User:Middle 8/tips

≠  §   ¶ Semi-small text:
 * lorem ipsum. Test
 * lorem ipsum. Test

Is this grammatical rule outdated?
Two commas or none

Citation templates
Basic cite web

The "work" field is written as e.g. The Guardian.

Basic gen'l (h/t BullRangifer)



and with archive



The |date= format is either YYYY-MM-DD or (e.g.) January 1, 2016.

Template: Reference page
Provide a page number for a reference. gives

Special:Diff/older-id/newer-id
"Special:Diff", per this archived user talk thread.

How it's done: Special:Diff/Old/Newer, i.e., Special:Diff/(older version i.e. "oldid")/(newer version)

So, for diff: en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bill_Bogaard&diff=643919153&oldid=640906762 -- which can also be rendered this way: -- en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=640906762&diff=643919153 we do this: Special:Diff/640906762/643919153

which gives Special:Diff/640906762/643919153 (which can be pipelinked)

Whatever order the versions appear in the URL for the diff, just put the "oldid" first, i.e., Special:Diff/older-id/newer-id.

Special:PermanentLink/older-id
To show this...


 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=691204686 (The Beatles, old version)

... as a wikilink, do this:

Special:PermanentLink/691204686 = Special:PermanentLink/691204686

(...which is the same as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:PermanentLink/691204686

Size

 * Here is 0.9 fontsize ==> Here is 0.9 fontsize


 * Shortcut to 0.8: Small text ==> Small text


 * Here is 1.1 fontsize ==> Here is 1.1 fontsize


 * Shortcut to 1.2: Big text ==> Big text

Note: Can't go beyond one decimal place.

Underline

 * Underlining ==> Underlining

Font and color

 * Template kbd, to display text searches in monospaced font (Courier): yin yang
 * gives
 * yin yang


 * Template quote (Green): up
 * gives
 * up


 * Example text (green for goodness, red for wrongness) : goodness, wrongness
 * gives
 * goodness, wrongness


 * Template:purple:
 * gives
 * and so on for various other colors.
 * and so on for various other colors.

Hard return
" " lets returns in raw text remain; no need for using " " or " ":

I think that I shall never see A poem as lovely as a tree

gives

I think that I shall never see A poem as lovely as a tree

Image e.g.
The "Tesla's famous telegram image" is under this section, and not under the "how to keep images...." section just below.

How to keep images in a given section?
'''note, 3/6/21: take this into account (bot edit to this page)


 * Which template makes sure an image stays in the section in which it's placed, rather than push down into the next section? something like

Tracklisting examples

 * Columns: see CSNY 1974 (version)
 * Hidden sections: see Press To Play (version)

Forcing addition of TOC
Put above sections

Linking to a section in absence of TOC
Just put in # after URL followed by the title of the section, with underlines replacing spaces between words

Template:Section link
Use Template:Section link to link to a particular section in an article and insert a "§" (Section marker).

Single section (note resulting wl spans article name, in contrast to multiple sections below): gives

Multiple sections: gives

Omit article name (when using in same article): gives

"See Also" type templates
Nice one: gives

and Template:further2 is same except you have to put in wikilink brackets, so

gives

more at: Template:Further

Template:Code -- a sort of alternative to nowiki, with special "code-like" appearance
e.g., from WP:CAT:

simply add the parent category (e.g.: ).

gives

simply add the parent category (e.g.: ).

Pre: Code-like appearance, preserve indents
use  ...(text here)... as at Reese's Puffs: here (permalink)

Template:spaced ndash
Hey – check this out

Hey – check this out

also

Heycheck this out

Heycheck this out

Template:Outdent
Use to de-indent a thread four :'s deep, so --


 * all along the

watchtower

Great way to embed a long quote on a talk page without hiding it
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

"height:15em" is good; 0.5 too small, 30 probably too big.

from Talk:Blackstar_(David_Bowie_album) - h/t User:Semitransgenic

Source 1: Team Rock, Stephen Dalton, album review

He shoots, he scores, he falls wanking to the floor on this boldly experimental jazz odyssey.

Can lightning strike twice? Bowie’s 2013 comeback album The Next Day was as much a testament to brilliant marketing as musical skill, arriving from nowhere after a decade of silence, secrecy and sinister rumours. It topped the charts globally, earning the legendary rock recluse his first UK No.1 in 20 years, and helped make the David Bowie Is... exhibition a worldwide blockbuster. A sell-out tour without the Thin White Duke even having to leave his New York bunker? Genius.

Due for release on Bowie’s 69th birthday on January 8, Blackstar arrives with a little more notice and background information than The Next Day, but not much. This time, the beloved art-rock godfather cannot depend on the delighted surprise and (frankly) relief that he’s alive and kicking.

