Wikipedia:Semi-duplicate
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 | This page in a nutshell: Some topics that have the same name as a similar entity have only 1 combined article |
A semi-duplicate is an article or other page that has a significant overlap with another article or other page or is otherwise a topic that would expect to be combined in 1 article. A semi-duplicate is distinct from a full duplicate in that a full duplicate is on exactly the same thing such as petrol/gasoline where the different names refer to exactly the same thing. Generally full duplicates are created accidentally when people don't realize that an article already exists while a semi-duplicate is usually created deliberately, that is to say they think a distinction should be made even though it probably shouldn't. Lsjbot created many semi-duplicates on the Cebuano and Swedish Wikipedias for example creating separate articles for municipalities in Italy with the same name as a settlement even though its normal for such topics to be combined into a single article. If such articles do exist they tend to become content forks of each other however the term content fork can refer to a descriptive title that is split from the main article to represent a particular point of view (otherwise it may be argued this page its its self a semi-duplicate). Although Wikipedia is not a dictionary its usually desirable to combine certain topics that have the same name and overlap.
Examples
- Low level municipalities such as civil parishes and comuni for example with Hatfield Peverel[1][2] and Campora[3][4] the municipalities include a larger area/population but the boundaries of such units tend to remain stable for long periods and correspond to natural boundaries. Thus there isn't Hatfield Peverel and Hatfield Peverel (parish) or Campora and Campora (comune), see Wikipedia:Separate articles for administrative divisions to settlements.
- Islands that are largely coterminous with administrative units such as Madagascar there is no Madagascar (island), see User:Seav/Islands and administrative units.
- Territories that have different statuses or have changed boundaries such as Essex deals with both the ceremonial and administrative county and thus there is no Essex (administrative county), see Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography/How to write about counties.
- People only notable for 1 event where the event is named after then such as "Killing of X" since although the articles use a longer title than the main subject they will tend to discuss other people involved however most of the information will be for the main person Madeleine McCann redirects to Disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
- DAB pages with titles that only differ by capitalization, articles, diacritics or pluralization, see WP:DABCOMBINE The Cure (disambiguation) redirects to Cure (disambiguation), however in rare cases (normally pluralization) it may be desirable to have separate DAB pages if the singular and plural don't have much overlap.
- Monotypic taxa, those with only 1 sub group only have 1 article, thus Nodocephalosaurus kirtlandensis redirects to Nodocephalosaurus, see WP:MONOTYPICTAXA.
Dealing with articles
If only a small number of separate articles exist then boldly merging or tagging them for merging is probably appropriate. If a large number of articles exist you should probably discuss at a Wikiproject or a RFC to decide if articles should make a distinction.
If you merge a complete duplicate the Wikidata items should normally also be merged, see d:Help:Merge however Wikidata may make a distinction for what we would not normally so care must be taken if its also standard on Wikidata.