Near-Reality:Style guide/References and citations

References are notes which appear after a section of text and are linked with a specific part of the text. They are used for long explanations which cannot be worked into the paragraph naturally and for citations. There are two main types of reference:

Citations are used to provide sources to statements, usually pointing back to an official Near-Reality source (the Near-Reality website or social media accounts, or a Near-Reality moderator statement) - though there are cases where other sources are cited (such as financial information from Companies House).

Footnotes are used to provide a notes, explanations, or expanded discussion about a statement or value without cluttering a paragraph, or where a note normally couldn't be added (such as in a table).

Basic references

The basic reference format should only be used for footnotes. Citations should use one of the citation templates, below.

The basic reference format is:

statement<ref>reference details</ref>

which will be shown in the text as:

statement

On its own, inserting a reference does nothing significant. It is only when a reference list is inserted into the article that the reference details are visible. To insert a reference list, add:

{{Reflist}}

to the article wherever the list should appear. This creates:

The superscript number will link to the reference details in the reference list below, and likewise, the caret in the reference list will link back to the reference in the text to which it corresponds. The reference should be inserted after the word or statement to which it refers, and any punctuation which follows the word, for instance:

This statement uses a reference.

Multiple references

Each reference must fully enclosed in <ref></ref> tags, at which point additional references may be inserted later into the text. Each reference will automatically be numbered according to the order in which they appear. This is useful when a section of text requires multiple references, such as the following:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Formatting references

The reference can be formatted just like any text. This includes text formatting, wiki links, and external links. As long as the formatting is contained entirely within the <ref></ref> tags, it will work exactly as normal. Some examples follow:

<ref>'''bold''' and ''italics'' and <span style="color: purple">pretty colors</span></ref>
<ref>[[NR:SG#Wiki-linking|Wikilinking]]</ref>
<ref>[http://www.near-reality.com/ Near-Reality]</ref>

These produce:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

However, reference tags cannot contain reference tags.

Multiple reference lists

If you need to have more than one reference list in an article, you must add a separate <references/> for each list you want. Each <references/> will list all the references above it, until it reaches another <references/> (if there are any). It will list none of the references below it. The numbering starts over with each new list created, and the footnotes in previous/following lists are ignored. An example follows:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Repeating a reference

In order to use a reference more than once while having it appear only once in the reference list, the reference must be named. You do not need to name a reference if you do not intend to use it more than once, however. To name a reference, use the following format:

<ref name="reference name">reference details</ref>

The reference name will not be visible, so it does not need to be fancy. Once the reference is named the first time, it can be inserted again by adding:

<ref name="reference name"/>

There is no close tag necessary for this particular formatting mark. References other than the named reference will be numbered and listed as usual, however the named reference will only have one number attached to it, and will only be listed once, no mater how many times it is repeated. This can be observed in the following passage of text:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

When a reference is repeated more than once, the caret that normally links to it is no longer active and, instead, each occurrence is linked to by a separate letter which appears after the caret.

Reference groups

If you need multiple reference types - the most common use-case being notes on something on the page, and standard citations - you can separate them into groups using the group attribute. This group is visible (it is part of the superscript link), so make it short and relevant. (Technically, references without a defined group are part of the empty string group - group="".)

<ref group="notes">Note 1</ref>

The group attribute has to be defined is present in all references in that group, and in the final references statement.

<references group="notes"/>

Template:Reflist also supports reference groups, and can be used as an alternative to standard reference tags.

{{reflist|group="notes"}}

This can be combined with the name attribute; but you do need to include the group in reuses of the name, otherwise it will attempt to find the name in the ungrouped references - resulting in either a reference error, or using the wrong reference.

<ref group="notes" name="note1">Note 1</ref>

<ref group="notes" name="note1"/>

Note that if you define a group, you need a references for that group, or there will be an error - the ungrouped references statement will not collect grouped references.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Notes References

In general, citations should remain in the default group (i.e. no group), and notes should be separated into a group, if present.

Alternative reference definition

Sometimes, placing references directly into text where they are used can make the markup very unclear and much harder to edit. In such an event, references can be defined in a different way - inside the <references> tag.

<references>
<ref name="ref1">Ref 1</ref>
<ref name="ref2">Ref 2</ref>
...
</references>

(This structure is still placed at the end of the page/section.) References are then used as if repeating them, by name only (i.e. <ref name="ref1"/>). All references used in this way must be named. References are always numbered as they're used in the text, not as they're ordered in the references tag.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

The two methods can be combined without issue.

Nesting

See also: Wikipedia:Nesting footnotes

<ref> tags cannot be placed within <ref> tags. What if you want to cite a footnote?

To do so, we replace the <ref> tags with {{Refn}}. Refn works in the same way as a reference tag, but allows references to be used inside it (the innermost references don't have to also use Refn, but can for consistency). Nesting references in this way generally results in the inner reference being numbered above the outer reference - which is usually unwanted. So, avoid making notes on notes, or citations of citations - keep the groups separate. The usual use for this is citing a footnote.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicingTemplate:Refn elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodoTemplate:Refn consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nullaTemplate:Refn pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Footnotes Citations

The standardised CiteX templates mentioned below all use the same method as Refn, so can all be safely nested.

Citations

Citations are a special kind of reference which support a claim made in an article with an outside source. The most commonly used citation on the wiki is a link to an article on the official Near-Reality website. While normal references as explained above work fine for citing a source, it is better to use the {{CiteGeneral}}. Full details can be found on its template page, however the basic use is as follows:

{{CiteGeneral|url=|title=|author=|time=}}

The "url" parameter is the full web address (including the http://) to the web page you are citing. Be as specific as possible. This means linking to the section, if possible, instead of just the entire page. The "title" parameter is the title of the particular page you are citing. The "author" parameter is whoever created the work you are citing, which is almost always, in this wiki, Near-Reality or a Near-Reality moderator. A sample citation for the Getting Started Guide of the Near-Reality Knowledge Base is:

{{CiteGeneral|url=http://near-reality.com/play/|title=How do I get started?|author=Near-Reality}}

Which comes out as:

Creating an account in Near-Reality takes only a few minutes and is completely freeTemplate:CiteGeneral.

There are also a number of reference templates formatted specifically for certain sections of the Near-Reality website which are most commonly cited. They are:

• CiteDevBlog
• CiteForum
• CiteGodLetter
• CiteNews
• CiteNPC
• CitePoll
• CitePostbag
• CitePub
• CiteSupport
• CiteTwitter

What should be cited

• Direct quotes (no exceptions)
• Statistics such as XP values
• Facts which are likely to be disputed

Positioning citation lists

Lists of citations should be at the end of the article's content using a level 2 header, as follows:

==References==
{{Reflist}}

Reference lists should be put after the last bit of content, which is usually a "Trivia" or a "See also" section, but before sections such as "External links", and end-of-page templates such as {{Stub}}. Users can refer to Near-Reality:LAYOUT for more info on the placement of such sections.

An alternative to the {{Reflist}} template, is the <references/> tag, which produces larger text. This is typically worse-looking and should not be used. The template can only be used once per page, however, making the tag more preferable for footnotes in, for example, drop tables.

There are additional formatting options, although it is rarely necessary to use them.