With its seven lengthy tracks, this album is leaner and more focused than its predecessor, but also more defiantly arty and less poppy. That said, Bowie’s vocal range and mastery is particularly striking.

Blackstar appears to be the score for Bowie’s hotly anticipated stage musical collaboration Lazarus, which opens off Broadway in December. The drama is based on his most celebrated big-screen outing, in Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell To Earth, but any narrative parallels are buried behind opaque lyrics.

The album was recorded with various New York-based jazz musicians, rather than Bowie’s regular roster of rock players, though long-time producer Tony Visconti returns, and James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem contributes percussion on two tracks.

Blackstar begins with its title track, a 10-minute mini-symphony of shifting movements and Middle Eastern melodies cloaked in jazzy electronica and muscular beats. Bowie delivers the ominous, quasi-Biblical lyric like an incantation. Then the music changes mood and a beautiful pop ballad emerges from the maelstrom, a lovely elegy about death and renewal, and fallen angels. A daunting musical monolith at first, this dense sonic tapestry reveals more and more treasures with each listen.

Hard-core fans will be disappointed that two Blackstar tracks have already been made public, albeit in alternate versions. The opaquely sketched murder ballad Sue (Or In A Season of Crime) was first released in 2014 in a skittery, brass-heavy, bebop-jazzy drum’n’bass arrangement. This update feels sharper, denser and heavier, with added funk-rock guitar squeals and percussive shudders. Crucially, Bowie’s achingly emotive vocal is terrific on both versions.

Dating from the same single package, ’Tis A Pity She Was A Whore was originally a propulsive, roaring, heavily electronic wall of sound. This new version features more organic instrumentation, with squawking saxophone and lush backing vocals that nudge it closer towards the lightly disguised R&B stompers that shaped much of Bowie’s early career. One of the less convincing tracks here is the six-minute title song to Lazarus, the musical, a fairly unremarkable two-chord churn that drags in its latter stages. Girl Loves Me is another slight affair but at least offers more punch, blending tensile art-funk with electronica and drum’n’bass flourishes.

For all its arty aura, Lazarus climaxes with two rousingly emotional power ballads that remind us Bowie can still turn on that windswept romantic crooner voice. All plaintive piano and wafting saxophone, Dollar Days is soft and soulful and steeped in regret. Lightly jazzy with a long sax fade-out, this could be an outtake from Young Americans.

But the climactic I Can’t Give Everything Away is better, six minutes of heart-swelling widescreen melodrama that builds into an Absolute Beginners-sized epic. Swept along by orchestral strings, a lonely harmonica and liquid guitar solos that recall Robert Fripp’s classic Bowie collaborations, this feels like the sweet reward for sitting through the more ear-bashing experimental tracks.

Much of Bowie’s output for the last 25 years paid lip service to his avant-garde leanings while mostly sticking within fairly straight indie-rock parameters. With Blackstar, he has gone deeper, making his most adventurous and uncompromising album since his classic run of Brian Eno collaborations. Even more than The Next Day, these seven tracks suggest the sounds inside his head are in sync with his long-time soul brother Scott Walker, though thankfully he remains on warmer terms with old-fashioned melody and emotion.

It seems lightning can strike more than twice, because Bowie’s autumnal comeback keeps getting richer and stranger. Old boys keep swinging.

cot/cob
We all want to change the world.

gives

We all want to change the world.

archiving discussion: archive top, archive bottom
and

Does the Pope poop in the woods? -- Mick Jagger, 13:13, 5 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Is a bear Catholic? -- Keith Richards, 13:13, 5 July 2014 (UTC)

gives

Does the Pope poop in the woods? -- Mick Jagger, 13:13, 5 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Is a bear Catholic? -- Keith Richards, 13:13, 5 July 2014 (UTC)

More hiding text with Template:Track listing
note, 3/6/21: "collapsed" parameter not working??

e.g. from Amnesiac (hit "edit" for clearer view with returns):

gives:

Page redirect
Hard redirect:
 * 1) REDIRECT target page

See e.g. Tcm, which raw text is:
 * #REDIRECT TCM

Template can vary depending on reason for redirect, e.g.
 * #REDIRECT Heart (band)

Template: Not verified in body -- for lead sections
Template: Not verified in body -- for unverified stuff in lead sections that otherwise accurately follow/summarize article body

CN with text span: Template CN with parameters
Use Template:Citation needed as, e.g., from Muscle Shoals, Alabama (version: ):

this:

Like other areas along waterways, this was important to indigenous peoples for The area...

gives:

Like other areas along waterways, this was important to indigenous peoples for The area...

