Forum:Story names should be automatically disambiguated

Forum:Works with the same name and Discontinuity indexes has reminded me of an issue that really needs to be dealt with. For the sake of not only discontinuity, but every template that deals with page titles — as well as for the sanity of new users — we need to move to a standard nomenclature for all titles. And given how many times I'm still finding things that need to be move from Story to Story (story type) names, I think we should just move every story page to a disambiguated name, leaving behind the redirect.

This would have the effect of making the title of, say, An Unearthly Child be An Unearthly Child (TV story). However, since the redirect would remain untouched, there wouldn't be much of a mess to clean up. Those of us used to typing Colony in Space can go right on doing so. New users, however, will immediately see the logic of the system. They'll get in the habit of typing Colony in Space (TV story). As things stand, it is absolutely confusing to the entry-level editor why there's Kinda (TV story) at the same time that there's Snakedance.

Standardisation would also help us with all those times where people have disambiguated in different ways. Why is it Asylum (radio drama) but The Gathering (audio story)? Why is it sometimes (comic strip) and other times (comic story)?

We need clear, universal page title conventions, while at the same time offering as many simple redirects as possible.

I therefore propose the following:

as always with these huge technical shifts, I'm not asking anyone to spend any time actually doing the work that's implied by the change. The bot will take care of everything quickly. So please don't base your decision on whether you think it will be a lot of work. It won't be. Well, not for you anyway.

'''Remember, even when it comes to typing in a story name, your job won't be any harder, because there will be a redirect from, say, Snakedance to Snakedane (TV story)]. So, however hard it is today to link to a story name is exactly how hard it will be to link to a story name under this plan.

Far from burdening you with new work, what this scheme does is to put us on more solid footing that will help us write all sorts of lovely, magical templates. And I honestly think it'll make more intuitive sense to new editors, who will simply get in the habit of adding (TV story) and (audio story) and whatever after every title.

Oh and incidentally, another side benefit of this is that it takes care of a flaw in the MediaWiki software which can occasionally create false redlinks in Special:WantedPages. So, if you rely on that page to edit, and some people do, then we can make all sorts of nifty templates without fear of cluttering up WantedPages. 23:42:12 Wed 13 Jul 2011