 | This page is not Wikipedia policy, but rather, it is an attempt to gain consensus for the clarification of WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. Please discuss issues and proposed changes on the talk page. |
Is there a primary topic? edit
Although a term may potentially refer to more than one topic, it is often the case that one of these topics is highly likely – much more likely than any other, and more likely than all the others combined – to be the subject being sought when a reader clicks the "Go" button for that term. If there is such a topic, then it is called the primary topic for that term. If a primary topic exists, the term should be the title of (or redirect to) the article on that topic. If there is no primary topic, the term should be the title of a disambiguation page (or redirect to a different disambiguation page, if more than one term is combined on one page).
There are no absolute rules for determining primary topics; decisions are made by discussion between editors, often as a result of a requested move. If there is extended discussion about which article truly is the primary topic, that may be a sign that there is in fact no primary topic.
Tools that may help to support the determination of a primary topic in a discussion, but are not determining factors, include:
- Incoming wikilinks from Special:WhatLinksHere
- Wikipedia article traffic statistics
- Google web, news, scholar, or book searches
For some terms with primary topics the title of the primary topic article may differ from the term itself (as when the article covers a wider topical scope, or is titled differently according to the naming conventions). In this case the term shouldredirect to the article (or a section of it). For example, the primary topic for "Danzig" is the former German city of that name, but the article on that city is titledGdańsk. Therefore Danzig redirects to Gdańsk, and the latter page contains a hatnote linking to Danzig (disambiguation).