Talk:Jane Herbert Wilkinson Long

Ref needed
There were claims on this page (Long being the "First Lady of the Republic") that have no citation and are not found on the external references. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Anachronism1988 (talk • contribs) 23:30, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

Need more than links for references
An editor added the following bare link as reference to statement that Sam Houston called Margaret Theresa Wright the "Mother of Texas":
 * http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/WW/fwr17_print.html

Another editor "corrected" it to:
 * http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fwr17_print.html

Neither link currently works. The "corrected" version doesn't show up in the Wayback Machine, making me suspect that the correcting editor merely assumed a typo (which s/he fixed) and didn't check the link. It took me 15 minutes to track down the only properly archived copy Wayback had and flesh out the full citations, then another 20 to correct the text to match what the sources actually say (adding fact tags for info which neither source supports).

This is an excellent example of why we need more than bare links for references. Using complex citation templates isn't necessary; someone else (like me) can fill them in later. What's important is to include as much identifying information—page title, author, date of page, date the page was accessed, what work it was in and who published it—as one can. This way others can track down more copies or sources when the link breaks (which they frequently do!). ~ Jeff Q (talk) 23:08, 3 May 2013 (UTC)