Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.
This page in a nutshell:Hatnotes provide links at the very top of an article or a section to help readers locate a different article if the one they are viewing is not the one they're looking for.
Hatnotes are short notes placed at the very top of a page or a section, in the way that a hat is placed on top of one's head. For an example see the notes in italics immediately preceding the boxes above. The purpose of a hatnote is to help readers locate a different article if the one they are at is not the one they're looking for. Readers may have arrived at the article containing the hatnote because:
Link directly to other articles; do not pipe non-disambiguation links. With regard to linking to redirects, follow any applicable rules in the disambiguation guideline. For example, links to disambiguation pages should always end in "(disambiguation)".
Keep explanations to a minimum; explain vital information only, letting the lead section and body of the article to clarify things for the reader.
Mention other topics and articles only if there is a reasonable possibility of a reader arriving at the article either by mistake or with another topic in mind.
However, if a notable topic X is commonly referred to as "Foo", but the article "Foo" is not about X, there must be a hatnote linking to the article on X or linking to a disambiguation page that contains a link to the article on X.