User:Maryanne Cunningham

Useful links

 * Help:Getting started (Shortcut: H:GS)
 * Tutorial (Shortcut: WP:T)
 * Reliable sources (Shortcut: WP:RS)
 * Help:Referencing for beginners (Shortcut: WP:REFBEGIN)
 * User:Nick Moyes/Easier Referencing for Beginners (Shortcut: WP:EASYREFBEGIN)
 * Task Center (Shortcut: WP:T) ideas of things to do
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_book

Useful, on brackets
Eg: Mont Blanc massif gives Mont Blanc massif Mont Blank massif doesn't exist, so gives this red-coloured link: Mont Blank massif A single square bracket [] is used to link to an external website OR to a full external link to one of our own pages. You put the url first, then ONE SPACE, then the word or phrase to display. Like this link. Double curly brackets invoke a named template, usually inserting set text. This could be a complex welcome message left on a users talk page, a warning, an infobox in an article, or a simple line of text you don't want to keep repeatedly typing. Thus produces this request to sign every post: " (Please remember to sign your posts on talk pages by typing four keyboard tildes like this: Maryanne Cunningham (talk) 23:09, 13 January 2020 (UTC).) Finally, you can include certain parameters by means of a vertical pipe character to make a template do certain things, though this is a little tricky to explain. Although I told you when you started how to notify a user, another way to do it is my means of the  template. Thus,  produces Maryanne Cunningham which ensures you are notified about my reply. Hope this makes some sense. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk)
 * Single square brackets (e.g., ) produce external links (see WP:EL for policy), while double square brackets (e.g. blah) produce internal links to Wikipedia (and other wiki projects). Double braces (e.g., ) are used to transclude templates and other pages. —[AlanM1(talk)]
 * Square brackets are used for internal links to another Wikipedia article. See WP:Internal links. Braces are used for templates like the one I use to notify you at the beginning of my reply. Dbfirs
 * A pair of square brackets  around a word will give you an internal link to another Wikipedia page. It'll be blue if the page exists with that spelling, or red if no page exists here.

Referencing query
Could someone explain what is/does? , it's a shortcut interwiki link to Wikipedia's sister project Wikisource.

it's not a Wikipedia page, but a Wikisource page; but otherwise you're quite right: most Wikis are user-generated, and so unacceptable as sources. What goes between the &lt;ref> and &lt;/ref> should be a citation of an external source. However, if that source happens to be available in Wikisource, then it would be acceptable to include a link to the wikisources page (which would look something like, but I'd have to look up how you specified a particular chapter or page) within the citation, just as you can include a link to a copy Google books. But that link does not replace the citation, it supplements it. And I'm not sure whether the citation templates (which are not mandatory, but most people use them) have a parameter for an interwiki link as opposed to a URL. --ColinFine (talk) 19:20, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

Wikisource being a "sister project" to Wikipedia means that it's also hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, but functions separately from the encyclopedia. It's a repository for free books (and other documents). One of its major functions is that scanned/photographed pages are transcribed by volunteers to produce more usable text. In this view of page 404 from Six Old English Chronicles, you can see the image of the printed page side-by-side with the transcribed text. Hope that makes sense, Pelagic ( messages ) – (07:35 Tue 19, AEDT) 20:35, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

Pinging
I am not receiving pings from you because the software does not recognise  as a namespace. It's better to use something like or
 * , you were using square brackets (which create a link) instead of curly brackets (which create a template, which can be heavily customised to perform certain actions like notifying users). The two examples that I provided are meant to be copy-pasted when reading, not editing.
 * , you were using square brackets (which create a link) instead of curly brackets (which create a template, which can be heavily customised to perform certain actions like notifying users). The two examples that I provided are meant to be copy-pasted when reading, not editing.

nowiki

 * The &#x3C;nowiki&#x3E;something special&#x3C;/nowiki&#x3E; code tells the software to treat its contents as plain text and not interpret any special wiki markup. Compare italic versus italic. Pelagic ( messages ) – (07:47 Tue 19, AEDT) 20:47, 18 January 2021 (UTC)


 * In help and discussion pages, when it discusses wikitext, it's usually intended that you copy it when the article. If you are in edit mode, you will see the things like &lt;nowiki&gt; tags and  templates, which are used to format/link the code for viewing. You are meant to copy the code when viewing the page, not when editing it. For example, if I write that you should use  , it means you should copy the code displayed when reading the page, from &lt;ref&gt; through &lt;/ref&gt;, without all the &lt;nowiki&gt; and &lt;code&gt; tags and &#123;&#123;Tlx&#125;&#125; and &#123;&#123;=&#125;&#125; templates that you see when you edit this page. I hope that makes sense (it's hard to explain it without using the same techniques I'm writing about). —[  Alan M 1  (talk) ]— 04:27, 19 January 2021 (UTC)

Blanking
Hi Maryanne Cunningham. If it’s your user sandbox your referring to, you should be able to just WP:BLANK it and then save it. You could also just set |afc= in Template:User sandbox to “no” or the |plain= parameter to “yes” as well. FWIW, the blue submit button really doesn’t matter unless you want to submit your sandbox as a WP:USD as well. — Marchjuly (talk) 13:49, 8 February 2020 (UTC) Thanks Marchjuly. Could you clarify the following: "you should be able to just WP:BLANK it and then save it". Er, how/where?Maryanne Cunningham (talk) 15:10, 8 February 2020 (UTC) Did you click on WP:BLANK? It’s a short-cut link to Wikipedia:Page blanking, which basically means to remove all content from the page (i.e. your sandbox). “Save it” means save your sandbox (i.e. click the “Publish changes” button). — Marchjuly (talk) 15:35, 8 February 2020 (UTC)

