonwealth Games champions in men's 4 × 100 metres relay), but it's well-hidden: the contents of the template are different in the article from when it is viewed, and WP:NULLEDITs on both did nothing. Narky Blert (talk) 13:05, 26 April 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed in subtemplate {{Footer Commonwealth Champions 4x100 m Men/year}}. Certes (talk) 13:35, 26 April 2021 (UTC)

Smooth Radio

Smooth Radio is currently the dab with most incoming links, by some distance. However, the editor who moved Smooth Radio (2014) has been blocked, and reversion may be in order before anyone spends time fixing links. I've left a query on its talk page. Certes (talk) 00:48, 6 May 2021 (UTC)

Railway stations. Again

In Fuzhou railway station, {{Adjacent stations}} links to DAB page Doumen station instead of Doumen station (Fuzhou Metro). Not for the first time, there is no documented means of disambiguation. Narky Blert (talk) 15:38, 8 May 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed in Module:Adjacent stations/Fuzhou Metro. Certes (talk) 18:22, 8 May 2021 (UTC)

Template:GHI

{{GHI}} employs intricate features of template syntax. One feature it does not employ is an obvious way to link to DAB pages through the (disambiguation) qualifier; see the entry for Sudan in Global Hunger Index. Narky Blert (talk) 12:24, 13 May 2021 (UTC)

I can see several ways to fix this, none of them neat:

1. avoid the template here, perhaps by substing it and tweaking the output
2. hardcode an exception in {{GHI}}, which is currently generic
3. change {{GHI}} to handle dabs: good for multiple famines in a country but bad for ambiguous countries (and Famine in Sudan has a bit of each)

It is also tempting to add another exception to the list in {{Country Article}}, but that would break other uses. I'm surprised this problem doesn't occur more widely. Plenty of countries have had multiple famines, e.g. Irish famine (disambiguation), but that's not listed as Ireland had no recent shortages and the dab is not titled "Famine in ...". Certes (talk) 13:12, 13 May 2021 (UTC)

Another solution could be a WP:BCA. Serial famines often have similar causes.

(On a lighter note, I heard that in the 1950s someone put up signs around his land reading "Beware Of Scolytus", or suchlike. It deterred trespassers, while being factually correct - the elms were suffering hugely.) Narky Blert (talk) 16:18, 13 May 2021 (UTC)

Edwards (surname)

Something in the formatting of what appear to be transclusion tags in Edwards (surname) is making the page show up as linked from a bunch of disambiguation pages. This needs to be fixed, if someone knows how. I haven't seen this formatting anywhere else in the encyclopedia, so perhaps it should be removed. BD2412 T 18:34, 24 May 2021 (UTC)

I don't see those links showing up in the DPL reports, so why is this a problem? Lennart97 (talk) 18:49, 24 May 2021 (UTC)

Interesting. When I go to the "What links here" page for Albert Edwards, for example, it shows this as an incoming link, but if it's not showing up in the reports than perhaps this is not an issue. BD2412 T 19:22, 24 May 2021 (UTC)

Edwards (surname) transcludes sections of several dabs with wikitext such as {{#section:Alexander Edwards (disambiguation)|alex}}. The dabs contain tags such as <section begin=alex />...<section end=alex />. This mechanism counts as transclusion links for the purposes of WhatLinksHere etc. Certes (talk) 21:51, 24 May 2021 (UTC)

Template:Odlist

There are several dab links to CGCG which seem to orginate with articles using Template:Odlist. These should point to Catalogue of Galaxies and of Clusters of Galaxies but I can't see how to make this work in the template.— Rod ^talk 16:41, 29 May 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed in Template:Odlist. CGCG redirected to the catalogue until recently. Certes (talk) 16:45, 29 May 2021 (UTC)

This month's contest is not progressing well

Unless we pick it up over the next 24 hours, it looks like we are going to get barely more than half of the May 2021 list completed. BD2412 T 19:42, 30 May 2021 (UTC)

See User talk:DPL bot#DAB Challenge for problems in both May and June. Narky Blert (talk) 08:00, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

FC Steaua București

FC Steaua București is currently our most-linked dab. This old club's history is claimed by two rival current clubs, and a court decision has gone to penalty shoot-out appeal. We may soon be able to replace the dab by a redirect to the winner. Previous discussion: Talk:FCSB. Certes (talk) 22:56, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

I’ve brought this up at WT:FOOTY as well. Lennart97 (talk) 23:01, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

One way to get it out of our books would be to turn the DAB page into an SIA until there is a final decision. Narky Blert (talk) 15:31, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

That could work. At the same time, it makes sense as suggested at FOOTY to redirect this one to the already existing DAB Steaua București, so I'm not sure where that leaves us. Lennart97 (talk) 08:11, 4 June 2021 (UTC)

Links to college football season disambiguation pages

Today's report is dominated by links to new "[year] college football season" disambiguation pages, thousands of links altogether. I've brought this up at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject College football. I hope they can confirm whether or not this new setup is valid in the first place, and if it is, help clean up the links. Lennart97 (talk) 08:14, 4 June 2021 (UTC)

Further discussion at WT:WikiProject Disambiguation#College football dab. Certes (talk) 11:21, 4 June 2021 (UTC)

Palestine

A lot of dablinks to Palestine have been popping up lately. Of these, a significant number comes from IPs going around indiscriminately changing "Israel" to "Palestine". This might be nothing new, but I hadn't encountered it before. Anyway, when you encounter a link to Palestine, it might be worthwhile to first check whether it needs fixing or just reverting. Lennart97 (talk) 12:51, 5 June 2021 (UTC)

See also WP:Edit filter/Requested#Randomly changing "Israel" to "Palestine". Certes (talk) 13:01, 5 June 2021 (UTC)

Template:infobox country at games

In Korea at the 2018 Winter Olympics, {{infobox country at games}} calls DAB page Korea at the 2010 Winter Olympics. The same infobox also calls redlinks in the range 1924-1936 (when the country was united), redirects such as Korea at the 1948 Winter Olympics → South Korea at the 1948 Winter Olympics, and post-1948 redlinks. The links are all buried somewhere. I'm not at all sure what to do with this problem, because AFAIK, 2018 is the only occasion when North and South Korea have fielded a unified team, and then only in ice hockey. Narky Blert (talk) 10:58, 5 June 2021 (UTC)

I've prepared a fix in Module:Team appearances list/data/sandbox (diff). If someone can check that this is what's required then I'll request promotion to the main module. It would be easy to remove the "next appearance" redlink if we think that Korea at the 2022 Winter Olympics is more likely to be a dab than an article. Certes (talk) 15:33, 5 June 2021 (UTC)

Years in cycling

2020 in cycling and 2021 in cycling both attract a significant of links through {{Year nav sports topic5}}. This can probably be solved by amending said template to include the men's and women's articles separately, but I'm not sure how to best do that. Lennart97 (talk) 13:05, 7 June 2021 (UTC)

None of the other sports in the template seem to have this problem. Should those pages be dabs? "2020 in cycling" isn't really an ambiguous term like 2009 World Cup; it has one clear and obvious meaning. If we have too much detail for one article then I suppose it's a (not-very-)broad-concept. Certes (talk) 00:31, 8 June 2021 (UTC)

I'm not sure. If one arrives there from the template, it's no problem that they get to choose which of the two articles to visit, but outside of that they do have a potential for attracting links that are intended for either men's or women's specifically (most often men's, probably). Lennart97 (talk) 20:31, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

Those look like BCAs to me. Earlier articles in the series, such as 2019 in cycle sport (to which 2019 in cycling redirects), are well-developed and cover all forms of cycling, not just road racing. Perhaps WP:CYCLING could be invited to flesh these two pages out. Narky Blert (talk) 06:55, 11 June 2021 (UTC)

Raised at WT:WikiProject Cycling#2020/21 in cycle sport. Certes (talk) 12:46, 11 June 2021 (UTC)

The National Archives

There are about 340 pages that link to The National Archives; a rough visual check suggests that 90% of them should be piped to The National Archives (United Kingdom). Colonies Chris (talk) 20:23, 28 June 2021 (UTC)

Alternatively, we could retarget the redirect. There appears to be only one organisation called exactly "The National Archives", so it has a strong claim to be a primary topic, despite the 2011 RM which decided otherwise. It is unfortunate that The National Archives redirects to a list rather than being a dab whose incoming links could be monitored and fixed more easily. Certes (talk) 22:03, 28 June 2021 (UTC)

Georgia on Template:Infobox political party

I am confused about Template:Infobox political party. When used on Progress and Freedom it generates links to the dab pages Politics of Georgia & Elections in Georgia both of which should link to the country articles (rather than the US state) but I can't work out how to fix this.— Rod ^talk 11:39, 30 June 2021 (UTC)

Fixed by adding "| country_dab1 = Politics of Georgia (country) | elections_dab1 = Elections in Georgia (country)". Lennart97 (talk) 11:51, 30 June 2021 (UTC)

Puffin Island

Greenspond links to DAB page Puffin Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, apparently by a Wikidata call (see the infobox titled Puffin Island Lighthouse). wikidata:Q106305249 and wikidata:Q22618904 may be involved. The link should either be to Puffin Island (Greenspond), Newfoundland and Labrador (a redirect to Greenspond; currently not tagged {{R with possibilities}}) or removed.

Q106305249 relates to Puffin Island Lighthouse and thus Greenspond. If the coordinates in ceb:Puffin Island (pulo sa Kanada, Newfoundland and Labrador, lat 47,52, long -57,38) can be trusted, Q22618904 relates to neither of the islands on the enwiki DAB page. FWIW (IMO, not very much), judging from the coordinates, the island near Greenspond could be any of ceb:Puffin Island (pulo sa Kanada, Newfoundland and Labrador, lat 49,17, long -53,48), ceb:Puffin Island (pulo sa Kanada, Newfoundland and Labrador, lat 49,12, long -53,56) and ceb:Puffin Island (pulo sa Kanada, Newfoundland and Labrador, lat 49,07, long -53,55), at least. Narky Blert (talk) 12:53, 1 July 2021 (UTC)

Module:WikidataIB constructs a location name by working up the chain from Puffin Island to N&L using Wikidata properties, concatenating with commas, then {{Wikidata location}} throws square brackets around the result. I've overridden the location explicitly to show plain text, which is probably the best we can do. Certes (talk) 14:28, 1 July 2021 (UTC)

The very name suggests "non-notable uninhabitable rock". Narky Blert (talk) 15:52, 1 July 2021 (UTC)

The lighthouse may well make the Greenspond rock notable - although it looks so accessible that it probably doesn't deserve a separate article; unlike, for example, Bishop Rock and Wolf Rock in the Scillies. A pub in Hugh Town, St Mary's is named after them; and I am reliably informed that I spent a holiday there as a toddler, and that the landlord would run up the Jolly Roger whenever there were sausages for breakfast. Narky Blert (talk) 16:13, 1 July 2021 (UTC)

Template:VICint

In South Gippsland Highway#Major intersections and towns, the parameter |LGAS= in {{VICint}} expands "South Gippsland" to Shire of South Gippsland. As is often the way with such labour-saving templates, there is no obvious way of correcting the link to South Gippsland Shire. Narky Blert (talk) 13:37, 9 July 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed: apparently |LGA-S= with a hyphen adds Shire after instead of before. Certes (talk) 14:22, 9 July 2021 (UTC)

Circa

As a result of Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Circa, a few thousand articles now link to the disambiguation page circa, mostly in the form [[circa|c.]]. What to do with these links? Replace them all by {{circa}} (c.)? Lennart97 (talk) 19:20, 11 July 2021 (UTC)

That sounds like the best idea (apart from the work involved in doing it). If there's a better way, we should probably amend Template:Circa to implement it, then use the template anyway. The few exceptions which discuss the word rather than using its meaning, such as Circadian rhythm, should probably link to wikt:circa or be unlinked. Certes (talk) 01:38, 12 July 2021 (UTC)

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that the updated wiktionary link in {{circa}} doesn't appear to work. older ≠ wiser 01:48, 12 July 2021 (UTC)

It only works with |lk=on: c. Certes (talk) 01:52, 12 July 2021 (UTC)

I see. I guess I only noticed as I'm using tablet and the mouse over pop up just looks like a link that doesn't do anything. older ≠ wiser 03:03, 12 July 2021 (UTC)

On my laptop, the default behaviour c. uses {{abbr}} (broken underline; hovering shows a tooltip with plain text "circa"); |lk=on produces c. with a clickable wikilink to Wiktionary. If desired, we could combine the two features into c., perhaps via a new parameter to {{circa}} or a simple new template. Certes (talk) 13:08, 12 July 2021 (UTC)

The only other exception I found is Circannual cycle. Certes (talk) 01:52, 12 July 2021 (UTC)

I've had a trawl for references to the term circa itself and for bad links to Circa (band) etc. I think I've done all the awkward cases except the dabs C, C., CA and CCA. Should we remove the dabentry from these and add an appropriate abbreviation to the Wiktionary box? Certes (talk) 14:38, 12 July 2021 (UTC)

