Talk:Dry hole

DABMENTION
An objection was raised to the existence of this page that cited WP:DABMENTION. Maybe it's the fundamental sin of our dab guidelines that they provide very detailed rules without always elucidating the reasoning behind them. Now, DABMENTION has two purposes: the main one is to make sure that readers do not get frustrated by getting directed to articles that have no relevant content on the topic sought; a secondary function is to ensure that any claims made in the dab entry are sourced (sources belong in articles, and are not expected on dab pages). There's no particular need for sourcing here: both meanings have entered common parlance, and it's trivial to verify them by looking them up online or in a dictionary. There's it's not an article's job to mention and define every colloquial expression that may be used in the field. As for the other purpose of mentions: how could readers get confused or frustrated by an entry like an oil well without significant amounts of oil? The description in the entry is enough to define and contextualise the term, and would have been appropriate even if the linked article had no directly relevant content. – Uanfala (talk) 14:07, 11 March 2021 (UTC)