CN with text span: seemingly dedicated template
Template:Citation needed span: Indicates (with light pink background) precisely the span of text to which a fact-tag applies. Don't subst. Shortcuts: ;

CN for lead mat'l not verified in body
use Template:Not verified in body

Interesting note template
To list a bunch of refs:

See lede of Jonny Greenwood or this stable version.
 * For some reason -- in the article but not here -- hovering over the "a" note shows the ref numbers.
 * Need both reflist and a special reflist specific to this template -- see ref section below.

Greenwood is consistently named as one of the greatest guitarists of the modern era.

Creating a new footnote
As just below; example diff at LFTR

Easily converting article text into a footnote
Where there's article text that would better be footnoted, do this:

and add this at bottom:

==Notes==

example diff

Or just use "efn |" and "Notelist" as above (n.b.: is above deprecated?). 

Tables of band members &c.
See diff of my Meat Puppets edit

Ref section: embedding; keeping refs under one subheader on talk page
NOTE - needs revising; ain't subheader-specific (anymore?). --23:43, 10 September 2022 (UTC)

h/t User:MrBill13 at Talk:Acupuncture


 * Embedding refs in a section, and keeping refs under ref tag rather than in article

how it looks

 * Ernst is not the only person to comment on Vicker's meta-analyis. Which of these comments, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, warrant inclusion? An "Invited Commentary" (this seems to give some weight) by Andrew L. Alvins, Needling the status quo: Comment on “Acupuncture for chronic pain”  which has the text, "The conclusion that most of acupuncture's observed clinical is mediated by placebo effects..." and "...critics correctly note that a new pharmaceutical agent that fails to show superiority over placebo will not be approved. Why should the bar be lowered for acupuncture?" Placing acupuncture in perspective by Ziegelstein which questions the lack of context in comparison of effect size (and has another point behind the paywall). Acupuncture's elephant in the room by Barrett and London which points out the difference between study and practice as does Complexity of sham acupuncture (Huang et al.) which also notes some issues with the sham controls.


 * In terms of weight Vicker's reply to Ernst mentioned ONLY ONE study among those in the meta-analysis this does not support the entire analysis as using double blinded studies that overcome the placebo effect. As above Alvins seems to have the same opinion as Ernst. I know in general we use substantially stronger MEDRS but criticism of the meta-analysis published in the journal which published it seems applicable. Note Vickers also had a reply in JAMA Internal Medicine to the above (I don't have access to it right now).


 * Regarding the balance of meta analysis vs Ernst's commentary I think you have a valid point we should be able to reach some consensus on editing down the material from Ernst. I do think material in the notes section should be allowed but I remain open to input on that (everything else too for that matter).


 * refs

Tree List
From Martin Kulldorff, used in infobox template.


 * Mathematical sciences
 * Operations research

gives


 * Mathematical sciences
 * Operations research

Reflinks bot
Reflinks bot -- adds to pages with bare url's (latter presumably inside ref tags, but dunno): WP:REFLINKS

Reflist and references
Need or ...using former

Need to use or  ... using former

Notes, and refs at bottom
e.g., see Eris (dwarf planet)

Harvard numbering
e.g. Nicola Tesla

Other kinds of refs
See Ram (album) for "n.b." type refs -- adding a parenthetical-type comment that also cites a ref. Specific template.

Template: Reference page (redux)
Provide a page number for a reference. gives

Template:SuperScriptLinked
How did I do the example ref immediately above? gives

Or, typical usage for humorous purposes: gives

Plain old superscript with wikilink
Unfortunately, as of March 12 2015, Template:SuperScriptLinked effectively inserts a hard return, so: Hello. Hooray! gives Hello. Hooray!

So its use is kinda limited. For sarcasm, instead use this with sarcasm already wikilinked):  [ sarcasm ]
 * n.b - the above is the same as the following, except that one must add "nowiki" brackets around the outermost brackets so that the two inner pairs will generate a wikilink:
 * [sarcasm]

so, do this: Hello. [ sarcasm ]  Hooray! which, after making the wl for "sarcasm", gives Hello. [ sarcasm ]  Hooray!

For the exact text to copy -- which I can't show here owing to embedded nowiki tags recursing in an undesired way-- open !special section and copy/paste from it:

!special section
without space, looks fine, but must copy-paste from raw wikitext:

[ sarcasm ]


 * end !special section

One can avoid having to open the above special section by inserting a space between the outermost brackets and the inner two generating the wikilink, and then remove the spaces when pasting (or, just use as is, if one doesn't mind the result looking less tight): Hello.[ sarcasm ] Hooray! which gives Hello.[ sarcasm ] Hooray!

Subscript
Predictable from superscript, i.e., above... H2O gives H2O

User Preferences
General: WP:CUSTOM

Signature
See WP:SIG. Link for changing signature: Special:Preferences; change the field "Signature".