Yes, that sounds like a good idea. As for replacing the regular links, I think just "c." is probably fine. But as you pointed out above, the problem is indeed the work involved in implementing it about 2,500 times, especially since it can't be done with DisamAssist... Lennart97 (talk) 22:20, 12 July 2021 (UTC)

The main replacement is a job for AWB/JWB. c. → c. – [[circa|c.]] → {{circa}} – looks like an improvement. Is hiding the full word with circa → c. – [[circa]] → {{circa}} – also ok? Certes (talk) 22:54, 12 July 2021 (UTC)

Maybe we need two templates here: {{c.}}, which will produce c., and {{circa}}, which will output circa. – Uanfala (talk) 23:13, 12 July 2021 (UTC)

That would encourage consistency, and we could change our minds about the exact appearance later with just one or two edits. Confusingly, {{circa}} is already used for producing c., so we might need a different name for the longer template. However, it might not be too widely used: MOS:CIRCA suggests that we should use c. in some (but not all) cases that currently use circa. Certes (talk) 23:51, 12 July 2021 (UTC)

I've made a start on the specific case of changing [[circa|c.]] (with or without capitals and spacing) to {{circa}}. 309 done (1–C); 1443 remaining. I think the 94 [[circa|c]]., 142 [[circa|c]], 200 [&91;circa|ca.]], 17 [&91;circa|ca]]. and 42 [&91;circa|ca]] can all be treated similarly. There are 429 bare [[circa]] links which could go to Wiktionary but should probably just be unlinked. That should leave 78 oddities requiring more detailed scrutiny. Pinging Greenhill90 who raised the AfD, in case they have an opinion or wish to assist with the resulting clean-up. Certes (talk) 21:37, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

Good work! I'll start helping out as soon as my AWB permission comes through :) Lennart97 (talk) 12:35, 14 July 2021 (UTC)

Thanks Certes for all of your help. I think that this new article should have (disambiguation) added to the title for clarity sake since it is a series of links. Greenhill90 (talk) 17:12, 14 July 2021 (UTC)

Per WP:DABNAME, The title of a disambiguation page is the ambiguous term itself, provided there is no primary topic for that term. Since there is no primary topic anymore, the name of the disambiguation page should thus be Circa. Lennart97 (talk) 17:38, 14 July 2021 (UTC)

Circa (disambiguation) should certainly redirect to the dab, and it does. The title Circa is reserved for a primary topic, or if (as here) there is none, for the dab, per MALPLACED. Certes (talk) 18:29, 14 July 2021 (UTC)

 Done: thanks to BD2412 for finishing the job. Certes (talk) 12:05, 16 July 2021 (UTC)

Template:Officeholder table

In the 4 articles Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, United States Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, |alt_party= in {{Officeholder table}} links to DAB page Unknown, and there is no obvious way of stopping it.

({{Infobox election}} has |party_name= which can be set to "no"; see 2022 Italian presidential election.) Narky Blert (talk) 10:08, 16 July 2021 (UTC)

 Done all: it needs |alt_party=? (and I removed "unknown" as a birth date etc.). Certes (talk) 15:22, 16 July 2021 (UTC)

José Luís

UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying Group 2 and UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying link to DAB page José Luís instead of José Luís (footballer, born 1958), by some sort of transclusion I don't understand. Narky Blert (talk) 07:13, 17 July 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed in Module:Goalscorers/data/UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying. Certes (talk) 12:41, 17 July 2021 (UTC)

Template:Infobox election

In 2021 Vijayawada Municipal Corporation election, |party5= in {{Infobox election}} links to DAB page Others, and I could find obvious of way stopping it. Setting |party_name= to "no" is indiscriminate, and |partyx_name= or |party_namex= seem not to exist. (cf. #Template:Officeholder table, above.)

(I solved the problem of the link to 64 by deleting the number.) Narky Blert (talk) 08:09, 20 July 2021 (UTC)

 Done, badly. Certes (talk) 12:50, 20 July 2021 (UTC)

Software changes to reduce the number of unwanted dabs links created

Following my proposal in the community wish list, which got the second highest number of votes, the community tech team have started to consider this at meta:Community Tech/Warn when linking to disambiguation pages & some discussion has stared on the talk page there. Interested editors (especially those with more technical knowledge than me), may want to get involved so that whatever solution is developed helps to reduce the number of unwanted dab links created.— Rod ^talk 20:46, 23 July 2021 (UTC)

Template:Infobox tennis tournament year

In articles using Template:Infobox tennis tournament year (eg 2007 Dutch Open (tennis) the infobox creates links to previous and next years. Where there is more than one "open" eg tennis and darts this then links to the dab page. Is there any way to make this explicit to tennis within the template?— Rod ^talk 07:49, 24 July 2021 (UTC)

I've raised this issue (see WPwL #140 et seq. for 100-odd examples) at User talk:Somnifuguist#Template:TennisEventInfo. Narky Blert (talk) 08:26, 24 July 2021 (UTC)

I'm told this should now be fixed; though as usual, it may take a day or so to percolate through. Narky Blert (talk) 10:45, 24 July 2021 (UTC)

Dabsolver

Hi All, dabsolver seems to have been down for me for more than a couple of days; is this a problem that other people have encountered and if so does anyone have a workaround or know when it might be back online? Thanks - Furius (talk) 01:44, 30 July 2021 (UTC)

It's down for me too. The proprietary code has not been amended to match recent changes to its databases, and its author is no longer active, so don't hold your breath. It was mentioned in the Community Wishlist Survey but I suspect that competing requests would deliver benefits of a similar magnitude for less effort. Certes (talk) 14:42, 30 July 2021 (UTC)

Oh well. It's such a useful tool; I find it remarkable that it relied on a single volunteer - but then, that's the whole idea of the project isn't it! Furius (talk) 01:35, 31 July 2021 (UTC)

It seems to be working again now - thanks to whoever fixed the code.— Rod ^talk 08:15, 31 July 2021 (UTC)

Seconded; I will be hugely more productive now that it's working again. Getting a supported version, either by taking on the code with Dispenser's permission or by the major task of rewriting it, would be an excellent candidate for a WMF grant. Certes (talk) 09:18, 31 July 2021 (UTC)

Template:Europe topic (again)

In Privatization in Croatia and Privatization in Russia, {{Europe topic}} (under the title Privatization in Europe) links to DAB page Privatization in Poland. I have no idea what the link should even be; Powszechny Zakład Ubezpieczeń on the DAB page seems to be about something else. Narky Blert (talk) 09:47, 31 July 2021 (UTC)

The link should probably be a broad-concept article called Privatization in Poland. PZU is an example of a private Polish company which may merit a mention in the BCA but isn't a meaning of the term "Privatization in Poland". Certes (talk) 09:56, 31 July 2021 (UTC)

Template:Asia topic (again)

In Government of Bangladesh, {{Asia topic}} masquerading as Government of Asia calls DAB page Government of Taiwan instead of Government of the Republic of China. Changing Taiwan to Republic of China in the template would solve this problem, but with unknown side effects. Narky Blert (talk) 10:13, 26 July 2021 (UTC)

Either that or get rid of the disambiguation page... the current government of Taiwan really does seem to be the primary topic for "Government of Taiwan", especially when the only alternative meaning is the pre-1945 Japanese occupation government. Lennart97 (talk) 10:20, 26 July 2021 (UTC)

Good point. Government of the Republic of China is ambiguous with Nationalist government etc., but it correctly leads to the primary topic with hatnotes. Other countries are treated similarly: Government of India isn't a dab listing the British Raj etc. Certes (talk) 12:59, 26 July 2021 (UTC)

 Done. Narky Blert (talk) 09:28, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

how to trigger a mass flush?

Hi there. I recently disambiguated Hyperinflation in Yugoslavia, and I believe the preponderance of links are now unambigous, but the Special WhatLinksHere output looks like a trainwreck because we used to have this term linked from a template which was in turn linked from two other templates. This was long since fixed, but the statistics are screwed up. Is there a way to trigger a flush so this gets updated? It's been a while now and I'm worried that this recursive flush isn't going to be triggered at all (seems like a very complex operation on the scale of enwiki). Will we have to resort to a huge series of null edits? --Joy [shallot] (talk) 18:21, 2 August 2021 (UTC)

It seems to have sorted itself out now but, when it doesn't, I resort to null edits in AWB. Certes (talk) 12:36, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

Ignorance of WP:INTDAB

Even some of the most experienced editors have no clue at all about this policy. I just now had to ask an editor who is in the edit count top 50 to stop removing the intentional "(disambiguation)"s from hatnotes. Some time ago, I had the same issue with a highly experienced admin. Is there anything at all we can do about this? Lennart97 (talk) 10:22, 4 June 2021 (UTC)

I just use an edit summary of Undid good-faith revision 1234567890 by User:Should know better per WP:INTDAB and hope it sinks in. Certes (talk) 11:23, 4 June 2021 (UTC)

Yeah, that works. But more often they're adding new hatnotes as opposed to "fixing" existing ones, so reverting isn't really proper, so then I have to go to their talk page, but that doesn't always seem worth the effort... The problem is, I guess, that there are only two types of editors who know about INTDAB: 1) editors who fix DABlinks and 2) editors who have had INTDAB explicitly pointed out to them by editors of type 1. Could DPL bot maybe be taught to recognise DABlinks created in hatnotes, and point offenders to INTDAB? Lennart97 (talk) 12:36, 4 June 2021 (UTC)

I've seen a bot fixing such links, probably RussBot 4. I don't think it sends dabgrams to offending editors though! Certes (talk) 13:52, 4 June 2021 (UTC);

I too have seen admins and 10-year veterans make this mistake; though in my experience, IPs are the worst offenders for removing the qualifier. They are often impossible to contact - see WP:THEYCANTHEARYOU. For a removed qualifier, I revert with the ES "Links to DAB pages must go through the (disambiguation) qualifier per WP:INTDAB", from my boilerplate Notepad file. For a new hatnote or see-also, I revert while adding the qualifier, and prepend "I repaired your edit - " to the ES to make it more polite. Those sometimes get a smiley. I try to revert no editor more than once, unless the message isn't getting through; no-one likes reversion notices. I too have seen some variety of RussBot fixing hatnotes.

We should all look up to User:Somebody "Notme" Else. Narky Blert (talk) 06:02, 5 June 2021 (UTC)

I fairly routinely leave talk page messages on this. BD2412 T 06:08, 5 June 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for all the input. I hadn't thought of repairing-while-reverting, that should help. Lennart97 (talk) 10:29, 5 June 2021 (UTC)when

I come as someone who is in between your two -- an admin with a decent edit history, but a long break between active periods. When I was confused, Niceguydc was super helpful in explaining what (in my opinion) wasn't clear from the edit & its summary. Is there any way the automated? summary can include info on the intentional links together with "You Can Help"? Lennart97 that's sad that you haven't found the response to be worth the effort. I feel like we should all want to improve our editing. This also seems to be an easier thing to get right than citation errors, where I've given up admittedly. Star Mississippi 00:44, 18 July 2021 (UTC)

Hey Star Mississippi, don't worry! I was feeling a bit frustrated when I started this thread but I haven't actually given up on explaining it to unaware editors. In hindsight it's not as big a deal as I made it out to be :) Lennart97 (talk) 09:08, 18 July 2021 (UTC)

Looking beyond the very productive discussion here, it sort of seems to me like at least the basics of WP:INTDAB should be covered, or at least referenced, or at least linked to, from MOS:LINK, as that section of WP:DAB is really much more about linking than about disambiguation, even though it's currently "housed" in the Disambiguation article.

I don't think it's too controversial to suggest that far more editors read MOS:LINK than will ever read WP:DAB, and even editors who end up reading both nearly always read MOS:LINK long before they get to WP:DAB. So maybe WP:INTDAB needs to be treated as part of the linking policy, not the disambiguation policy.

Currently, in terms of DAB-related coverage, MOS:LINK has: a note in the lead that points to WP:DAB "For links on disambiguation pages" (accidentally implying that it wouldn't be relevant in WP:INTDAB-type situations); the last bullet point of MOS:LINKEXAMPLES which is no help at all in this context (actually the way it's currently written it doesn't seem like it would be particularly helpful in any context); and finally there's a link in "See Also" that leads to Wikipedia:Links to (disambiguation) pages, for the brave souls who make it that far. That's, surprisingly, kind of all there is to be found. No real guidance regarding WP:INTDAB situations is even hinted at anywhere in MOS:LINK, which I have a feeling is why WP:INTDAB has managed to stealth a lot of the community's radar. -- FeRDNYC (talk) 05:54, 7 August 2021 (UTC)

Template:Infobox GAA player

In Christy Tyrrell, {{Infobox GAA player}} calls DAB page All-Ireland Senior Championship rather than All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.

