This timeline includes some changes to the technology that are relevant to the relationship between set index articles (SIA)s and disambiguation pages (dab or DAB pages).
- Category:Signpost_articles is created with a description stating that signpost articles "are a lot like disambiguation pages, except that the target pages need not have the same name". Some dab pages are retagged as signpost articles (example edit).
- Category:Signpost_articles is deleted and the corresponding MOS is also deleted.
- Severe trimming of a dab page (formerly a signpost article) results in a heated discussion at MOS:DAB. A subsequent discussion at WikiProject Ships includes "I've had it in the back of my mind for a long time to create a ship-specific subcategory of disambiguations with a special template, note the subcats of Category:Disambiguation to see others doing this already."
- A discussion about disambiguation subcategories is closed with "The overwhelming consensus was remove all disambiguation subcategory templates, and carried to every specific template currently in use."
- Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Ships/Archive_2#Ship_index_pages - "... the development of a very strict format for disambiguation pages ... means that there is a group of editors who are likely to apply this style blindly to all disambiguation pages, including ship index articles.". There is a discussion at MOS:DAB where one editor argues that "these pages are not "pure" disambiguation pages, but capsule histories of the use of a ship name in a navy". Subsequently some dab pages are changed to shipindex (example edit). In further discussion at MOS:DAB editors are generally in favour of ship index pages - e.g. "true disambig pages should be short and sweet, with "hood" pointing to the ship index page "HMS Hood"... so the ship index pages can be as inflated as they like."
- Template:Ship_index is created - it places pages in Category:Lists of ships.
- Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style_(disambiguation_pages)/Archive_29#Disambiguating_United_States_Navy_ships.
- Template:Ship_index is changed to be less of a dab template. It is included in a TFD discussion about disambiguation templates (although not discussed specifically) which results in the templates being kept.
- Template:Mountain_index is created as a copy of shipindex following a discussion about mountain dab pages violating MOS:DAB.
- There's a discussion at Wikipedia_talk:Disambiguation titled "Clarification of "index set article" exemption?" that includes the statement "at this point the consensus view seems to be that strong/explicit WikiProject support is the main criterion for allowing an exception".
- Category:Set_index_articles is deleted with the rationale "A generic category for what was intended to be exceptional is not a good thing" (note: a redirect was later placed at that name).
- Template:Mountain_index survives at TFD ("This is a useful template for set indices, which are not the same as standard disambiguation pages").
- Template:Set_index_article is created and used in edits such as these.
- There's a discussion at WikiProject_Mountains that refers to "two types of dab pages".
- Category:Set indices is created.
- Category:Set indices on ships is created by a rename of "Category:Ship disambiguation". The category had previously been Category:Disambiguation_lists_of_ships.
- Template:Mountain index is changed from a dab template to a SIA template. Category:Disambiguation_lists_of_mountains was deleted as empty the following April.
- Category:Set indices on snakes is created with the following text:
- This category page is for administrative purposes only. Most of the entries below are set index articles (Template:SIA), but some redirects have been included to allow easy access to disambiguation pages (Template:Disambig) that are not only about snakes. Category tags are no longer allowed on disambiguation pages, so these "(snake)" and "(synonym)" redirects have been created to carry them instead. Example: Adder (snake) redirects to Adder. The category tags are used for overviews of common names (e.g. Viperinae by common name) and taxonomic synonyms (e.g. Crotalinae by taxonomic synonyms).
- Monthly DAB Challenge begins. Since that point (and possibly before) some very industrious editors fix thousands of links to dab pages every month.
- Wikipedia:Templates_for_discussion/Log/2010_December_7#Template:Geodis results in keep
- DPL bot starts notifying editors of links they've created to dab pages. Links to SIAs are not flagged up.
- (Circa 2013) Category intersection becomes available with off-wiki tools. This provides a way to detect pages that are in categories that should be mutually exclusive.
- There's a discussion at Template_talk:Ship_index#Use_of_template_on_disambiguation_pages
- Steps are taken to separate the concept of SIAs from that of dab pages - e.g. the guidance (WP:Set index articles) is split from WP:Disambiguation.
- There's a discussion on a template talk page in which editors discuss changing pages from dabs to SIAs.
- Category:Ship disambiguation pages is created (discussion at dab template talk page).
- There are over 50,000 pages in Category:All set index articles - many/most of them lists of people sharing a surname (e.g. Aarflot). This is approximately one SIA for every 5 disambiguation pages.
- The interwiki links from Category:Set indices show only 2 other Wikipedias (Portuguese and Chinese) having a category for SIAs - and they contain a total of 29 pages.
- Categories named "set indices" or "set index pages" are renamed to "set index articles".