[Wikipedia-l] Disambiguation detector

Wed May 28 23:49:32 UTC 2003

Toby Bartels wrote:
> Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:

>>I'm not convinced. I generally dislike the idea of automatic
>>content of any kind--the content of Wikipedia should be created
>>by human editors, and even disambiguation pages should each be
>>crafted uniquely to suit the needs of the subject, not just stamped
>>out of a template.
> 
> 
> I agree with Lee, but I think that the idea can still be made to work.
> 
> To expand on Lee's point, if faced simply with a list of alternate articles
> -- [[X]], [[X (Y1)]], [[X (Y2)]], [[X (Y3)]], etc. --
> it may not be clear which article you really want,
> at least if the various Ys are closely related.
> A disambiguation page, if necessary, can offer explanations.
> We usually don't need explanation, and a disambiguation page
> is thus usually just a list -- but sometimes we do need explanation.

Well, I agree with Lee, too. And I don't see the problem of Magnus feature.
We have disambiguation pages, written manually as Lee it prefers, with 
explanations and all. Magnus don't intended to change that.

And Magnus feature only supports a shortcut: If I got on a page X (Y1) 
(randomly), and I see X (Y2) and think, oh, fine, Y2 was what I'm 
interested in, let's go there, I can do that. No need to do that list of 
links manually. If I need the explanations or I'm interested in them I will 
  go to X, and read them. The user has the free choice, we only offer him 
to have that choice.

Let's first decide if we agree to the feature as it is, and discuss further 
features seperatly. Erik's proposal is a possiblility, but it should be not 
mixed up with the current feature.

PS: If you remember, Magnus wrote that each Language can turn it on or off. 
Or possibly each User. I think that will be a minor change the developers 
can handle in a few minutes. No need that all have to use this feature. And 
than each wikipedia or even each user can choose.

-- 
Smurf
German translation on request ;)
smurf at AdamAnt.mud.de
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