I recall seeing a problem with this template before; but that was with a couple of dual-code players; see Wikipedia talk:Disambiguation pages with links/Archive 15#Infobox GAA player. Narky Blert (talk) 07:36, 7 August 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed: {{Infobox GAA player}} needed |code=Football. The previous problem was different. The template still doesn't handle female dual-code players: it assumes that they play hurling and football rather than camogie and "ladies football", which is a separate sport for the purposes of article title semantics. Certes (talk) 08:06, 7 August 2021 (UTC)

Tag for new links to dabs

A revision tag may soon be added to edits that add links to disambiguation pages. Further details: m:Tech/News/2021/33. Certes (talk) 20:13, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

I was somewhat dismissive of this idea, but now think it could be useful. This was an everyday vanity post; but the "Disambiguation links" tag makes it very clear when DABlinks were introduced. Had the introduction been buried under more recent edits, that tag would have made it easy to identify the culprit - which would be very useful in particular in the case of an overlooked vandal edit which had introduced other errors as well. Narky Blert (talk) 07:00, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

In other news, the new feature which in some languages puts Interlanguage links into an inconvenient scrolling box rather than the sidebar (and, I have just discovered, disables the easy addition of new ones) can be turned off; link. Narky Blert (talk) 06:56, 17 August 2021 (UTC)

Famine in Sudan

Does anyone feel like turning Famine in Sudan from a DAB into a BCA? Cf. Wikipedia talk:Disambiguation pages with links/Archive 15#Famine in Sudan, March 2021. Narky Blert (talk) 13:44, 25 August 2021 (UTC)

Template:Infobox Former Subdivision

In Punjab Province (British India), {{Infobox Former Subdivision}} calls DAB page Flag of Punjab by devious means. A difficulty is that Punjab under the Raj did not have its own flag, but used File:British Raj Red Ensign.svg; see Star of India (flag)#Red Ensign. This could be a case for Put Out Fewer Flags. Narky Blert (talk) 09:05, 26 August 2021 (UTC)

Tricky. We solved a similar case by adding parameters which Infobox Former Subdivision doesn't support. Perhaps it could be amended to do so. Changing |common_name= might fix things, but the template uses that parameter in 54 places and it might require a lot of unintuitive fiddling to preserver other parts of the infobox. Certes (talk) 11:15, 26 August 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed (or as near to fixed as we're likely to achieve). I've added |flag=Star of India (flag)#Red Ensign to link to the section. Certes (talk) 14:23, 26 August 2021‎ (UTC)

Template:Latin script

I don't think I've seen this before. In Latin theta, {{Latin script}} was calling 117(±) DAB pages of two-letter combinations. After some WP:NULLEDITs did nothing, I RTFMed and added |show pairs=no . Narky Blert (talk) 12:18, 29 August 2021 (UTC)

That's odd. I don't see any links to dabs in the unfixed revision, nor a #ifexist: or similar in the templates. |show pairs= defaults to yes for {{Latin script|A–Z}} and no for other characters including a–z, so the other articles which may be affected are Carolingian G and H with descender. Certes (talk) 13:45, 29 August 2021 (UTC)

Those two have a UC letter parameter; and in addition, |-. They look fine to me. On experimenting, taking out - made no difference but taking out | as well unleashed the forces of hell. A rare instance of a template where an undefined closing parameter has an useful effect. Narky Blert (talk) 04:49, 30 August 2021 (UTC)

Gestalt

I invite members of this WikiProject to participate at Talk:Gestalt#Whether to include certain entries. The issue is whether the entries identifiable from this edit should or should not be included on the DAB page. Narky Blert (talk) 19:39, 30 August 2021 (UTC)

Template:Infobox station

In Tremont station (Massachusetts), {{Infobox station}} calls DAB page Fairhaven station; I suspect through |line6=, and guess from internal evidence that the station (for which we have no article) should be Fairhaven station (Massachusetts). Narky Blert (talk) 12:43, 25 August 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed (editing Module:Adjacent stations/New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad) * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 20:52, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

@Pppery: Thanks! Infobox station is notorious for generating DABlinks which are unsolvable except by specialists in both railways and that template. Narky Blert (talk) 21:38, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

I wouldn't call myself a specialist in either field (but I am somewhat of a specialist in templates generally). * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 21:40, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

Politics of Korea

Can anyone see where Korea is linking to DAB page Politics of Korea? I can't see it and have WP:NULLEDITed the article and templates, but it refuses to go away. Narky Blert (talk) 13:24, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

It's linked to the "Government" subheading in the infobox. We can change it by editing Korea to give {{Infobox country}} a new |politics_link= parameter set to a suitable target. I'm not sure what that target should be. Previous discussion: WT:Disambiguation pages with links/Archive 15#Phantom links to DAB pages. Certes (talk) 14:20, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

Is this yet another #ifexists problem? The context of the article suggests that a WP:INTDAB link would be best. Narky Blert (talk) 21:42, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

I've diverted the link to Politics of Korea (disambiguation). The link is no longer on WhatLinksHere, so I don't think #ifexist: is causing a problem here. Certes (talk) 23:06, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

Template:Player3

In Seoul Samsung Thunders and Aomori Wat's, {{player3}} is reluctant to accept disambiguators for Michael Craig and Kim Tae-hyung. |dab= does nothing with |name=; nor does |link=. Changing to the commoner |first= |last= |dab= format results in blacklinks, which may or may not be an improvement over redlinks. Narky Blert (talk) 11:13, 24 September 2021 (UTC)

Also, Nguyễn Văn Hùng and Jordan Young in Thang Long Warriors, and Nguyễn Văn Hùng and Chris Carter in Danang Dragons. Narky Blert (talk) 11:59, 24 September 2021 (UTC)

Also, Tatsuya Ito in Nagoya Diamond Dolphins and Osaka Evessa. Narky Blert (talk) 14:28, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

The use of the |name= parameter in this template should be deprecated; it's clearly broken. And the blacklinks for non-existent articles appear to be by design, although I'm not sure why that choice was made. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 19:08, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

See Template talk:Basketball roster header#Template:Player3 broken. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 19:13, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

I've commented there. Narky Blert (talk) 19:48, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

The blacklinks are courtesy of {{Auto link}}, which admits that This template should not be used in the mainspace, as red links are good. Certes (talk) 20:36, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

Many sportspeople have a fighting chance of passing a WP:SNG if not WP:GNG. I much prefer being able to disable a NN redlink, rather than seeing a blacklink for someone notable because the article hasn't been written yet. Redlinks also help in standardising qualifiers. Narky Blert (talk) 21:15, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

Wang Zhen in Guangdong Vermilion Birds.

Wang Zheng, Li Bin and Zhang Wei in Zhejiang Lions.

Joe Young, Andrew Harrison, Zhang Fan, Sun Yue and Wang Zheng in Beijing Royal Fighters. Narky Blert (talk) 09:21, 26 September 2021 (UTC)

R'n'B is testing something in the sandbox. These pages are likely to be affected. Certes (talk) 09:42, 26 September 2021 (UTC)

Ah. Only the 178 of them. That search picks up the next two I've just found. Narky Blert (talk) 09:48, 26 September 2021 (UTC)

Don't hold your breath. :-) I'm not sure when I'll get around to doing anything with this. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 13:47, 26 September 2021 (UTC)

Those articles use |name= with either |dab= or |link=. For links made before 2018, the article editor will have been able to check the result with a working template, so most such links should fix themselves after the template is mended, whether by reverting or by making name behave similarly to first+last. Certes (talk) 13:50, 26 September 2021 (UTC)

Beijing Royal Fighters could be a good testbed; because Joe Young is Joe Young (basketball) and Wang Zheng is Wang Zheng (basketball) (no article). Narky Blert (talk) 14:51, 26 September 2021 (UTC)

Rather than mess around further, I just reverted {{Player3}} back to the version that was in use until a week or so ago, which should resolve the issues identified above. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 19:21, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

Looking good from a couple of quick samples, that should take a healthy chunk out of WP:TDD Table 1 Column 1. Narky Blert (talk) 07:36, 29 September 2021 (UTC)

Template:GHI

In Global Hunger Index, {{GHI}} expnands Sudan to Famine in Sudan. One solution could be turn that DAB page into a WP:BCA or WP:SIA. Thoughts? Narky Blert (talk) 12:48, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

There was some support for a BCA in March: WT:Disambiguation pages with links/Archive 15#Famine in Sudan. Certes (talk) 14:07, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

Another Wikidata head-scratcher

The infobox in Eye of the Beholder (video game) calls Eye Of The Beholder (a miscapitalised redirect to the DAB page Eye of the Beholder) by way of wikidata:Q1385731. There were three games in the original series (I've just added the second and third to the DAB page), but there is no article about it. Deletion from Q1385731 might be the answer; but I throw my hands up and the question over. Narky Blert (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 18:06, 22 April 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Public-benefit corporation‎

I have listed Public-benefit corporation‎ for deletion. I think this is a case where it is better to have no disambiguation page at all, and let the articles explain the distinction. BD2412 T 05:51, 25 October 2021 (UTC)

Template:Bundesliga matches

6 pages link to the ambiguous redirect Wendell (footballer), seemingly through subpages of {{Bundesliga matches}} - DPwL link. As usual, I haven't the foggiest idea how to find them. The intended link is probably Wendell (footballer, born 1993), who played for Bayer Leverkusen 2014-2021; but without seeing the transcluded text I can't be sure. Narky Blert (talk) 14:01, 11 November 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed in Template:2017–18 Bundesliga matches and Template:2018–19 Bundesliga matches. Certes (talk) 18:45, 11 November 2021 (UTC)

College football

Can anyone here confidently disambiguate links to college football seasons? My plea at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject American football#Ambiguous links to college football seasons (18/26 September 2021) has received no response whatsoever, and at least one more ambiguous link (in 1958 Little All-America college football team) has accumulated since then. Narky Blert (talk) 01:32, 13 November 2021 (UTC)

More subtemplates

In 988, 989 and 990, {{Year nav}} links to DAB page Eiso instead of Eiso (era). Narky Blert (talk) 14:10, 13 November 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed in Module:Japanese calendar/data (called via {{M1 year in topic}}). Certes (talk) 14:22, 13 November 2021 (UTC)

"Hidden" disambiguations

• Privy Council (over 1100 links) mostly refers to Privy Council of the United Kingdom.
• National Stadium (120 links) could be any of nine such around the world that we have an article on. Colonies Chris (talk) 14:54, 14 November 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for reporting these. Bluelink patrol addresses many similar cases but I don't think anyone else has spotted those two yet. Certes (talk) 15:20, 14 November 2021 (UTC)

I've done some of the latter, the problem being that the target is a list of stadiums which are national rather than of places called "National Stadium". Certes (talk) 19:52, 14 November 2021 (UTC)

Infobox country - another flag

In Karakalpakstan, {{Infobox country}} calls DAB page Flag of Karakalpakstan. For added interest, we have no article and any link would be circular. Narky Blert (talk) 14:25, 13 November 2021 (UTC)

 Fixed by adding |flag_type_article=Flag of the Republic of Karakalpakstan (and |symbol_type_article=Coat of arms of the Republic of Karakalpakstan to avoid linking to the Soviet emblem). Certes (talk) 16:07, 13 November 2021 (UTC)

There have been further developments. Flag of Karakalpakstan is now a new article on the current flag. Emblem of Karakalpakstan, formerly an article (which should probably be salvaged by WP:HISTSPLIT) on the Soviet emblem, has been overwritten by a new article on the current emblem. Certes (talk) 23:20, 14 November 2021 (UTC)

Talk:Orthodox Church#Strongly reducing the list

It has been proposed at Talk:Orthodox Church#Strongly reducing the list that "Orthodox Church" be turned into a disambiguation page, with the disambiguation project being left the task of repairing the 1,000+ incoming links that would result from that change. BD2412 T 03:24, 18 November 2021 (UTC)

Template:Hindu festival date

I am trying to get my head around Template:Hindu festival date. Most of those at Dablink list for Karthika should probably link to Kārtika (month) but the template seems to use a different spelling and I have no idea how to edit it.— Rod ^talk 13:46, 3 December 2021 (UTC)

@Rodw: I think I fixed it, the template used to use the label of the Wikidata item of the month/day as the link target, but I have changed it to the linked page's title instead. For example Balipratipada (Q4851001) has the masa/month listed as Q475279, which is just called "Kartika" but is linked to the enwiki page Kārtika (month). eviolite (talk) 14:24, 3 December 2021 (UTC)

Thanks (even though I will not claim to understand that), however on Karva Chauth the infobox includes square brackets around "| kārtika" and isn't a link.— Rod ^talk 14:26, 3 December 2021 (UTC)

Fixed as well, I'd misplaced some }}'s. eviolite (talk) 14:30, 3 December 2021 (UTC)

Thanks - that seems to have got them.— Rod ^talk 14:32, 3 December 2021 (UTC)

Power-hungry, I've created a bit of a mess regarding megalomania

• Megalomania (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

My close of Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2021 November 24 § Megalomania has created, at time of writing, 359 links to DAB pages. It's a bit of an unusual case because most of those links shouldn't have existed in the first place, at least not for the past five years where that page redirected to Narcissistic personality disorder. (After all, an article describing Alexander the Great as having exhibited megalomania is presumably not trying to diagnose him with a modern-day condition, which would be WP:OR.) That leaves the question of how to handle these... For the few I've tackled so far, I've linked to Wiktionary, but I'm not sure if that's the best course of action, or if it would be better to just unlink. I'm sure there are cases where linking to NPD would be justified, just not the ones I've checked so far. Or perhaps some should be piped to things like despotism. I'm off to bed, but thought I'd raise this here before it hits the dabfix list and leads to a bunch of dabfixers all trying to fix this different ways. -- Tamzin^{[cetacean needed]} (she/they) 09:58, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

I've replied at Talk:Megalomania#Cleanup. No templates link to the dab. Certes (talk) 13:19, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

I've done another 20. Mostly piping to Wiktionary, but a few I've unlinked, a few I've removed entirely, and one I've piped to NPD and another to Omnipotence (psychoanalysis). All a bit of a mess. Even found an FA that had been linking to the term when clearly not meaning to refer to NPD. -- Tamzin^{[cetacean needed]} (she/they) 20:47, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

I suspect that linking to Wiktionary or unlinking will often be the best solution. A similar case is sadism/sadistic, which repeatedly turns up in Disambiguation pages with links with the layperson's meaning of cruelty/cruel rather than being an obsolete psychiatric diagnosis. Narky Blert (talk) 08:35, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

Template:Election box candidate with party link

Could someone who is good with templates take a look at Template:Election box candidate with party link? Is it possible to change the defaults for "party".

