About:Ambiguous titles

Travel Guide About:Index About:Ambiguous titles

Introduction

There are many places in the world with the same name. Similarly, there will undoubtedly be many articles in the Travellerspoint destination guide that are competing for the same title (ie. the Victoria in Australia and the Victoria in Canada).

Procedure for dealing with ambiguous titles

1. Decide how to title the article:
Use the rules outlined below decide how to title your article.

2. Create a disambiguation page:
Link to all the articles that share the same title. For an example of a disambiguation page, take a look at Victoria.

3. Add the ambiguous title to the list below:
Make sure you stick it in alphabetically! NOTE: The list is basically a directory of all disambiguation pages, so make sure you link to the disambiguation page.

Guidelines on how to disambiguate titles

Country vs. city/state/region:
Where there is a city or state that has the same name as a country, the country gets the title and the city/state should specify in brackets what country/state it is in. For example:

Georgia is a state in the USA, but it's also a country. The state's title is "Georgia (USA)" and the country's title is "Georgia".

City vs. state/region:
In the case of a city and a state/region sharing a name, the city gets the title, while the state or region's title should specify in brackets that it is a state/region. For example:

Sao Paulo is a city in the state of Sao Paulo. The city's title is "Sao Paulo", while the state's title is "Sao Paulo (state)".

City vs. city:
Many towns and cities throughout the world share the same name. There is more than one Paris, more than one Melbourne, more than one Kingston, etc. Deciding in these cases can be a little more tricky and subjective. Here is how to decide:

The rule: Where two cities or towns share the same name, disambiguate them by country or state in brackets. For example: Kingston in Jamaica would be "Kingston (Jamaica)" while the Kingston in Ontario, Canada gets "Kingston (Ontario)".

The exception: If one of the cities sharing the name is much more famous than any of the others, then it gets the title, while the others are disambiguated by country or state in brackets. For example: When you say "Paris", nine out of ten people will think of the city in France. Since Paris, France is much better known than the two dozen Parises in the USA, the article about the French city will get the title "Paris", while Paris in Tennessee gets "Paris (Tennessee)".

City vs. city, where both cities are in the same country:
The astute among you will notice that in the Kingston example above, Kingston in Jamaica was disambiguated by country, while Kingston, Ontario was disambiguated by state. This is because there are several cities called Kingston in Canada. If there are a number of towns with the same name in the same country, disambiguate them by state. This is often the case with towns in the USA, Australia and Canada.

Even if one of the cities is much more famous than all of the others, still disambiguate it by state, but make the title redirect to it. For example: The most famous "Atlanta" is the city in the state of Georgia, so it will get the title "Atlanta (Georgia)" and have "Atlanta" redirect to it.

What to do if you disagree with the way an article is titled

If you disagree with the way an article is titled, don't just change it. Be respectful and start a discussion.

Contributors

dr.pepper (66%)
from Eric Nicolaas
Utrecht (24%)
from http://utrecht.travellerspoint.com

as well as bentivogli (4%), Herr Bert (3%), Sam I Am (1%), Hien (1%), GregW (1%)