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== Red-linking in navigation ==
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Creating red links in purely navigational features of Wikipedia, like navigation templates, disambiguation pages, and "see also" sections, directly interferes with the actual function of these features, which is to help readers navigate the {{em|already existing}} Wikipedia resources relevant to the topic.  Red links are strongly discouraged in navigation templates and disambiguation pages, and they are never used in "See also" sections.

The principal rationale for adding a red link to a disambiguation page is that the entry added is definitely notable, will probably have an article eventually, is not covered by any extant article as a subtopic or section that can be linked to, and yet is something that a non-trivial number of readers may actually be looking for at the name being disambiguated.  As Wikipedia's coverage expands, these criteria are less and less frequently met by would-be red links that editors consider adding. Lack of notability is the most common point of failure, and many such entries are deleted as essentially promotional in nature, often having been added by someone with an apparent [[WP:COI|conflict of interest]]. Wikipedia probably does not need a disambiguation entry for your band's new album title, or a vice president at the company you work for, and if either the band or the company already have an article, a disambiguation entry that blue-links to that article is better than a red link that goes nowhere.

Adding red links to navigation templates is tolerated when the missing article(s) are part of a set or series, and the template mostly consists of blue links to real articles (or article sections).  Other red-linked additions to nav templates are generally a bad idea.  So is adding a red link to a non-navigation template; templates are intended to provide functionality, so if your template's functionality is broken, it is not ready for use in the encyclopedia's content.