• If it says "Other" could the be made to not be a wikilink?
• If it says "NOTA" could this be made to link to None of the above
• If "Independent" could this be made a link to Independent politician

Any help appreciated.— Rod ^talk 10:24, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

@Rodw: The problem is incorrect use of the template. If the candidate is not representing a party, then the editor should use {{Election box candidate}}, not the one "with party link". --R'n'B (call me Russ) 13:17, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

Thanks. Is there an easy way to convert one template to the other. They have been wrongly used many times on articles reporting the results of the "2019 Indian general election in XXX" where XXX = the state.— Rod ^talk 13:30, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

AWB :-) --R'n'B (call me Russ) 13:59, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

Looks like you have just done a load of them - thank you.— Rod ^talk 14:19, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

I fixed another four; that seems to be all. Certes (talk) 19:01, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

Now fixing other offenders such as {{Election box gain with party link}} where an independent gains a seat. Certes (talk) 20:40, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

Template:London Broncos

On 16 December Template:London Broncos was edited by User:Natg 19 to remove 2 dab links. I waited a few days expecting this to work its way through the system but on 27 December there are still around 30 articles on the list Articles With Multiple Dablinks where there are no obvious dab links & all the articles reference this template. Could someone take a look and tell me what I am missing?— Rod ^talk 20:27, 27 December 2021 (UTC)

• There does seem to be some backlog or other issue with the Wikipedia automated process that is supposed to update links after a template is edited, since this is not the first incident of this kind I have seen in the past few days. However, the problem is easily solved by null-editing the linking articles. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 20:37, 27 December 2021 (UTC)

• Thanks - this seems to have resolved the issue.— Rod ^talk 09:08, 28 December 2021 (UTC)

New pop-up went live yesterday

A new pop up asking editors who are trying to add a link to a dab page went live yesterday. This is a result of this nomionation to the community wishlist survey a year ago. It will be interesting to see if this has an effect on the number of dab links created each day.— Rod ^talk 08:38, 21 January 2022 (UTC)

Template:Infobox hospital

Something on Template:Infobox hospital is generating a link to List of hospitals in the United Kingdom in 53 cases. Could this either be made a rediect to the dab page or changed in some way to link to the specific lists for England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland as appropriate? The code is beyond me and I can't see any way to change this.— Rod ^talk 21:26, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

List of hospitals in the United Kingdom is a list of lists, not a disambiguation page, so I've removed the dab tag. If you still prefer to link to the specific list, just change the article. For example, Blackberry Hill Hospital's infobox could change from |Country=United Kingdom to |Country=England. Certes (talk) 22:16, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Thanks & I like the thought of a "dabectomy" operation.— Rod ^talk 08:57, 4 February 2022 (UTC)

Bonus list and disambiguation pages with missing links

As far as I can see there is no such thing as a bonus list anymore for the monthly challenge – the link just redirects to the regular monthly list. Can I remove it? What was the bonus list, anyway?

Also, under Current disambiguation collaborations, "Disambiguation pages with missing links" appears to be defunct; for me at least the link has never worked. Lennart97 (talk) 21:19, 5 January 2022 (UTC)

I've fixed the second problem. Dispenser's domain name has expired, so you have to use the IP address instead. However, I don't think the list was updated as recently as it claims. I added several of the "missing" entries in 2019. Certes (talk) 21:49, 5 January 2022 (UTC)

Thanks! I also noticed it's not up to date, although some entries it lists are in fact still missing, so it could still be useful. Would Tassedethe know more about this? Lennart97 (talk) 22:07, 5 January 2022 (UTC)

Only that yes it stopped being updated a while ago, I assumed the missing_entries-enwiki.log file was something Dispenser generated, and since he has been inactive... Also the dabfix tool at http://69.142.160.183/~dispenser/cgi-bin/dabfix.py exists, but always times out with an error for me like so "<class 'oursql.CollatedWarningsError'>".

Some of Dispenser's tools are still very useful but others such as Dabfix stopped working about a year ago, probably due to database changes. Certes (talk) 23:27, 5 January 2022 (UTC)

• The "bonus list" was a list of disambiguation pages with 1 to 4 incoming links. Since that list started to overlap with the top 1000 list, sometimes very significantly, it seemed to have become pointless, and no longer exists. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 22:21, 5 January 2022 (UTC)

  From back in the days when entries the monthly disambiguation list would typically start with ten or more links. BD2412 T 22:25, 5 January 2022 (UTC)

  Seems like we've come a long way! I've removed the defunct link to the bonus list from the leaderboard section. Lennart97 (talk) 21:20, 6 January 2022 (UTC)

  The bonus list was scrapped in March 2020, see Wikipedia talk:Disambiguation pages with links/Archive 15#Changes to the DAB Challenge. Narky Blert (reigning Bonus List champion, editing logged out until I recover my PW), 86.187.168.121 (talk) 15:53, 4 February 2022 (UTC)

Dallas Open (tennis)

Only back a day, and it's like I've never been away. The infoboxes in 1983 Dallas Open, 1983 Dallas Open – Doubles and 1983 Dallas Open – Singles call DAB page Dallas Open (tennis) rather than Dallas Open (1983), in one of those template-related ways I cannot be bothered to work out. Narky Blert (alt) (talk) 16:32, 7 February 2022 (UTC)

Fixed the links. A merge of 1983 Dallas Open and Dallas Open (1983) may be warranted as well, given the low amount of info on both pages, but I am not familiar enough with the topic. eviolite (talk) 16:38, 7 February 2022 (UTC)

I don't know much about tennis but the first two are certainly duplicate pages in need of merging. I'm not sure of the better title: 1983 Dallas Open matches 1983 Dallas Open – Doubles etc. but Dallas Open (1983) matches Dallas Open (2022). Certes (talk) 18:26, 7 February 2022 (UTC)

Template:Wuhan Metro

In Xujiapeng station and two other articles, {{WHM stations|Science Park}} inside {{Wuhan Metro}} links to DAB page Science Park station; I imagine the correct redlink would be Science Park station (Wuhan Metro). Narky Blert (alt) (talk) 08:31, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

 Fixed in Template:WHM stations. Certes (talk) 14:38, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

Privatization in Europe - Template:Europe topic

On Privatization in Croatia and Privatization in Russia a nested navbox at the bottom headed "Privatization in Europe" links to the dab Privatization in Poland. When you try to view (or edit) the template it goes to Template:Europe topic. I have no idea how to fix these or (safely) edit this template - help appreciated.— Rod ^talk 14:09, 13 February 2022 (UTC)

Privatization in Poland is the right target and shouldn't be a dab, because the term has only one meaning. It's been tagged for conversion to a BCA. Certes (talk) 17:39, 13 February 2022 (UTC)

Your guess is as good as mine

Augsburg Hauptbahnhof and Freilassing station link to DAB pages Berlin station and Binz station, buried in a template. Narky Blert (alt) (talk) 13:29, 15 February 2022 (UTC)

Fixed in Module:Adjacent stations/DB Fernverkehr. It's a bit annoying as, apparently according to dewiki, trains can end at any of four railway stations in Berlin, and the Binz terminus is only seasonal. "Berlin" is now linking to the main Berlin Hauptbahnhof based on what they (and we, in other articles) use as the link for the terminus of that route, and "Binz" to Ostseebad Binz station. Now hopefully when people use Binz or Berlin in that template, it'll both be disambiguated and clear (the link text has also changed, to "Berlin Hbf" and "Ostseebad Binz"). eviolite (talk) 14:49, 15 February 2022 (UTC)

Template:Speedway event 20heats/rider

There are several occurances of Template:Speedway event 20heats/rider in the list at Disambig fix list for Unia Tarnów. They have a link shown as (TAR) to Unia Tarnów which should link to Unia Tarnów (motorcycle speedway). The lack of template documentation means I have no idea how to tackle this.— Rod ^talk 11:25, 19 February 2022 (UTC)

 Fixed in the template. Certes (talk) 12:46, 19 February 2022 (UTC)

...and in several other templates and articles which didn't show up in DisamAssist. I think that's all done apart from a few incoming redirects, which seem to be ambiguous (Azoty sponsor multiple sports, and DGP seems to be another sponsor rather than standing for something like "Basketball Club" as I'd hoped.) Certes (talk) 13:22, 19 February 2022 (UTC)

National football team

Can anyone work out how 2022 FC Astana season and FC Dinamo Samarqand are calling DAB page National football team (and if found, what to do about it)? Narky Blert (talk) 10:25, 22 February 2022 (UTC)

 Fixed Samarqand's hidden domestic history had Mr. N. F. Team as top scorer for several years. Apparently, this happens when you omit the country from {{fbicon|}}. Astana had European fixtures lacking an opponent, as the cup draw has not yet been made. They were probably calling fbicon or similar with no country too, somewhere in a nested template, so I commented them out. Certes (talk) 13:38, 22 February 2022 (UTC)

By the way, I colour wikilinks with User:Anomie/linkclassifier.js, which gives links to dabs a yellow background. This has an advantage over similar scripts which colour the text: links to dabs which are piped to spaces (as was the case here) are visible as yellow rectangles. Certes (talk) 13:45, 22 February 2022 (UTC)

European League of Football

The European League of Football (gridiron) presents potential problems. Its franchises share names with those of the defunct NFL Europe, e.g. such as Cologne Centurions (ELF) vs Cologne Centurions (NFL Europe). Titles affected are Barcelona Dragons, Berlin Thunder, Cologne Centurions, Frankfurt Galaxy, Hamburg Sea Devils and Rhein Fire. Two of these are dabs; four redirect to defunct clubs which may no longer be primary topics. Any thoughts? Certes (talk) 11:58, 26 February 2022 (UTC)

Template:XA stations & Huizhanzhongxin station

I ahve been looking at Template:XA stations to try to fix links to Huizhanzhongxin station (list here) but I am a bit stuck - any help appreciated.— Rod ^talk 16:31, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

 Fixed in {{SZRT stations}} and {{ShijiazhuangM stations}}. eviolite (talk) 17:07, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

Wait, some are still broken.  Doing... eviolite (talk) 17:08, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

Now fixed by adding Huizhan Zhongxin to the station (Xi'an Metro) list and creating Huizhan Zhongxin station (Xi'an Metro) as a redirect. eviolite (talk) 17:12, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

Thanks for your help with this & other templates.— Rod ^talk 20:52, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

Template:Adjacent stations

In Bergen auf Rügen station, Ostseebad Binz station, Stralsund Hauptbahnhof and Velgast station, {{Adjacent stations}} expands "Koblenz or Stuttgart" to "Koblenz or Stuttgart Hbf". I'm impressed by the ingenuity with which the template handles a double parameter, less so that one of the expansions points to the DAB page Koblenz railway station. The main text in all four articles makes it clear that all links should be to Koblenz Hauptbahnhof. Narky Blert (talk) 13:43, 10 March 2022 (UTC)

Fixed in Module:Adjacent stations/DB Fernverkehr. eviolite (talk) 15:18, 10 March 2022 (UTC)

Template:WA road routes

{{WA road routes}} calls, by non-obvious means, DAB page Old Coast Road. This entry is a duplicate of Forrest Highway, immediately after it, and IMO it should be deleted; see e.g. Brand Highway. Narky Blert (talk) 10:14, 10 March 2022 (UTC)

Unlinked in {{WA road routes/R}}, instead of deleting, because the portion between Mandurah and Lake Clifton is only signed as Old Coast Road. eviolite (talk) 15:20, 10 March 2022 (UTC)

? Easy way to do lots of null edits

Does anyone have an easy way to do lots of null edits - perhaps using AWB or similar? I believe all the 215 articles on Disambig fix list for Ana have links to Template:Hum TV Programs. This had a dab fix a few days ago, but (presumably because of caching issues) they have not dissapeared from the list. I did over 100 null edits recently for a similar situation and it is a bit of a pain (which may be becoming more frequent for some reason), and wondered if someone could help (I have not got on with AWB but someone more expert may be able to do this).— Rod ^talk 16:12, 10 March 2022 (UTC)

@Rodw: I load them up in WP:JWB with no replacements and click Save on them all. It's one click per page, and you may hit the rate limiter and have to take a minute off if you are very quick. AWB works too. (Either needs authorisation, but you already seem to be on the list which applies to both.) Certes (talk) 17:41, 10 March 2022 (UTC)

I've never really got my head around AWB & never used JWB (whether or not I am on the list as an authorised user) so would you be kind enough to do it?— Rod ^talk 17:51, 10 March 2022 (UTC)

Done. There are also bots which can do this for larger runs, but not worth setting up for a few hundred pages. Certes (talk) 18:47, 10 March 2022 (UTC)

Thanks.— Rod ^talk 19:15, 10 March 2022 (UTC)

How does the DAB Challenge leaderboard work?

