Wiki edit question

Factual Questions
1

I’ve attempted my first Wiki edit, adding a birth date to an entry. I’ve got a reference ([sup][1][/sup]) by the date, but it doesn’t link to the reference. That is, I have <ref>[referenced text],</ref> after the date. Below, I have :

==References==
{{Refbegin}}

  • [the reference]
    {{Refend}}

How do I make the [1] link to the reference?

2

You’re basically combining two separate, noncompatible ways of doing references. The <ref> tag is part of the Cite.php MediaWiki extension, which does a lot of stuff automagically. {{refbegin}} and {{refend}} are a manual way of doing the same thing, but are less useful in that they don’t bother to look for <ref> tags in the article body. To fix this, just change that references section to simply:

==References==
{{reflist}}

3

Perfect! Thanks.

4

Oh – Suppose I want to include a link in the cite?

5

That’s fine, just put it in the <ref> tag. Basically, whatever is in the <ref> tag gets regurgitated later in the references section. So, for a really simple example, you could do <ref>[http://straightdope.com The Straight Dope]</ref> (The single bracket enclosure there means, the first “word” here is a URL, and the remainder is the text of that URL.)

If you’re feeling more adventurous, you can also use a template called Cite web, which pretty much just takes what you tell it about your citation and puts it in a nice pretty format. Cite web has two required parameters: url and title. So you could do <ref>{{cite web|url=http://straightdope.com Straight Dope}}</ref>. It also has a number of optional parameters, listed in its documentation at Template:Cite web - Wikipedia So an even more complex example could be <ref>{{cite web|url=http://straightdope.com Straight Dope|accessdate=2010-01-22|first=Cecil|last=Adams|publisher=Chicago Reader|month=July|year=1988}}</ref>.

Finally, I’d like to mention that you can name <ref>s, and reuse them later. So if you’re citing Unca Cece a bunch of times, your first cite looks like <ref name=“straightdope”>{{cite web| … }}</ref>. Then, following cites of that reference can be only <ref name=“straightdope” /> with none of the rest of that mess.

6

Note that when I’m trying to learn how to do something on a Wikipedia page, I find it useful to look at the code for a page doing something similar, and then copying the formatting. Another thing that’s useful is to set up a Sandbox page. You can set one up as a user subpage and then leave it open as long as you need to edit your page and get it ready for prime time.

7

Thanks again.

I’m not feeling too adventurous, as this is the first time I’ve tried this. I just looked at the source and mimicked what I saw. (I did see the links made the way you said, but I didn’t try it because I didn’t know how it worked until you explained it. I have the reference linked now.) If I’m feeling adventurous mañana, I may add an Info box. :wink:
EDIT: Dewey Finn. That’s what I did (though I didn’t go to the sandbox). :wink:
.

8

I copied some code to add an infobox, but it’s not showing up on preview. What am I doing wrong?

{{Infobox Historian
|birthdate = {{birth date and age|1929|10|31}}
|birthplace = [[Bauxite|Arkansas]], [[Arkansas (U.S. state)|Arkansas]], U.S.
|spouse = Melody Webb (1982?-present)
|occupation = Historian
|yearsactive = 1957 – present
}}

9

Hm. Apparently ‘Historian’ is not a valid infobox title. On a hunch, I replaced it with ‘Actor’ (which he isn’t) and the box came up. So I tried ‘Person’. Only his occupation and spouse came up. No birth date and age, no birthplace.

10

Here’s a list of people infoboxes. As you noticed, historian doesn’t exist, although “writer” does.