User:Droll/About using PAGENAME
Many templates used to cite sources for geographic data allow or require a feature name (sometimes referred to as a place name). For example the template {{NGS}}, which produces a link to a National Geodetic Survey data sheet, can be used with or without a feature name. And so:
{{NGS|PF0951}}
produces:
and
{{NGS|PF0951|Mount Washington}}
produces:
This template is used by many list articles such as Mountain peaks of California.
Another kind of template produces output that can be used in a reference or an external link. For example:
{{GNIS|871352}}
produces:
This template uses the magic word {{PAGENAME}} to generate a feature name. In this case it does not work too well. If the editor specifies a feature name then:
{{GNIS|871352|Mount Washington}}
produces:
If this template were to be used without a feature name in the the Mount Washington (New Hampshire) article it would produce:
because the article name includes disambiguation. When the option not to use a feature name is chosen then the template output could well be something other than the editor intended at the time or at sometime in the future. For example Mount Washington (New Hampshire) was created as a result of a move. The original article name was Mount Washington which is now a disambiguation page. This kind of move happens on a regular basis. In my humble opinion, the title (name) in a citation should reflect the feature name given in the cited source not on the article name. After thousands of edits to articles related to geography, I have noticed that assuming that the article name is identical to the feature is a mistake and has lead to many errors.
Another option[edit]
A great deal of this confusion would be avoided if templates that use the {{PAGENAME}} default were to use {{subst:PAGENAME}}. This would cause the current page name to be substituted into the template at the time the article is saved. This would help the situation but in my opinion is not an adequate solution.
More of my thoughts[edit]
A purely personal grip of mine is that the output of many templates, like like {{GNIS}}, do not conform to any standard. I personally like the output produced by the main citations templates such as {{cite web}}. It is standardized and reflects a consensus. I recognize that many editors disagree with me on this point and there are those who object to the use of any citation templates. See my notes on Citation templates.
If you have additional questions please feel free to leave a note on my discussion page.