Hey, I was wondering how the DAB Challenge leaderboard worked. I know I've corrected more than ten dablinks that have shown up on reports (both with AWB and with dab fixer), but I'm still not on it. I dream of horses (Contribs) (Talk) 01:58, 16 March 2022 (UTC) (ETA word at 01:58, 16 March 2022 (UTC))

The only ones that get points are those that were identified before 1st March (ie DAB Challenge - March). No matter how many new ones you fix they do not count for points - but are just as useful.— Rod ^talk 08:20, 16 March 2022 (UTC)

@Rodw Okay, thanks, that explains things. I dream of horses (Contribs) (Talk) 08:13, 17 March 2022 (UTC)

Hollywood

Per the recently elapsed WP:RM discussion, I have now moved the disambiguation page, "Hollywood", to Hollywood. There are some 10,000 links to fix, and a cursory start indicates that intended targets are neatly mixed between the locality, Hollywood, Los Angeles, and the abstraction Hollywood (film industry), with a smattering of other targets popping up. BD2412 T 18:29, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

@BD2412: BRFA filed to clear the low-hanging fruit. GoingBatty (talk) 21:19, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

You, sir, are a scholar and a gentleman. BD2412 T 21:23, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

Well done! I think I've fixed all the links which intended Hollywood, Florida a while ago but there may be a few other meanings lurking and I made no attempt to deal with the LA vs. cinema metonymy. Certes (talk) 12:04, 21 March 2022 (UTC)

I just fixed two (in a list) that intended Hollywood, County Wicklow. Other than that it has been pretty straightforward. We have gone from over 12,000 to under 1,700 already. BD2412 T 20:26, 24 March 2022 (UTC)

An ambiguous link in Wikidata

List of learned societies in Australia links to DAB page Barton. The link should be Barton, Australian Capital Territory. This needs an edit to wikidata:Q5377913, and I seriously cannot be arsed to struggle to work out how to make it. Narky Blert (talk) 17:40, 26 March 2022 (UTC)

Fixed. eviolite (talk) 17:45, 26 March 2022 (UTC)

Carignano & Carignano (disambiguation)

Another head scratcher I can't quite understand. We have both Carignano & Carignano (disambiguation) with one duplicate & no links between them. I've only noticed this when looking at Disambig fix list for Carignano & trying to work out where they should go (a lot should be House of Savoy-Carignano but this can't be seen on Carignano). I am easily confused.— Rod ^talk 16:47, 30 March 2022 (UTC)

Carignano has been moved to Carignano, Piedmont (without fixing its incoming links). The resulting redirect was overwritten with a duplicate (but less comprehensive) dab. If there is no primary topic then Carignano (disambiguation) should be moved to Carignano instead. The new dab's sole other entry – Carignano, Liguria – just about qualifies per WP:DABMENTION, as it's mentioned on Genoa, and it has a substantial article in Italian. Certes (talk) 17:24, 30 March 2022 (UTC)

Civil Court & Civil court

There are currenty quite a few dab links to Civil court which redirects to Civil law but there are also some to Civil Court which redirects to Lawsuit. Often on the Disambig fix list for Civil law I am unsure what should be going where - is anyone more knowledgeable able to help?— Rod ^talk 15:49, 30 March 2022 (UTC)

Civil court was recently retargeted at RfD to Civil law. I've sent the capitalized version to RfD too now. eviolite (talk) 17:27, 30 March 2022 (UTC)

Infobox station

In Garrison station (Metro-North), |other_services= calls DAB page Cold Spring station. I think the link should be Cold Spring station (Metro-North), as in |services= just above. Narky Blert (talk) 10:32, 7 April 2022 (UTC)

 Fixed in Module:Adjacent stations/New York Central Railroad. I wish trains did serve dabs. A Newcastle station service, calling at Newcastle upon Tyne and New South Wales, would be very welcome right now. Certes (talk) 10:57, 7 April 2022 (UTC)

Another ambiguous railway station with the link hidden from common view

In Urban rail transit in China, some template or other fails to recognise that Convention & Exhibition Center station is ambiguous - twice. This should be redlinked as Convention and Exhibition Center station (Dalian Metro). Narky Blert (talk) 11:20, 8 April 2022 (UTC)

System problem?

Reports such as Templates with disambiguation links claim to be updating as normal but do not actually change. This may be due to wiki replica replication having stopped. Main discussion: WP:VPT#System problem? and phab:T310325. Certes (talk) 01:11, 12 June 2022 (UTC)

Template:Propaganda in Europe

On Propaganda in Russia, Propaganda in Belarus, Propaganda in Spain, Propaganda in the Polish People's Republic and possibly others, a template entitled "Propaganda in Europe" appears at the bottom of the page. This includes 3 dab links, however when I try to view or edit the template it takes me to Template:Europe topic which has template protection. The code says {{Europe topic|Propaganda in}} but I can't find this. Help appreciated.— Rod ^talk 17:27, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

@Rodw: "Propaganda in Germany" is an unambiguous term which doesn't have (and probably doesn't merit) an article. We do have articles on a couple of subtopics, and it's handy to have a page linking to them, but I'm not sure it's a dab. A technical solution is to adding |DE=Article name wherever the template is used, or ideally in a new {{Propaganda in Europe}} navbox to keep the article choices in one place. However, I don't think any article fits the bill. Similar considerations apply to Italy and the UK. Could Propaganda in Germany/Italy/UK become a set index or similar fudge? Certes (talk) 19:51, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

@Rodw and Certes: The bigger issue is that the "continent topic" concept that navbox is based on is just, itself, completely broken. The whole point of Navboxes is to provide links between existing articles. They're supposed to keep redlinks to a minimum, and only in the context of a navbox that's primarily live articles.

This crap of autogenerating a navbox with a sea of individual topic-article links for every country in Europe, when the majority of them will never be written (and probably don't need to be written!), is a serious abuse of the entire navbox concept, IMHO.

I'm with Certes, the best solution here would be to remove {{Europe topic}} from those pages, and replace it with either a navbox of specific links to existing articles, or no navbox at all. (No navbox is a valid option.)

I'm tempted to argue, or even propose, that Template:Europe topic itself should be deleted as counterproductive to the construction of a curated, well-organized encyclopedia. FeRDNYC (talk) 15:48, 17 June 2022 (UTC)

Dabsolver is down

@JaGa, @R'n'B, and all other interested parties:

Dabsolver is currently down. Embarrassingly enough, as an Apple user, I'm somewhat dependent on it. I'm just leaving a note here so those able to either fix it or sound an alarm to those who can can do just that. I dream of horses (Contribs) (Talk) 06:48, 25 June 2022 (UTC)

I've been told by @Nintendofan885 this is due to this redesign. I'm sure other people are more aware than I. I dream of horses (Contribs) (Talk) 07:03, 25 June 2022 (UTC)

I'm afraid that Dispenser's excellent tools are rotting away one by one as the systems they rely on change incompatibly. We need someone to design, implement and maintain replacements, but that's a bigger task than I'm prepared to take on and we may struggle to find a volunteer. Certes (talk) 10:43, 25 June 2022 (UTC)

Yes, it seems that Dispenser is no longer active and their tools are abandoned. Unfortunately, they are not under OS license, so replacing them may be difficult. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 23:53, 25 June 2022 (UTC)

@Certes, @R'n'B: I guess AWB and DisamAssist it is, then. I'll try emailing @Dispenser, but don't count on it working. I dream of horses (Contribs) (Talk) 04:01, 27 June 2022 (UTC)

@I dream of horses: Have you tried WPCleaner? The documentation makes reference to MacOS. GoingBatty (talk) 04:16, 27 June 2022 (UTC)

@GoingBatty Yeah, I have to reinstall it every time I want to use it. I dream of horses (Contribs) (Talk) 04:22, 27 June 2022 (UTC)

I did get some helpful advice from Dispenser on IRC (irc://irc.freenode.net/##dispenser) after they stopped editing, but that would be a couple of years ago. Perhaps what we need most is permission to reuse the software (and its source code, which I think we have somewhere without licence to use it.) Certes (talk) 12:01, 27 June 2022 (UTC)

@GoingBatty Just tried it again on Windows, it works slightly better but it's slow to load. Knew there was a reason why I don't use it much anymore. I dream of horses (Contribs) (Talk) 09:15, 27 June 2022 (UTC)

Anyone know of a tool that enables you to find redlinks? I'd been using http://69.142.160.183/~dispenser/cgi-bin/redlinks.py until it died. It gave you every redlink beginning with an input string, so really useful for finding potential MOS:DABRL entries. Tassedethe (talk) 21:35, 27 June 2022 (UTC)

@Tassedethe Unfortunately, the only way that tool will be recreated is if someone reinvents the wheel. @Certes and @R'n'B have both stated reasons why that won't happen for a very long time, if at all. I dream of horses (Contribs) (Talk) 02:48, 29 June 2022 (UTC)

I use quarry:query/65609. Because you can't edit other people's queries, you'll have to fork that and change the prefix from Dead_Eyes (or whatever I've set it to at the time you copy it). Replace spaces by underscores, and use an upper case initial, e.g. LIKE "IPhone%". Certes (talk) 10:59, 29 June 2022 (UTC)

Thanks! I was hoping there were additional tools tucked away. Recently I saw reference to this tool: https://github.com/greencardamom/Wikiget I haven't tried it yet but it looks like it might be useful. Tassedethe (talk) 17:26, 29 June 2022 (UTC)

@Tassedethe How does one download this? I dream of horses (Contribs) (Talk) 02:13, 3 July 2022 (UTC)

I haven't tried it myself but as it's on github no doubt you could clone it, if you have git installed. The easiest way though is to click the down carat on the 'Code' button, that gives you as 'Download ZIP' option. Tassedethe (talk) 15:18, 3 July 2022 (UTC)

Infobox Olympic bid

The article Bids for the 1998 Winter Olympics uses the template {{Infobox Olympic bid}}. The "winner" field in that template creates two links, one in the Overview section that links to the winning city's bid article (in this case Nagano bid for the 1998 Winter Olympics, which is a self-redirect), and one in the Decision section that links to the article for the winning city. The problem is that the city of Nagano is not the primary topic for the term—the correct article is Nagano (city)—so the link created by the template goes to the dab page Nagano. All the other recent host cities are the primary topics for their names, so I couldn't find any example of how to produce the correct link. Can anyone fix this, or is there a work-around? —ShelfSkewed Talk 19:18, 28 August 2022 (UTC)

Requested move of TBD

An editor has requested for TBD to be moved to another page. Since you had some involvement with TBD, you might want to participate in the move discussion (if you have not already done so). Shhhnotsoloud (talk) 07:44, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

Null edits may be needed on Template:Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City

Could someone with a working copy of AWB (or similar) do null edits on the list of articles linking to Template:Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City? A couple of dab fixes were done to Template:Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City on 1 October but, for some reason, the articles which include the template are still showing at the list of Articles With Multiple Dablinks. I am unable to get AWB working at present.— Rod ^talk 08:29, 11 October 2022 (UTC)

Template:Infobox road & Puducherry

Can an expert in templates take a look at Template:Infobox road to get the link in the infobox for Indian roads to point to Puducherry (union territory) rather than Puducherry? I have tried both the "|state=" & "|territories=" parameters with both the full name and the abbreviation "PY" and can't get this to work. The Dablink list for Puducherry shows where it appears.— Rod ^talk 10:31, 30 October 2022 (UTC)

A very clever bit of software, possibly Module:Infobox road/something, is altering the state parameter. Supplying |state= "Puducherry (union territory)", "Puducherry", "[[Puducherry (union territory)|Puducherry]]" or "[[Puducherry (union territory)|Narnia]]" causes the software to replace it with a link to dab Puducherry. Similarly, supplying |state= "Punjab (India)", "Punjab" or "[[Punjab (India)|Punjab]]" causes the software to replace it with a link to Punjab (the general region rather than the Indian state). However, setting it to "Punjab, India" or "Narnia" doesn't display the state at all. Something is removing " (qualifier)" and "|Whatever" if present, checking that what remains is a state (or UT), then linking to the base name even if that state/UT has a qualified title. R'n'B has recently worked on fixing links generated by these modules, and may be able to advise us. Certes (talk) 11:51, 30 October 2022 (UTC)

