RuneScape:Style guide/References and citations

References or footnotes 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. Non-citation references should only be used sparingly, however references used as citations can be used as often as necessary.

Basic references
The basic reference format is:

statement

which will be shown in the text as:

statement

On its own, inserting a referenc 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:

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 carat 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 before any punctuation which follows the word, for instance:

Multiple references
Each reference must fully enclosed in 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:

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 tags, it will work exactly as normal. Some examples follow:

These produce:

Multiple reference lists
If you need to have more than one reference list in an article, you must add a seperate for each list you want. Each will list all the references above it, until it reaches another (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:

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:

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:

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:

When a reference is repeated more than once, the carat that normally links to it is no longer active and, instead, each occurrence is linked to by a separate letter which appears after the carat.

Inserting citations
While normal references as explained above work fine for citing a source, it is better to use the Cite web. Full details can be found on its template page, however the basic use is as follows:

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" paramter 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, Jagex or a Jagex moderator. A sample citation for the Getting Started Guide of the RuneScape Knowledge Base is:

Which comes out as:

There are also a number of reference templates formatted specifically for certain sections of the RuneScape website which are most commonly cited.

Citing the Game Guide
The template for citing the Game Guide is CiteGG. Usually you should provide a link to the particular section you are citing, rather than the entire page. There are usually links at the top which direct you to specific sections. Click the appropriate link which will modify the URL to directly link to the section. After getting the URL, input it and the other information into the template:

Which produces:

Citing the RuneScape Forums
Due to the dynamic nature of the forums, threads can appear and disappear overnight. Because of this, the forum threads must be archived before being cited. This can be done using a free web archiving service called WebCite. Once archived there will be a static version of the forum thread on WebCite's servers. New posts will not appear (unless you re-archive it) but it will stay on WebCite even after the thread on the RSOF is removed. Once the thread is archived, input the data into the CiteForum:

The output will be:

Citing News Posts
News posts can be cited using the CiteNews template. Old news posts can be found in Jagex's News Archive. Results can be further narrowed down using the category links at the top. They usually give an author, but not always. An example follows:

The output will be:

Citing Developers' Blogs
Developer blogs (also called Development Diaries) can be cited with the CiteDevBlog template and almost always have an author provided. An archive of the Developer Blogs can be found here.

Citing Postbags
To cite Postbags, the title and issue number of the Postbag must be provided. The title doesn't appear on the actual Postbag page can be found here. The Postbag issue number should be supplied as a simple numeral, such as "1" instead of "Postbag 1". Use CitePostbag as follows:

God Letters
Citing God Letters is nearly the same as citing Postbags, but uses CiteGodLetter instead. Like with Postbags, input just a number for the issue number. A list of the God Letters can be found here.

What should be cited

 * Direct quotes (no exceptions)
 * Statistics such as XP values
 * Facts which are likely to be disputed
 * The Knowledge Base (if information from it is used)
 * For example, the Slayer section of the Knowledge Base is not automatically a reference for the Slayer article. Only when information, such as statistics or quotes, found in that page are used in the article can it be a true reference.

What should not be cited

 * Quest descriptions and rewards
 * A link to Jagex's quest description page should instead be included in the "external links" section of the article


 * Update content
 * Instead, link to the appropriate Update page here on the Wiki.

Positioning citation lists
Lists of citations should be at the end of the article's content using a level 1 header, as follows:

==References==

Reference lists should be put after the last bit of content, which is usually a "Trivia" section, but before sections such as "See also", "External links", and end-of-page templates such as Stub. An alternative to the standard reference tag is the Reflist template, which produces smaller text. This is typically the best-looking option as it differentiates the reference list from normal text, however it can only be used once per page. The usage is nearly identical:

==References==

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