Wikipedia:Law of hats

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This page in a nutshell: Articles evolve until they gain hatnotes. Disambiguation scales. It's "survival of the hattest".

Law of hats may refer to:^{[note 1]}

0th law: Every article evolves until it gains a hatnote.^{[note 2]}^{[note 3]}^[1]^[2]

1st law: Disambiguation scales $O(n^{2})$ with articles.^{[note 4]}^{[note 5]}

2nd law: Every disambiguation page evolves until it gains a hatnote.^{[note 6]}

3rd law: Disambiguation disambiguation is needed.^{[note 7]}^{[note 8]}

Notes

^ or Law of disambiguation envelopment, Law of confused hats, Magioladitis-Widefox confused law of hats, Law of hat wearing
^ Put another way: "Survival of the hattest."
^ "Articles which cannot so expand are merged into ones which can." or Hatnote extinction
^ $O(n^{2})$ is based on the number of combinations of n items ${1/2}n(n-1)$ . This assumes the factors: 1. reduction due to the coefficient of ambiguous titles $a$ , 2. plus additional contributions due to WP:DABMENTIONs which scales with the average size of articles $s$ times their ambiguous coefficient $d$ , giving: $asd{1/2}n(n-1)$ , i.e. $O(n^{2})$
^ Disambiguation scales are not to be confused with fish scales
^ Widefox's law or "Did you mean A, B, C?, but before that, did you mean X, Y, Z?, repeat." When iterated due to hatnotes on all dabs, leads readers progressively further from the term they input, which already wasn't enough, without ever converging on an article."
^ That event is notable which leads to a new article - see 0th, plus Disambiguation (disambiguation)^{[disambiguation needed]}.
^ As of 2017^[update], disambiguation disambiguation does not exist, but the redlink here is acceptable as it has possibilities, as any redirect would have. The redlink should be retained, based on the precautionary principle (see The Disambiguation Singularity)

^ Magioladitis' law March 9, 2012 Hypothesis: "Due to expansion of Wikipedia all pages will end up having a hatnote to a dab page. At least all pages without parentheses in their title." User:Magioladitis
^ Similar to Zawinski's law of software envelopment "Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can."

[1] r Law of disambiguation envelopment, Law of confused hats, Magioladitis-Widefox confused law of hats, Law of hat wearing

[2] Put another way: "Survival of the hattest."

[3] "Articles which cannot so expand are merged into ones which can." or Hatnote extinction

[6] $O(n^{2})$ is based on the number of combinations of n items ${1/2}n(n-1)$ . This assumes the factors: 1. reduction due to the coefficient of ambiguous titles $a$ , 2. plus additional contributions due to WP:DABMENTIONs which scales with the average size of articles $s$ times their ambiguous coefficient $d$ , giving: $asd{1/2}n(n-1)$ , i.e. $O(n^{2})$

[7] Disambiguation scales are not to be confused with fish scales

[8] Widefox's law or "Did you mean A, B, C?, but before that, did you mean X, Y, Z?, repeat." When iterated due to hatnotes on all dabs, leads readers progressively further from the term they input, which already wasn't enough, without ever converging on an article."

[9] That event is notable which leads to a new article - see 0th, plus Disambiguation (disambiguation)^{[disambiguation needed]}.

[10] As of 2017^[update], disambiguation disambiguation does not exist, but the redlink here is acceptable as it has possibilities, as any redirect would have. The redlink should be retained, based on the precautionary principle (see The Disambiguation Singularity)

[4] Magioladitis' law March 9, 2012 Hypothesis: "Due to expansion of Wikipedia all pages will end up having a hatnote to a dab page. At least all pages without parentheses in their title." User:Magioladitis

[5] Similar to Zawinski's law of software envelopment "Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can."

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