Thanks - I see this one has been fixed by User:ColRad85, bu using both state and territories parameters.— Rod ^talk 15:40, 30 October 2022 (UTC)

Help with recent Show and tell move

Hi all, I just recently moved Show and tell to Show and tell (disambiguation) per this discussion close. And Show and tell (education) to Show and tell. But I think there are likely to be a lot of links to that DAB page that now go to the wrong place (the PTOPIC)... I fixed the redirect for "Show & Tell" because that is very obviously for the Filipino TV show. But I'm not sure how to handle the rest of the incoming links to that page. Would appreciate your help on this, let me know your thoughts...— Shibbolethink ^{(♔ ♕)} 15:15, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

Update: I also fixed Show and Tell (song) and Show and Tell (album) so they now redir to the dab page and added hatnotes to the songs and albums which match this title but have incomplete dab with other songs/albums. — Shibbolethink ^{(♔ ♕)} 15:21, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

Nothing significant links directly to Show and tell. Incoming links were fixed when (and because) it was the title of a disambiguation page. However, you may want to retarget Show & tell to the dab in case people look for the TV show with that miscapitalisation. Of course, new direct links to Show and tell will appear over time, and not all of them may be intended for the primary topic. Certes (talk) 16:26, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

Thanks for the advice! Will do. And yes, I suppose this project's work is never done :) — Shibbolethink ^{(♔ ♕)} 16:31, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

I'm afraid this project will no longer pick up the bad links, because only dabs appear on the reports we work from and Show and tell is no longer a dab. Any future errors would have to be found and fixed manually. Certes (talk) 17:00, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

Ahhh I see the problem. Persnicketty, but will be at least helped by the dabnote at the top of that page. — Shibbolethink ^{(♔ ♕)} 17:23, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

Template:Districts of Turkey

The Template:Districts of Turkey is used on several articles (listed here). It includes a link to the dab page Derecik - presumably in the "Districts" section which transposes another template from somewhere & I can't work out where. Help appreciated.— Rod ^talk 12:58, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

 Fixed, thanks to Eviolite. Certes (talk) 13:58, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

Template: Nuclear energy in Asia

On this list dablinks are shown to Nuclear energy in Iran. They are generated by a navbox at the bottom of each article headed "Nuclear energy in Asia". When trying to edit this you are taken to Template:Asia topic and I can't see any way to change the entry for "Iran" to stop the dab link and perhaps point to Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant as Nuclear program of Iran seems to be about nuclear weapons rather than power generation.— Rod ^talk 10:45, 30 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi, I've sent a message to those in charge of the template, due to its protection status, and the response was;

This is a general template, it doesn't link to specific pages for each entry. If disambiguation pages are the best item to land on, they are fine as links here. CMD (talk) 09:19, 23 November 2022 ColRad85 (talk) 06:16, 26 November 2022 (UTC)

Note: I've replied to the message to see if the link on the template can be redirected to Nuclear program of Iran. ColRad85 (talk) 06:38, 26 November 2022 (UTC)

@ColRad85: See Template:Asia topic/doc#Altering the link used for a specific entity. However, one might also consider whether Nuclear energy in Iran has a primary topic. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 13:50, 26 November 2022 (UTC)

Template: Propaganda in Europe

Hi all, I've sent a request to those responsible for the Europe templates to address the propaganda in Germany, Italy and United Kingdom dablinks. It's a protected template, so hopefully someone can make the corrections required :-) . ColRad85 (talk) 07:57, 26 November 2022 (UTC)

The template has been updated! ColRad85 (talk) 04:53, 27 November 2022 (UTC)

Template:Football in the World

At the bottom of Football in the United Kingdom (and presumably others) there is a template where the title is a red link to Football in the World. Viewing or trying to edit takes you to Template:World topic with no indication of how to get to the football specific one. It includes links to dab pages Football in Canada & Football in the United States. As the rest of the links are to Association football presumably these should link to Soccer in Canada & Soccer in the United States. Any ideas how to fix these?— Rod ^talk 16:41, 3 December 2022 (UTC)

Ideally, Module:World topic would accept extra optional parameters such as |link_Canada=Soccer in Canada to override the article titles. (Template:World topic would not need changes; it would pass these through seamlessly.) Certes (talk) 17:24, 3 December 2022 (UTC)

I've fixed the module in its sandbox, and will promote it in a week if there are no objections. I've also created {{Football in the World}} to save having to repeat the Canada and U.S. exceptions explicitly everywhere this template is used. Certes (talk) 21:26, 3 December 2022 (UTC)

As far as I can see, Football in the United Kingdom is the only article to use the template. So a question is: do we need the template? The Banner talk 15:43, 4 December 2022 (UTC)

@The Banner: Sorry for not noticing your comment earlier. {{Football in the World}} is a new template that can be rolled out where needed. However, you're right that {{World topic|Football in}} doesn't seem to be used elsewhere. Like Rodw, I just presumed this would be common to most countries, and I should have checked before bothering to fix it. Perhaps it'll get adopted now it actually works. Certes (talk) 10:42, 9 December 2022 (UTC)

I think the disambiguation pages are dodgy anyway. There is more football than soccer/association football alone. Like Rugby football, Gaelic football, Australian rules football and American football (and I guess I miss a few). But for now, I will not lie in front of the door. The Banner talk 11:10, 9 December 2022 (UTC)

Yes, on reflection, "Football in the World" is a poor title, because it assumes football to mean association football. I took the template title from the heading in the existing navbox (and this conversation). "In the World" may also be superfluous: I believe a golf stroke was taken on the Moon, but there's no evidence of extraterrestrial footballing of any code. I won't object if someone moves it to "Association football by country" or similar. Certes (talk) 13:35, 9 December 2022 (UTC)

Change released to Module:World topic. The new facility to override links should be useful elsewhere too. Certes (talk) 10:42, 9 December 2022 (UTC)

Station dabs

Could someone who is good with appropriate tools (possibly petscan or similar) put togtehr a list of all the articles listed at Disambiguation pages with links (currently 6800+) which contain the word "station" in their title? My impression is that there are more of these articles appearing on the Daily Disambig and that they are staying longer. I assume this may be because the links are hidden within "Infobox station", "Adjacent stations" etc making them more difficult to fix (and not show up in DisamAssist). I am aware that some links may be in articles about railway lines or transport systems and therefore may not be included but, once the list is created, we could post a message at Wikipedia:WikiProject Trains (and one or two key individuals who frequently use these templates) asking them to help resolve them.— Rod ^talk 14:37, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

List of stations

Pingshan station 271 links Fix list Kushiro Station 10 links Fix list Boca Raton station 4 links Fix list Hayato Station 3 links Fix list Kiyama Station 3 links Fix list Sun Yat-sen University station 3 links Fix list Chaoyang railway station 2 links Fix list East Station 2 links Fix list Fukui Station 2 links Fix list Kamo Station 2 links Fix list Kotoni Station 2 links Fix list Kuramoto Station 2 links Fix list Kōriyama Station 2 links Fix list Mori Station 2 links Fix list Takamatsu Station 2 links Fix list Aioi Station 1 link Fix list Airport station 1 link Fix list Araki Station 1 link Fix list Austin station 1 link Fix list Belapur railway station 1 link Fix list Carnegie station 1 link Fix list Chatham railway station 1 link Fix list Church Avenue station 1 link Fix list Clayton railway station 1 link Fix list Dali railway station 1 link Fix list Davenport railway station 1 link Fix list Dundas station 1 link Fix list Echizen-Takefu Station 1 link Fix list Eco Park metro station 1 link Fix list Fukushima Station 1 link Fix list Funaoka Station 1 link Fix list Furuichi Station 1 link Fix list Fushimi Station 1 link Fix list Futamata Station 1 link Fix list Fuyang railway station 1 link Fix list Gaya Station 1 link Fix list Glasgow railway station 1 link Fix list Greenway Halt railway station 1 link Fix list Gōdo Station 1 link Fix list Hashimoto Station 1 link Fix list Hayward station 1 link Fix list Heathrow station 1 link Fix list Hirono Station 1 link Fix list Hiyoshi Station 1 link Fix list Hongō Station 1 link Fix list Hwajeong station 1 link Fix list Ishida Station 1 link Fix list Itami Station 1 link Fix list Jackson station 1 link Fix list Jōno Station 1 link Fix list Jōtō Station 1 link Fix list Karlsplatz station 1 link Fix list Kempten railway station 1 link Fix list Kurokawa Station 1 link Fix list Kusatsu Station 1 link Fix list Kōchi Station 1 link Fix list Kōhoku Station 1 link Fix list Kōnan Station 1 link Fix list Lakeside station 1 link Fix list Langford railway station 1 link Fix list Larne railway station 1 link Fix list Layton station 1 link Fix list Lexington Market station 1 link Fix list Liantang station 1 link Fix list Lodi station 1 link Fix list Love Station 1 link Fix list Lucknow railway station 1 link Fix list Maki Station 1 link Fix list Mikawa Station 1 link Fix list Mitsuishi Station 1 link Fix list Nagahara Station 1 link Fix list Nagata Station 1 link Fix list Nakano Station 1 link Fix list Nyamwamba Hydroelectric Power Station 1 link Fix list Ochiai Station 1 link Fix list Oda Station 1 link Fix list Racecourse station 1 link Fix list Sheridan station 1 link Fix list Shiomi Station 1 link Fix list Shioya Station 1 link Fix list Southampton station 1 link Fix list Summit rail station 1 link Fix list Takao Station 1 link Fix list Takatsu Station 1 link Fix list Thompson station 1 link Fix list Timonium station 1 link Fix list Tokuda Station 1 link Fix list Tomiura Station 1 link Fix list Union Station 1 link Fix list University station 1 link Fix list Wallingford station 1 link Fix list Worb railway station 1 link Fix list Yiyang railway station 1 link Fix list Yoshitomi Station 1 link Fix list Ōmiya Station 1 link Fix list Ōyama Station 1 link Fix list Metro 1 link Fix list

Pingshan is already fixed. Most of the others should probably be fixed with an update to a relevant module or template, even if that module or template doesn't link to the station. I've fixed Kushiro thus, though "WhatLinksHere" may take a while to update, and will take a look at the others. Certes (talk) 15:51, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

Done as far as Chaoyang, but they don't make life easy for us – the Boca Raton links were buried in a module and three nested templates. Certes (talk) 16:47, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

Thank you - that is exactly the sort of thing I was thnking of, but I will hold off sharing with WP trains if you are working your wonders on modules & templates.— Rod ^talk 17:00, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

How easy/difficult would it be to add articles with "station" in the title which appear in Articles With Multiple Dablinks as a load more have just appeared there?— Rod ^talk 18:18, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

&/or those with "metro" in the title?— Rod ^talk 18:21, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

Most so-called AMD have only one dablink. The stations with more than one are mostly articles which transclude {{Shenzhen Metro stations}}, so fixing its errors (such as the tastefully named Longdong station) should fix most problems. I can redo my DPL extract for "metro" - any other strings to look for? Certes (talk) 18:53, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

Thanks - it might be worth adding "Line X" where X = a number if possible.— Rod ^talk 18:58, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

"Metro" matches only Metro itself (which an IP just expanded into a huge list of the world's metro systems) and one station (Eco Park) already on the list. No matches for Line [number]. I've added one-link stations S–Z that I missed off last time. Certes (talk) 19:44, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

They can't all be coming from one transcluded template as there are different numbers of dab links on different articles.— Rod ^talk 19:37, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

The template shows only the relevant line, so each transclusion gets a different number of bad links. I think I've fixed it now. Certes (talk) 19:44, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for all help - I get very confused in these modules and complex templates.— Rod ^talk 19:52, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

Me too. There's some help in /Guide but they're all different. The last one I fixed was {{stn|Name|Disambiguator}}, which should be {{stn|Name||Disambiguator}}, unlike {{STN|Name|Disambiguator}} which works because stn and STN require their parameters in a different order. Only an experienced station disambiguation specialist is likely to get anything vaguely complicated right first time. Certes (talk) 21:01, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

My apologies for that one. I wrote {{stn}} first, then when I realized that there wasn't going to be any standardization between Xxx station and Xxx Station naming (thank you certain nationality editors) I created {{STN}} as a shortcut. Unfortunately, by that time the first template was used too widely to conveniently change the parameter order. :( Useddenim (talk) 16:47, 11 January 2023 (UTC)

@Useddenim I think it might actually be safe to change that; see Template talk:Station. Mackensen (talk) 17:28, 11 January 2023 (UTC)

Done as far as Eco Park, where I'll leave it for tonight. There are some teasers in there, such as one where fixing the linked template had no effect until I realised that the article was actually using an old copy of that template in user space. Certes (talk) 23:09, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

 Done. Thank goodness for all those wonderful templates that let us enjoy hours analysing and recoding a labyrinth of Lua software rather than having to change [[Foo station|Foo]] to [[Foo station (Bar)|Foo]]! Certes (talk) 11:22, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for all your work on this. If you were to run it again it would show how many station related issues had been created in the last 3 days, which would give an indication of how big a problem these create.— Rod ^talk 11:35, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

