Linking to external pages in Wikipedia

[Rolfe]

Sorry, this information is no doubt in the Wiki pages themselves, but I can't seem to find the right instructions.

I've posted an edit, an additional piece of information. I've figured how to link to other Wikipedia articles within the text, but when I tried to link to external sources I couldn't get it to display properly. I've also seen another page with something marked "citation needed", for which I have a citation.

Can anyone tell me what to do, or even just point me at the place in Wikipedia which has the instructions for this?

Rolfe.

[robinson]

Click "Edit this page" on an entry that has external links. You can see the code required, as well as the variations and such. Copy and paste code to your own sandbox to experiment with.

[geni]

Sorry, this information is no doubt in the Wiki pages themselves, but I can't seem to find the right instructions.

I've posted an edit, an additional piece of information. I've figured how to link to other Wikipedia articles within the text, but when I tried to link to external sources I couldn't get it to display properly. I've also seen another page with something marked "citation needed", for which I have a citation.

Can anyone tell me what to do, or even just point me at the place in Wikipedia which has the instructions for this?

Rolfe.


Assumeing you mean at the end of an article the normal aproach is along the lines of

==External links==
*[www.example.com Example]

Within an article you are not really meant to use external links other than as refs. If you are useing them as refs then

<ref>www.example.com</ref>

Is the simplest method.

[geni]

If you are adding refs to an article with no previous refs you need to add:


==References==
{{reflist}}

to the end of the article.

[shadron]

Don't forget to remove the [citation needed] code as well, if you add a citation. No one will do it for you.

[Rolfe]

Thanks guys, I'll try it out. You're a big help.

Rolfe.

[geni]

It has to be said that about 90% of the time the easiest way to work out how to do something with mediawiki markup is find somewhere it has been done and copy it.

[Rolfe]

That's how I figured how to do the links to other Wiki pages! I'll just need to find an hour or so to take a proper look at it.

A couple of my references are to a book I got out of the library in 1994, but I find you can get it on Google Book Search and if you just type in a string from the relevant passage you get taken right to the actual paragraph. I'll be interested to see if that works.

Rolfe.

[geni]

That's how I figured how to do the links to other Wiki pages! I'll just need to find an hour or so to take a proper look at it.

A couple of my references are to a book I got out of the library in 1994, but I find you can get it on Google Book Search and if you just type in a string from the relevant passage you get taken right to the actual paragraph. I'll be interested to see if that works.

Rolfe.

For books we use template citebook (at the moment anyway people are messing around with that so it may change) which looks something like this


<ref>{{cite book |title= |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |year= |publisher= |location= |isbn= |pages= }}</ref>

To see it in action see say http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coombe_Hill_Canal

eg:

<ref name=tcotwm322>{{cite book |title=The Canals of The West Midlands (third edition) |last=Hadfield |first= Charles |authorlink= Charles Hadfield (historian) |year=1985 |publisher=David & Charles |location=Brunel House, Hewton Abbot, Devon |isbn=0715386441 |pages=pp.322}}</ref>

[robinson]

I find the easy way to get proper formatting and markup and all that, is to just slam it in there no matter what, and somebody with a lot of time and mad skillz will fix it.

Then you compare versions to see exactly how it is done.

[Mojo]

If you are adding refs to an article with no previous refs you need to add:


==References==
{{reflist}}

to the end of the article.


First time I created an article from scratch I forgot to do that, and in the maybe five seconds it took me to realise my references weren't showing and click on "edit this page", some **** had deleted it.

[robinson]

Yeah, those bastids are quick.

[Rolfe]

For books we use template citebook (at the moment anyway people are messing around with that so it may change) which looks something like this


<ref>{{cite book |title= |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |year= |publisher= |location= |isbn= |pages= }}</ref>

To see it in action see say http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coombe_Hill_Canal

eg:

<ref name=tcotwm322>{{cite book |title=The Canals of The West Midlands (third edition) |last=Hadfield |first= Charles |authorlink= Charles Hadfield (historian) |year=1985 |publisher=David & Charles |location=Brunel House, Hewton Abbot, Devon |isbn=0715386441 |pages=pp.322}}</ref>


Thanks a lot.

By the way, if you're still there, could you advise on a slightly different issue?

One of the references I'd like to cite is a letter I myself had published in a journal 14 years ago. There is an "official" online version, but it is hidden behind a $12 paywall. If you search on a block of text from the letter you get the link, but when you follow it you can't read it without coughing up.

However, there is a freely-accessible online copy I put up myself five years ago, on a web site of my own. It just has the text of the letter and a little bit more comment.

Which would be the better link to cite?

Rolfe.

[geni]

Thanks a lot.

By the way, if you're still there, could you advise on a slightly different issue?

One of the references I'd like to cite is a letter I myself had published in a journal 14 years ago. There is an "official" online version, but it is hidden behind a $12 paywall. If you search on a block of text from the letter you get the link, but when you follow it you can't read it without coughing up.

However, there is a freely-accessible online copy I put up myself five years ago, on a web site of my own. It just has the text of the letter and a little bit more comment.

Which would be the better link to cite?

Rolfe.

Cite the formal (idealy paper) publication but throw in the link to the freely acessable version if you want.

<ref>{{cite journal |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |year= |month= |title= |journal= |volume= |issue= |pages= |id= |url= |accessdate= }}</ref>

[TheDaver]

First time I created an article from scratch I forgot to do that, and in the maybe five seconds it took me to realise my references weren't showing and click on "edit this page", some **** had deleted it.
The nice thing about Wiki is, in another five seconds, you can go to the article history (even though the article isn’t there anymore) and undo the deletion.

[TheDaver]

Cite the formal (idealy paper) publication but throw in the link to the freely acessable version if you want.

<ref>{{cite journal |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |year= |month= |title= |journal= |volume= |issue= |pages= |id= |url= |accessdate= }}</ref>
Agreed.

Wikipedia has a general policy against linking to personal webpages as references, but this is because of their obvious lack of credibility, reliability, verifiability, etc. You’re citing a proper journal article, of which an easily accessibly copy just happens to be hosted on your personal website. That’s A-OK.

[robinson]

The nice thing about Wiki is, in another five seconds, you can go to the article history (even though the article isn’t there anymore) and undo the deletion.

Please explain how you can find an article that has been deleted. And how you can undo a deletion. I thought only special people could delete pages.

[robinson]

Deletion of a Wikipedia article removes the current version and all previous versions from public view. Unlike page blanking, which can be performed (or reverted) by any user, deletion can be performed only by administrators. Administrators can also view deleted pages and reverse ("undelete") any deletion. All such actions are logged. If in doubt as to whether there is consensus to delete a page, administrators will normally not delete it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Deletion_policy

See? Only special people can delete, and undelete. Maybe you are one of them!

[Cl1mh4224rd]

For future reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cheatsheet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page


And a nice little sandbox for you to play around in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sandbox ;)