Disambiguation Comment

Disambiguation comments are used to distinguish identically or similarly named artists, labels and other entities. They are visible on entity pages, as well as in search results.

They should be in English and kept short. A few words are usually enough to disambiguate the entity. Follow the same capitalization guidelines as for extra title information, as these comments are not part of the name.

You will be prompted to enter a disambiguation comment when you create an artist, label or place* that shares its name with an existing one. You will not be prompted to enter a disambiguation comment for the existing entity of the same name. It is ideal to add a disambiguation comment to the existing entities as well, or there may still be confusion for other editors.

*if the places are in the same area, or the area isn't set.

Examples

• Randy Jackson has the disambiguation comment "brother of Michael and Janet"
• Randy Jackson has the disambiguation comment "former bassist with Journey and American Idol Judge"
• The album Weezer has the disambiguation comment "Red Album"
• The album Weezer has the disambiguation comment "Green Album"

When not to disambiguate

Disambiguation comment fields should not be used to store general background information: that should go in the annotation.

Some types of entities (such as recordings, releases, release groups and works) are usually easily distinguished by their artist data, type and other information. Only add disambiguations when they add something not already displayed in the general interface or in search results.

Examples of usually not-useful disambiguation comments, where the bracketed information is already displayed elsewhere:

• [release] (barcode)
• [release group] (album/EP/single)
• [recording] (by artist)

Examples of usually useful disambiguation comments:

• [work] (1999 revision)
• [release] (red vinyl)
• [recording] (mono/stereo/5.1 surround)