There's a disappointingly long list of new stations: Changlong station, Civic Center Station, Fushimi Station, Guomao station, Kowloon station, Notodden Station, Shuanglong station, Xiasha station, Yaga Station. There are also some lines without numbers: East West Line, Jōhoku Line, Kobe Line, Livoberezhna line, Metrorail, Soo Line, Takarazuka Line, Yamada Line. Certes (talk) 12:09, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

I would love it when the station-Cabal can agree on a standard way to disambiguate stations and make those templates easier to fix. The Banner talk 11:47, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

This presupposes a uniformity across nationalities that frankly doesn't exist. Every attempt to adopt a uniform naming convention that crosses national boundaries has foundered. Mackensen (talk) 13:22, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

snif... The Banner talk 13:33, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

Question: is there a daily report that members of WikiProject Trains can look at? I'm happy to help with these issues, and I can probably find and fix them pretty fast. Mackensen (talk) 14:30, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

Some years ago there was a report of links to dab pages where the article was tagged with a specific wikiproject (eg WP:TRAINS or WP:STATIONS) but this was among Dispenser's tools which stopped working.— Rod ^talk 14:46, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

Yes, it stopped working when the MediaWiki changed the database design about 2021. The last version to work was here. There are regular requests to replace these useful tools but, as usual, no resource available. Certes (talk) 14:58, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

I used to pick up a lot of these, if in Great Britain, but I unwatched several thousand GB station articles two years or so back after a nasty TfD. --Redrose64 🦌 (talk) 22:45, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

I'm conversant with python, and with SQL databases (though not MediaWiki's specifically, not really), but I don't know that I'd want to commit to setting up and hosting a reporting environment. That's far too close to my actual job, and this is supposed to be a hobby. Can this be approximated with WP:PETSCAN? Mackensen (talk) 02:43, 5 January 2023 (UTC)

I put together a rough and not especially optimized query at WP:QUARRY: [8]. This looks for articles whose talk pages include {{WikiProject Trains}} that link to disambiguation pages. Mackensen (talk) 03:40, 5 January 2023 (UTC)

That query filters the source page by project, e.g. it includes the link from rail article Kolkata Metro rolling stock to non-rail dab DTG, which (I think) is what Dispenser's topic_points did. I listed rail-related targets (even if linked from non-rail articles). Both queries seem useful. I don't think PetScan could do either job easily, without creating a huge pagepile of all rail pages (or, worse, all dabs). We could also look for anything linking to a {{station disambiguation}} (or redirect thereto) not called X (disambiguation), but not all interesting targets have that template: some list lines etc., some disambiguate railway stations from non-rail stations (farms, generators, etc.) and some simply lack the template. The cases already appear on the standard reports; the problem is that the usual tools and manual procedures for link disambiguation only change normal wikilinks and don't handle changing templates ({{stn|Foo}} → {{stn|Foo||Bar}}), let alone making intricate changes to Lua modules. Certes (talk) 12:34, 5 January 2023 (UTC)

Well, I'm happy to look at the reports as well on a regular basis. Is there a better way than remembering to look at https://dplbot.toolforge.org/disambig_links.php on a regular basis? Mackensen (talk) 12:57, 5 January 2023 (UTC)

I've created User:Certes/Reports/Ambiguous_rail_links, with help from SDZeroBot. This should run daily and on request, producing (subject to timing differences) a subset of the DPL output. Certes (talk) 21:39, 11 January 2023 (UTC)

Template:IHL

Last week I edited Template:IHL to change a link after a page move. I had moved Chicago Hounds to Chicago Hounds (ice hockey team) and edited the link in the template to point to the new location. Chicago Hounds is now a dab page, but the template links still seem to be pointing to it. Is there any quicker way of changing all the links, apart from doing a blank edit on the articles used in the template? Bcp67 (talk) 11:08, 16 January 2023 (UTC)

@Bcp67: I don't think so. Either make a null edit the pages (no need to go as far as a dummy edit) or just wait for the backlog to catch up. Purging doesn't do the job. You may want to use AWB or JWB; either requires pre-approval but that should be automatic for someone with your record and a use for the tool. Certes (talk) 13:30, 16 January 2023 (UTC)

Thanks Certes, it was the null edit I had in mind- wasn't sure of the correct term. I'll just go through the articles and do that. Thanks again. --Bcp67 (talk) 13:35, 16 January 2023 (UTC)

Disambiguation pages with missing links

@Tassedethe: http://69.142.160.183/~dispenser/view/File_viewer#log:missing_entries-enwiki.log still works for me, and a look at directory http://69.142.160.183/~dispenser/logs/ suggests that the data is being updated. Certes (talk) 19:13, 28 January 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for that. I was sure it had stopped along with the other tools. Tassedethe (talk) 19:15, 28 January 2023 (UTC)

@Certes:, I'm not sure it's working properly. I checked Daniel Desmond (disambiguation) and William East, and the supposed missing links have been there for years. Is there a trick to getting the updated information? Tassedethe (talk) 19:34, 28 January 2023 (UTC)

Sadly, I think you're right. The timestamps on the immediate inputs update, but I think they're being regenerated unchanged based on outdated inputs. Certes (talk) 19:36, 28 January 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for checking. Another useful Dispenser tool unavailable :( Tassedethe (talk) 20:39, 28 January 2023 (UTC)

Constitution of Chile in Template:Constitutions of states and dependencies in the Americas

The articles in this list have links to Constitution of Chile which seem to arise from a template titled "Constitutions of states and dependencies in the Americas". When you try to view or edit the template it takes you to Template:Americas topic and I can't see how to fix this.— Rod ^talk 22:06, 28 January 2023 (UTC)

DPL bot not working 100%

I've noticed User:DPL bot is adding the {{Incoming links}} template, but not removing it when the links have been fixed. You can see the category Category:Disambiguation pages with many incoming links has pages tagged going back months. The few I've looked at don't appear to have any incoming links. I left a note with the bot owner User:JaGa but they appear to be inactive (1 edit on Jan 1, before that September). Not sure if anything can be done without the owner? Tassedethe (talk) 16:47, 5 February 2023 (UTC)

• Bug squashed. Thanks for the report! --R'n'B (call me Russ) 18:40, 5 February 2023 (UTC)

Need help disambiguating a link within a template

Howdy disambiguators. I'm stumped on page Florida's 6th Senate district, within Template:Election box I'm trying to disambiguate Unaffiliated to Independent politician and for the life of me can't figure out how to do it. Curious to see how it's fixed. Peace- J04n(talk page) 17:35, 10 February 2023 (UTC)

@J04n: I think the solution should be in adding a line for "Unaffiliated" at Module:Political party/U, which I have done, but it has not worked (yet). However, I don't know if this is because intermediary templates need to pick it up, which may take a few minutes. In the meantime I have implemented the ugly solution of changing the parameter value in the article itself. BD2412 T 18:42, 10 February 2023 (UTC)

Hi BD2412, I was just admiring your "ugly solution", what you call ugly I call brilliant! Be well --J04n(talk page) 18:50, 10 February 2023 (UTC)

Dab links on lists of acronyms

Could someone take a look at the list of acronyms articles. Where an acronym is followed by several potential uses I have been linking to the dab page but where there is one acronym followed by one use it seems pointless to link both the acronym & the specific article:

• List of acronyms: A
• List of acronyms: B
• List of acronyms: C
• List of acronyms: F
• List of acronyms: L
• List of acronyms: M
• List of acronyms: N

Interested in the thoughts of others.— Rod ^talk 17:45, 10 February 2023 (UTC)

• Generally it's the lists that are wrong. In most cases, the reason the acronym is a dab is that there are multiple acronym meanings, so the list mention including only one meaning is incomplete. BD2412 T 18:04, 10 February 2023 (UTC)
• The entire series of lists should be deleted because Wikipedia is not a dictionary. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 02:28, 11 February 2023 (UTC)

Template:Diocese of the Americas

On Diocese of the Windward Islands there is a navbox headed "Diocese of the Americas" which includes 6 dab links. When you attempt to view or edit this it goes to Template:Americas topic and I can't see how to fix the links. Help appreciated.— Rod ^talk 14:18, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

This also happens with a template/navbox titled "Football in the Americas" on Football in South America. Is there a guide to how to edit specific instances of this template? I have looked at Template:About continent and region topic templates and I am still none the wiser.— Rod ^talk 17:13, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

@Rodw: If you edit those articles, you will see near the bottom either {{Americas topic|Diocese of}} or {{Americas topic|Football in}}. There is just one navbox template, which isn't intended to be edited; it uses its parameters to construct a large number of links, which must be in certain predefined formats. So using |Diocese of}} and nothing else produces links to Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados etc. and if one of these pages is moved to another name and the resulting redirect is repurposed as a dab page, you will get the problems that you describe. The template depends upon a set of articles having a consistent naming pattern. See Template:Americas topic#1st parameter (prefix). --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 22:07, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

Per #Football in the World above, we could make a module change like this one to {{Americas topic}}. That would allow parameters like |link_Belize=the Anglican Diocese of Belize. However, is "Diocese of" the best parameter value? Many of these countries have Catholic dioceses too. Maybe we want something like {{Americas topic|Anglican diocese of}}, creating redirects where the article is called simply Diocese of Foo (but carefully leaving the Catholic ones red). Certes (talk) 22:36, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

The problem in this particular case is that {{Americas topic}} is specifically designed for articles at the country level, and Anglican dioceses do not in all cases correspond to countries; for example, there are multiple dioceses in the United States, which this template cannot handle. It really needs a custom template for this topic, rather than trying to fit the square peg into a round hole. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 22:45, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

Agreed. My suggestion is inappropriate for dioceses but fits better for football where each country has one team. Again, other denominations are available, with some worshipping the oval ball, and we need to be clear whether each navbox covers men, women or both. Certes (talk) 11:56, 28 February 2023 (UTC)

Dallas

We have a situation with the article Dallas. The IP editor 109.225.76.100 (talk · contribs) has been at war for two years with the (disambiguation) redirects in that article's hatnote. Narky Blert attempted to persuade them to stop in October 2021, so conversation has been tried and failed. Nick Number restored the redirects on a later occasion, and I have warned them twice and restored the redirects at least three times. My last fix was reverted, and I'm not entirely certain the IP's edits constitute vandalism, so I don't want to get an edit-war suspension. Any thoughts on how to proceed? —ShelfSkewed Talk 19:54, 3 March 2023 (UTC)

Rats, I'd hoped they'd stopped; though their October 2021 TP post It is every Wikipedia user's duty to know what they are linking to had never filled me with enthusiasm. TY to Dekimasu for correcting this error again. IP's edits to Dallas are definitely not WP:VAND, though they do smack of WP:CIR; and it's certainly not a case of WP:THEYCANTHEARYOU, because they know about their TP. Their other edits - well, I've seen worse and some are perfectly good. To me, this looks too slow-moving for WP:PP or any sort of sanction. I suggest more eyes and reversions on Dallas if they persist, in the hope they learn. Sigh.

Pinging Leschnei, another member of the reversion club who'd posted on IP's TP. Narky Blert (talk) 21:05, 3 March 2023 (UTC)

I have to admit that I never understood what they meant by It is every Wikipedia user's duty to know what they are linking to - are we to assume that every link to a disambiguation page is intentional? Leschnei (talk) 22:32, 3 March 2023 (UTC)

I think it's an opinion which dissents from WP:NOTBROKEN and WP:INTDAB, used as a justification for making changes which conflict with those guidelines. Certes (talk) 23:05, 3 March 2023 (UTC)

The behaviour reminds me of Kung Hibbe, who seems to understand WP:NOTBROKEN and WP:INTDAB but disagrees with them, though the IP address is not in their usual range. Like Kung Hibbe and other socks, the IP is Swedish (bredband2.se) and is active on Dutch Wikipedia as well as English and Swedish. Time for a SPI? Certes (talk) 21:55, 3 March 2023 (UTC)

I don't think the quacking is loud or frequent enough for an SPI right now. I've seen other editors who disbelieve in those guidelines, and this is a low-activity IP. Narky Blert (talk) 23:53, 3 March 2023 (UTC)

Shortened lists of dabs

Is it just me (and my computer setup) or are some of the lists being shortened?

