Commons:Category disambiguation
This page is anessay;it contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more Commons contributors.It isnota Commonspolicyorguideline,and editors are not obliged to follow it. Please update the page as needed, or discuss it on thetalk page.
On Commons,Categoriesshould bedisambiguatedlike Wikipedia articles,but there is a greater emphasis on accuracy over conciseness, because on Wikipedia readers can figure out the article's topic based on its content, whereas on Commons categories are often undescribed and users must infer the topic from its parent categories and existing media.
Accordingly, there should be a higher threshold forprimary topics.Generally if Wikipedia wants 75% in this specific case, we want 90% the others combined or if the topic is overwhelmingly more important than others with that term. If at least 90% of people who search for "London"want the capital for example the category should be called" London "not" London, England "for example (with the dab page atCategory:London (disambiguation).However when this isn't the case as with the categories forMercuryorPerththen they should be disambiguated because they fall below this. Categories however should not be preemptively disambiguated unless a specific guideline states otherwise (likeUSPLACE) or because of a good reason and shouldn't be disambiguated simply because of part title matches unless there is likely confusion in a general context. For example we reasonably expect to seeAbraham Lincolnat Lincoln (disambiguation), but very few sources would refer to the waltz composer Harry J. Lincoln by an unqualified "Lincoln", so he would only be included in theLincoln (surname)category and not listed atCategory:Lincolnas well. There is no single criterion for defining a primary topic. However, there are two major aspects that are commonly discussed in connection with primary topics:
- A topic is primary for a term, with respect tousageif it is the topic sought when a reader searches for that term at least 90% of the time.
- A topic is primary for a term, with respect tolong-term significance,if it has substantially greater enduring notability and educational value than all of the other topic associated with that term combined.
Commons has ascopewhich far exceeds that of Wikipedia. In general, any publicly visible place or object will have people photographing it and uploading photos of it to Commons. Even if the specific thing is not notable, it can be used in a Wikipedia article about a broader geographic region (e.g. a waterfall in a national park) or in a Wikipedia article about the general class (e.g. an article on waterfalls). Whenever you wish to create a category for an entity that sounds potentially ambiguous, search on Google to see if other possibilities exist. For example, "Pier A Park" in Hoboken, New Jersey, sounds like it could apply to any pier labeled "A" and then turned into a park, but an extensive search (e.g. ' "pier a park" -hoboken -nyc -york -jersey') turns up no significant results henceCategory:Pier A Parkis acceptable. On the other hand, disambiguation is wise forCategory:White Memorial Fountain (Stanford University)even though itsWikipedia articleis unique, as ' "white memorial fountain" ' turns up many other results such as one in Boston, and in fact there is a Commons category fora fountain in Connecticut.When in doubt, disambiguate.
Keep in mind that a topic may have more than one category associated with it such as the cityCambridgealso having the university orWellscovering broadly all types of wells. If there is a primary general meaning that should be at the base name. Additionally, we should keep in mind certain differences between the type of material available on Commons vs. Wikipedia. For example, Commons categories are much more likely to be in plural, and copyrighted works (even very notable ones) are unlikely to have many files associated with them on Commons. That is why the primary topic ofCategory:Friendsis the general noun but the primary topic ofFriendson Wikipedia is the sitcom.
Note this briefly explains disambiguation for categories on Commons, but to avoid duplicating much content, please refer to Wikipedia's disambiguation guidelines.