User talk:Its me sam

Guide to referencing
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I thought you might find it useful to have some information about references (refs) on wikipedia. These are important to validate your writing and inform the reader. Any editor can removed unreferenced material; and unsubstantiated articles may end up getting deleted, so when you add something to an article, it's highly advisable to also include a reference to say where it came from. Referencing may look daunting, but it's easy enough to do. Here's a guide to getting started.

Good references
A reference must be accurate, i.e. it must prove the statement in the text. To validate "Mike Brown climbed Everest", it's no good linking to a page about Everest, if Mike Brown isn't mentioned, nor to one on Mike Brown, if it doesn't say that he climbed Everest. You have to link to a source that proves his achievement is true. You must use Reliable sources, such as published books, mainstream press, authorised web sites, and official documents. Blogs, Myspace, Youtube, fan sites and extreme minority texts are not usually acceptable, nor is Original research, e.g. your own unpublished, or self-published, essay or research.

Simple referencing
The first thing you have to do is to create a "Notes and references" section. This goes towards the bottom of the page, below the "See also" section and above the "External links" section. Enter this code:


 * ==Notes and references==

The next step is to put a reference in the text. Here is the code to do that. It goes at the end of the relevant term, phrase, sentence, or paragraph to which the note refers, and after punctuation such as a full stop, without a space (to prevent separation through line wrap):



Whatever text you put in between these two tags will become visible in the "Notes and references" section as your reference.

Test it out
Copy the following text, open the edit box for this page, paste it at the bottom (inserting your own text) and save the page:


 * ==Reference test==


 * This is the text which you are going to reference.


 * ==Notes and references==



(End of text to copy and paste.)

Information to include
You need to include the information to enable the reader to find your source. For a book it might look like this:



An online newspaper source would be:



Note the square brackets around the URL. The format is [URL Title] with a space between the URL and the Title. If you do this the URL is hidden and the Title shows as the link. Use double apostrophes for the article title, and two single quote marks either side of the name of the paper (to generate italics).

The date after The Guardian is the date of the newspaper, and the date after "Retrieved on" is the date you accessed the site – useful for searching the web archive in case the link goes dead. Wikilinks (double square brackets which create an internal link to a wikipedia article) function inside the ref tags. Dates are wikilinked so that they work with user preference settings.

Citation templates
You may prefer to use a citation template to compile details of the source. The template goes between the ref tags and you fill out the fields you wish to. Basic templates can be found here: Template messages/Sources of articles/Citation quick reference

Same ref used twice or more
The first time a reference appears in the article, you can give it a simple name in the

The second time you use the same reference in the article, you need only to create a short cut instead of typing it all out again:



You can then use the short cut as many times as you want. Don't forget the /, or it will blank the rest of the article! A short cut will only pick up from higher up the page, so make sure the first ref is the full one. Some symbols don't work in the ref name, but you'll find out if you use them.

Example
You can see refs in action in the article William Bowyer (artist). There are 3 sources and they are each referenced 3 times. Each statement in the article has a footnote to show what its source is.

Next step
When you become familiar with the process, the next step is to have one section, "Footnotes", with links embedded in the text, and another, "References", which lists all of your references alphabetically with full details, e.g. for a book:


 * Lincoln, Abraham; Grant, U. S.; & Davis, Jefferson (1861). Resolving Family Differences Peacefully (3rd ed.). Gettysburg: Printing Press. ISBN 0-12-345678-9.

If you're ready to go into it further, these pages have detailed information:
 * Citing sources
 * Citing sources/example style
 * Citation templates
 * Footnotes

I hope this helps. If you need any assistance, let me know.

Tyrenius 03:59, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
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Mark for deletion
Welcome to Wikipedia! We welcome your help to create new content, but your recent additions (such as Joseph (artist)) are considered nonsense. Please refrain from creating nonsense articles. If you want to test things out, edit the sandbox instead. Take a look at the welcome page if you would like to learn more about contributing to our encyclopedia. Leuko 01:46, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

My response
Leuko, please don't call things "nonsense" just because you don't understand them. The article was written in formal English and makes perfect sense. The only problem is I do not have a source for it, since the artist is rarely seen. I'm working on that. Now have a great day full of marking things you don't understand or like for deletion, counting them, and then showing off tallies and badges on your rainbow page.


 * I agree. This is not patent nonsense. It is just unsourced. Tyrenius 03:59, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Regarding your uploaded image
Hi, I've noticed that you have recently uploaded Image:Joseph alien abduction.jpg, but I'm concerned that it could potentially be a copyright violation since there is no proof of the original artist's permission to release it to Wikipedia. Can you clarify the copyright status? +A.0u 04:46, 20 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, it is best to have written permission as well as have the artist clarify the license. You used the    template, which I think that you have to be the author of the work to  actually use, because it states that the uploader is the artist and that the artwork in question has been released into the public domain.  So, it may be best to contact the author and have him look through the information regarding image copyrights to see which license he prefers. +A.0u 03:45, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I've just come here to say the same thing. At the moment we cannot allow this image to remain, as it is a copyright violation, as far as wikipedia is concerned. It would be better to claim Fair Use. Tag the image page with . You also have to put a Fair Use Rationale on the image page. See User:Tyrenius/Image FU. Or to get the artist's permission, see Example requests for permission. Tyrenius 03:56, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

WP:NPA
Re. this edit, please comment on edits, not editors. Tyrenius 21:42, 23 March 2007 (UTC)