Wowpedia:Citation

Wowpedia:Guidelines
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This page is considered a guideline on Wowpedia. It illustrates standards of conduct, which many editors agree with in principle. However, it is not policy. Feel free to update the page as needed, but please use the voting process and put the vote on the discussion page to propose any major changes. See the Guidelines home page for an overview of Wowpedia guidelines. See Category:Guidelines for a list of proposed and accepted guideline articles.

Citing sources provides a way to ensure that the information contained in this wiki is correct, and defuses the common criticism that information in a wiki is unreliable. Providing citations is especially helpful where different sources describe two conflicting versions of lore.

Citation templates

Cite

The {{Cite}} template can be used to cite to manuals, novels, and other published works in the Warcraft universe. It should be primarily used as a shorthand in the case that the contributor does not want to deal with citations using <ref>. Note that {{cite}} should not be used within said reference tags.

• In the text where you want to create a citation, use the cite template.
• After the first pipe, write the appropriate abbreviation from WoWWiki:Citation index.
• After the second pipe, include a page number.

Ref and related

{{Ref}} and the other <ref> related templates found in Category:Citation Templates should be the template of choice when dealing with citations, especially for more experienced WoWWikians. Said templates are used within the <ref></ref> tags to create a standard look for citing sources. One must also remember to add <references/> to the end of the article, under a References section (== References ==). Some people prefer to use a Notes section (== Notes ==) or a Sources section (== Sources ==). For further documentation, see the templates' respective talk pages.

Examples

Cite

Many [[cleric]]s were killed during the [[First War]].{{cite|W2Man|44}}

Many clerics were killed during the First War.Template:Cite

Garona's full name is [[Garona Halforcen]].{{cite|LG|256}}

Garona's full name is Garona Halforcen.Template:Cite

Offsite citations

Citations to other websites can easily be added by enclosing the hyperlink in square brackets, however, it is preferable that such citations use the ref tags with the respective template {{ref web}}.

Example

The former

According to [[Caydiem]], [[Garona]] is half [[draenei]].[http://blue.cardplace.com/cache/wow-general/5053956.htm]

According to Caydiem, Garona is half draenei.[1]

The latter

According to [[Caydiem]], [[Garona]] is half [[draenei]].<ref>{{ref web |title = Racial Class choices... |accessdate = 2007-07-19 |author = Falariel |coauthors = Caydiem |url = http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/error404.html?fn=wow-general&t=5053956&p=&sid=1#post5053956 |date = 2005-09-25 |archiveurl = http://blue.cardplace.com/cache/wow-general/5053956.htm |archivedate = 2005-09-25}}</ref>

According to Caydiem, Garona is half draenei.

Requests for citations

If a fact is quoted in an article which might be under dispute or can not be verified, the {{Fact}} template can be added where a citation would go. An explanation of why a source is needed should also be placed on the article's discussion page. Articles with this template will appear in Category:Statements needing citations.

If an entire article or section of an article is of unclear source, add the Template:Tlink template. Articles with this template will appear in Category:Articles needing citations.