I've added "|afc=no" to the template in your sandbox. You can, if you wish, just delete that template from your sandbox, or another option is to change the "|afc=no" to "|plain=yes". You'll find the options documented at Template:user sandbox. --David Biddulph (talk) 13:51, 8 February 2020 (UTC). The AFC parameter just controls if the template states that you can submit the article and if it gives the submit button. If you aren't using the sandbox for an article draft, it isn't necessary. AFC is articles for creation, a way for new editors that either can't submit articles directly (you need 10 edits to do this), or are inexperienced and would like some more feedback, to have articles reviewed, then moved into mainspace by a reviewer. Alex Noble - talk 16:05, 8 February 2020 (UTC)

On footnotes
If you don't have a  you won't see the ref txt, but will instead see an error message, as we had here in the Teahouse until another editor's ;  look back at this version. --David Biddulph (talk) 20:39, 5 August 2020 (UTC)
 * In any case, using   is not the usual way to create a footnote. Using a pair of  tags is much more common. Also, unless you have at least two different kinds of footnotes, the group parameter is unneeded. Most articles have only source footnotes. Some also use informational notes, or other kinds, and then specifying the group can be useful. DES (talk)DESiegel Contribs 21:12, 5 August 2020 (UTC)

Another referencing query
Two questions:

1. I'm adding references from the 6th and 9th centuries to an article. Should these be referenced as the author, or the translator/editor?

2. One of my sources was organised into numbered sections (in the 9th century), but the only translation I can find doesn't have the section numbers (ie, it just has the translated text, with breaks that don't always correspond to the sections). I've managed to put a number to most of these sections by looking at a commentary from 1980. I'm citing the translation, but if I add the (deduced) section numbers, no-one accessing the source will see these numbers (because they're not there). If this makes any sense, I'd be grateful if someone could advise on the way forward.

ThanksMaryanne Cunningham (talk) 15:53, 30 December 2020 (UTC) Maryanne Cunningham (talk) 15:53, 30 December 2020 (UTC)

Maryanne Cunningham, to answer your question best, it'd be helpful to know what type of editor you use (source editor or VisualEditor?) and what reference format you're using in the article (i.e. are you using and similar?). For your first question, there are parameters for listing the translator separate from the author, and ideally you should use those; the documentation (if you're using citation style 1, which you probably are) is at Template:Citation#Authors. For your second question, you can use |at= to specify an in-source location that is not a page number; see documentation here. But unless you're trying to bring a page to featured status, I wouldn't really worry about it (or the translator/editor distinction) overly much. The most important role of references is to support verifiability by enabling someone who wants to go to the source of a piece of information to do so. So long as your references allow that, getting the formatting perfect is a much more minor concern. Cheers,  talk 20:30, 30 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks Maryanne Cunningham (talk) 22:27, 4 January 2021 (UTC)

Where to ask a question
If I post something on an article's Talk page, is there any guarantee anyone will see it? How does one flag up that a question has been asked? Thanks Maryanne Cunningham (talk) 22:18, 20 January 2021 (UTC) Maryanne Cunningham (talk) 22:18, 20 January 2021 (UTC)
 * —after initiating a discussion on an article Talk page you could then make the corresponding edit to the Article page, and in your edit summary you could mention and link to your recently initiated discussion on the Talk page. With any luck that will prompt a response. Bus stop (talk) 22:30, 20 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks Maryanne Cunningham (talk) 22:48, 20 January 2021 (UTC)


 * Hello,, and welcome back here. No, there is no guarantee that anybody will see it. Things you can do are:
 * Look at the history of the talk page and the article, to see how much they have been edited recently. If there is some activity on the talk page or on the article recently, it is more likely that some of the editors involved will look at it.
 * Find the usernames of some editors who have worked on the article recently, from the history, and Ping them. I use the template U, (though there are others) so I pinged you at the beginning of my answer by saying . (Note that I have entered that in a way that the displayed form shows you what you would type in the editor - don't use the 'tl' or 'tlx' that I have used.)
 * Find a relevant active WikiProject, and put a post on its talk page, linking to your post on the article talk page. --ColinFine (talk) 22:33, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

Categories
I see that adding uncategorised articles to categories is a useful thing to do. But how do you see what categories there are? Thanks Maryanne Cunningham (talk) 22:41, 25 January 2021 (UTC) Maryanne Cunningham (talk) 22:41, 25 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Hello, . Here is what I do. I type "Category: (plausible search term)" into the search box, and see what comes up. Another tactic is to take a look at a well-developed article about a similar topic, and see if any of its categories are applicable. Cullen328   Let's discuss it  23:46, 25 January 2021 (UTC)
 * There is also an editing tool called HotCat that you can use. I do not use it myself, but many editors do. Cullen328  Let's discuss it  23:49, 25 January 2021 (UTC)
 * I do use HotCat (WP:HOTCAT), but still often use Cullen's second approach to find relevant cats - look for similar subjects and see what cats they're in. Once you get a feel for certain subject areas it gets easier. Girth Summit  (blether)  01:10, 26 January 2021 (UTC)