• Today's Dablink Report finishes at 122 (letter N)
• Articles With Multiple Dablinks finishes at 157 (2 links letter C)
• Disambiguation pages with links finished at 168 (3 links letter S)

Does anyone know why this should be happening & anything that can be done to fix it?— Rod ^talk 12:14, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

It's not just your computer. They're truncated for me too. Certes (talk) 21:30, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

Y with loop

Can anyone work out what is going on at Y with loop? There are lots of 2 letter links to dab pages in the template "Lating Script" but these don't appear at Template:Latin script and I have no idea what they should be linking to or what they are meant to mean.— Rod ^talk 13:42, 21 May 2023 (UTC)

It will be one of the recent changes to these subtemplates:

• Template:Latin script/main (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
• Template:Latin script/diacritic with all letters (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
• Template:Latin script/letter with all diacritics (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

It's probably something for Kepler-1229b (talk · contribs) to look at. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 18:25, 21 May 2023 (UTC)

They're in the "pairs" section. 🪐Kepler-1229b | talk | contribs🪐 00:34, 22 May 2023 (UTC)

Fixed. 🪐Kepler-1229b | talk | contribs🪐 00:35, 22 May 2023 (UTC)

Something to do

For any disambiguators looking for something to do while the replication lag prevents our reports from working, a move has caused Universal history to become a disambiguation page with a little under 200 incoming links. -Niceguyedc (talk) 12:03, 30 May 2023 (UTC)

Reports are starting to catch up, but are running slowly and may time out. Certes (talk) 11:37, 1 June 2023 (UTC)

Disambiguation link on Law enforcement in Africa

Could those knowledgeable about links to dab pages in templates/navboxes take a look at the discussion at Template talk:Africa topic#Disambiguation link on Law enforcement in Africa? I asked for a link to Law enforcement in Western Sahara to be changed in a protected template, but this has not been possible. Any ideas/comments appreciated.— Rod ^talk 16:19, 14 June 2023 (UTC)

Discussion on possible issue with toolforge

There is a possible issue with a disambiguation finder on toolforge. I have started a discussion here and am asking for assistance/input if possible. Thanks! Primefac (talk) 09:32, 3 August 2023 (UTC)

Major cleanup

Major has been moved to Major (rank) following a RM, and the dab to the base name. I just fixed the 200 affected templates, but there are still over 6,000 articles to fix. As usual, a few of them may refer to other uses of "major". Certes (talk) 11:35, 29 October 2023 (UTC)

Update: incoming redirects fixed. I scanned incoming links from articles selectively and disambiguated two to academic major but the rest may well be for the rank. Certes (talk) 12:02, 29 October 2023 (UTC)

BTW I moved a handful of redirects over to the rank article, and actually found one that was better retargeted to Major (France). I was looking at dozens of entries in whatlinkshere, and there seemed to be mostly cursory references to the rank, but also a fair bit of overlinking. I found a case where Captain, Lieutenant and Major were linked with various levels of intricate disambiguating detail, but then also some where Major was linked but Lieutenant wasn't :) --Joy (talk) 18:11, 29 October 2023 (UTC)

Many individual links could also be retargetted to Major (Someland) but that's a tedious and thankless task which I'm too lazy to perform. I've found a few which should target Mayor, or occasionally Alcalde, which are called "major" in some languages. Certes (talk) 22:18, 29 October 2023 (UTC)

Major is now finished or at least down to negligible proportions. Thanks to all who helped. Today's awkward move is Al Jazeera; discussion here. Certes (talk) 19:11, 5 November 2023 (UTC)

Formation and Infobox Indian state or territory

I think something, similar to my query above, may be going on with Formation in the Template:Infobox Indian state or territory. I can't see any other reason why these articles are producing the error.— Rod ^talk 16:34, 28 November 2023 (UTC)

It may have something to do with |formation_date3=formation which indicates a bifurcation from another state. This idea is supported by the incoming links for Formation1, used in |formation_date2=formation1. I don't see exactly how it's getting linked though. Certes (talk) 18:15, 28 November 2023 (UTC)

links to Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy

Can anyone work out what is causing links to Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy. There are 15 articles shown at Disambig fix list for Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy but I can't see where. They have Template:USSecNavy in common but this was last edited in June. Any ideas appreciated.— Rod ^talk 15:19, 28 November 2023 (UTC)

I haven't found the exact cause but it may be related to recent changes to Template:Infobox officeholder/office. I suspect that when the infobox lists holders of Assistant Secretary of the Navy it also checks the existence of Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (but then doesn't link to it anyway). Template talk:Infobox officeholder#Edit request 14 November 2023 might have solved the problem had it been accepted. Pinging Neveselbert and GuardianH who may have useful insights. Certes (talk) 15:57, 28 November 2023 (UTC)

Should be  fixed now. The conditionals had been set to {{{office|}}} rather than the names of the parameters filled in the data beneath the label, which appears to have activated these links. ‑‑Neveselbert (talk · contribs · email) 16:33, 28 November 2023 (UTC)

Did that edit have anything to do with the 789 new links to Deputy that just appeared today? —R'n'B (call me Russ) 12:45, 29 November 2023 (UTC)

 Investigating... ‑‑Neveselbert (talk · contribs · email) 16:50, 29 November 2023 (UTC)

Probably, since if the |office= parameter is missing (or blank) we'll just check the existence of Deputy. Certes (talk) 17:36, 29 November 2023 (UTC)

I think I've fixed it now. ‑‑Neveselbert (talk · contribs · email) 18:53, 29 November 2023 (UTC)

Thank you! The links to "Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy" have gone. We still have a lot of links to Deputy, but they may disappear without further effort as the affected pages reach the top of the queue. Certes (talk) 19:17, 29 November 2023 (UTC)

Deputy is now free of unwanted incoming links. Certes (talk) 18:31, 3 December 2023 (UTC)

Reformers & Template:Election summary party

On several articles (1835 Liverpool Town Council election, 1836 Liverpool Town Council election, 1839 Liverpool Town Council election, 1840 Liverpool Town Council election, 1841 Liverpool Town Council election) there is a link to "Reformers" in Template:Election summary party which should go to Whigs (British political party) but I can't work out what is happening in the template. (NB it works in the infobox but not in the Election results per ward). Any help appreciated.— Rod ^talk 17:46, 3 December 2023 (UTC)

The party name has been changed from "Whigs" to "Reformers". The citations all require login and probably go to someone's personal Google Drive account, and their archives just show Google's login page. If we want to display the the Whig party as "Reformers" just for these few elections then that needs a new entry in Module:Political party/R, probably under some unique name (to avoid clashes with the existing Hungarian party) which redirects to Whigs (British political party). Or we could just change them back to Whigs, which they were known as everywhere else. Certes (talk) 18:49, 3 December 2023 (UTC)

Thanks - I think the easiest will be to change the links to Whigs (British political party).— Rod ^talk 10:37, 4 December 2023 (UTC)

Sydney Football Stadium and Template:Rugby union stadium

Great work in the last 24 hours to reduce the links to Sydney Football Stadium from 1,000+ to 24 however these seem to be generated by links to "Allianz Stadium" in Template:Rugby union stadium ("RUS") and I can't see any way to dab in this template.— Rod ^talk 10:40, 4 December 2023 (UTC)

They seem to have gone away now. Certes (talk) 19:24, 23 December 2023 (UTC)

Bot operation on Today's Dablink Report & Templates with disambiguation links

Does abyone know if a tweak has been made to bot operations over the last couple of days. When Today's Dablink Report is published all articles are struckthrough as if they have been edited and on Templates with disambiguation links articles are no longer struckthrough when they have been edited.— Rod ^talk 18:15, 23 December 2023 (UTC)

The reports now seem to be fixed. Certes (talk) 21:36, 23 December 2023 (UTC)

Thanks- I don't know what you did but seems to be working fine now.— Rod ^talk 08:55, 24 December 2023 (UTC)

I didn't do anything, but I also add my thanks to whoever mended them. Certes (talk) 09:55, 24 December 2023 (UTC)

Template:Romani people in Asia

Several articles (shown on this list) include a template titled "Romani people in Asia" but when you try to edit this it takes you to a protected Template:Asia topic. On the 2nd line of "Sovereign states" there is a link to Iran which should go to one or other (or both of the articles at Romani people in Iran. Any help sorting this one out wiuld be appreciated.— Rod ^talk 17:47, 2 January 2024 (UTC)

My gut is that "Romani people in Iran" is a WP:BCA and not a proper disambiguation page. The term refers to both of the topics, not to one or the other of the topics. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 22:33, 2 January 2024 (UTC)

Also, Persian Romani is not a people but a language spoken by several groups such as the Ghorbati who are related to but not obviously subgroups of the Romani people. That just leaves the Zargari tribe as actual people who are Romani and in Asia (though there may well be other groups not listed on the dab, with or without articles). Certes (talk) 22:55, 2 January 2024 (UTC)

Who wrote the Toolforge DAB Challenge tool?

I was wondering who wrote/created/maintains the Toolforge DAB Challenge tool?--Commander Keane (talk) 20:08, 22 January 2024 (UTC)

I believe DPL bot which manages the lists etc, was written by User:JaGa.— Rod ^talk 20:16, 22 January 2024 (UTC)

Since the list was added, links to and is updated by his bot I'd assume it's JaGa. But he hasn't edited for the last 3 months. Nobody (talk) 20:18, 22 January 2024 (UTC)

As noted by others, User:JaGa originally wrote it, but I'm currently maintaining it. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 20:48, 22 January 2024 (UTC)

Ahh ok that is great R'n'B. Perhaps a link at the bottom of the page with contact details of the maintainer and source code would be good. I may have a general Toolforge request not related to DPL for you soon.--Commander Keane (talk) 20:52, 22 January 2024 (UTC)

There's already a link there to the bot's User talk: page (which I watch). Source code is available although you'd have to know a lot about Toolforge to know where to look for it, so adding a link for that seems like a good idea. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 21:20, 22 January 2024 (UTC)

Brainstorming disambiguation wishes

I am looking for brainstorming assistance revolving around improving disambiguation in Wikipedia (for contributors, readers, software developers, etc).

I have started a list at Wikipedia:WikiProject Disambiguation/Feature requests.

The purpose is getting better disambiguation tools and policies (eg through Community Wishlist Surveys), and who better to ask than the members of this project!

Any help in growing the list would be appreciated. Commander Keane (talk) 02:57, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

monthly challenge list question

I did some work on fixing disambiguation links 5-10 years ago, but have gotten back into it in the past couple of weeks, and am trying to update the monthly list as I go (please feel free to let me know if I'm screwing something up on that list or in general - I try to only make edits that seem "clear" to me, but I could always be missing something).

I noticed that 1945 tornado outbreak (disambiguation) was on the March list here, but doesn't show up on the external monthly challenge list. My assumption was that that meant that the links had been fixed by someone not involved in the project here. However, the page does show up on the main external list. Does that mean that there were links to it as of February 29 which then got fixed (to take the page off the challenge list) and later reintroduced (to show up on the main list currently)? If I fixed the links, would I then move them to the "done" section on the wikiproject like a regular fix?

(as a sidenote, I'm not sure what to do with this particular example - it seems like it might be appropriate for these infoboxes to go to the disambiguation page unless/until a full "Tornadoes of 1945" article is written? So the redirect could maybe be hardcoded as (disambiguation) to keep it off the list here? I was just going to leave them alone until I looked at the lists and got a bit confused/intrigued.) Cleancutkid (talk) 23:04, 6 March 2024 (UTC)

Non-disambiguation pages that still should have all links fixed.

Is there any way to mark these? I.e. the muslim name Abd al-Rahman and its redirects have a large number of links that should go to specific people with the name. I tried posting at Wikipedia:WikiProject Bluelink patrol but that seems to be a one-person project and I got no response. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 18:59, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

No, but there should be! Many (but not all) surname pages are essentially a dab listing people who are legitimate targets for incoming links; they contain little information about the actual name and incoming links are rarely correct. Other non-dabs such as ship SIAs have a similar problem: anyone linking to HMS Acasta probably intended a particular ship rather than the list. (WP:BPAT still does useful work, not all of which is listed on its project page, but only has two or three regularly active menbers.) Certes (talk) 23:18, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

One thing that DPL could definitely target is links to pages in Category:Redirects from incomplete disambiguation. These are fairly common and should be fixed even if the target is a set index or list rather than a disambig. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 14:00, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

This query may be interesting, though the categorisation of some redirects there as "from incomplete disambiguation" is at best borderline . For example, Athletics (sport), a redirect to Sport of athletics, has nearly 10,000 incoming links which may well be correct. Certes (talk) 15:13, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

Yes, the category is unfortunately very inconsistently applied. For example, most all the entries for <year>_Akron_football_team should not be in this category, but likely should use either {{R from incorrect disambiguation}} or {{R from other disambiguation}}. But even experts at redirect templates, such as Paine Ellsworth will use {{R from incomplete disambiguation}} on redirects such as this. older ≠ wiser 15:43, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

Template:Extrajudicial killings in the World

Could someone who is good with templates take a look at a template labelled, on 20+ pages, as "Extrajudicial killings in the World". When you try to view or edit the link goes to Template:World topic. It links to several dab pages & several link to "Extrajudicial killing#country name" which are circular links. Help appreciated.— Rod ^talk 08:27, 3 June 2024 (UTC)

Extrajudicial killing, etc., use {{World topic|prefix=Extrajudicial killings in}}, so the VTE links go to the right template. (Extrajudicial killings in the World redirects there, presumably due to the rarity of extrajudicial killings in space.) I'm not sure how useful this navbox is. We have no actual articles called Extrajudicial killings in Fooland, the nearest being Extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in the Philippines. Most entries are redlinks. As you say, the rest are dabs or redirects to sections, mainly to the one article Extrajudicial killing#Fooland. We could simply remove the navbox. Certes (talk) 13:52, 3 June 2024 (UTC)