View source for Harry Potter Fanon Wiki:Sourcing

{{Policy}}{{ArticlePolicy}}This page is a style guide, describing '''how to create citations''' in articles.

Attribution is good for direct quotes, along with practically all other material present in articles. However, as this is a fanon wiki, sourcing is an "optional policy", and there is no need to actually source your articles. However, if you do so, then you must follow this policy to the letter.

== Why sources should be cited ==
* To credit a source for providing useful information and to avoid claims of plagiarism.
* To show that your edit is not original research.
* To ensure that the content of articles is credible and can be checked by any reader or editor.
* To help users find additional reliable information on the topic.
* To improve the overall credibility and authoritative character of Harry Potter Fanon.
* To reduce the likelihood of editorial disputes, or to resolve any that arise.

== How to reference articles ==

=== Insertion of a reference ===
Using the story Dominus Mundi as an example, on the Edit page, this is placed at the first insertion point of citation:
 <nowiki><ref name="Dominus Mundi">[[''Dominus Mundi'']]</ref></nowiki>
This is placed at the second and all subsequent insertion points of citation:
 <nowiki><ref name="Dominus Mundi" /></nowiki>

=== Producing the reference list ===
Most importantly, add the following code after the "Appearances" and "Sources" sections, but before the "See also" and "External links" sections. This code will automatically display the reference list, showing nearly everything tagged with ref tags.
 ==Notes and references==
 <nowiki>{{Reflist}}</nowiki>

==== Long reference lists ====
As a general rule, we recommend reserving scroll boxes for reference lists to articles that employ no less than forty to fifty individual references. However, this is by no means a hard figure, and final decisions for the use of scroll boxes should be determined by what best suits each individual article.

To use a scroll box with a reference list, use the following code:
 ==Notes and references==
 <nowiki>{{Scroll_box|content={{Reflist}}}}</nowiki>

The standard scroll box size may be enlarged for certain articles, but this should be done only in rare cases for presentation purposes. Requests to do so should be made on the article's talk page or article review pages.

== Rules ==
This list only includes the basics for the rules. For more details, please follow the footnotes provided.
# Do not reference the introductory paragraph(s).
# References go immediately after punctuation and outside of quotation marks, with no space between the end of a sentence and a reference tag. One exception is the use of dashes (see WP:DASH). References should immediately precede dashes.
# When naming references with <nowiki><ref name="some source" /></nowiki>, when working on long articles or collaborations, users are encouraged to use full, linkable reference names to prevent accidental duplicates of a reference, though this is not a requirement. This is not necessary on shorter articles, and abbreviations are acceptable.
# Italicize references where appropriate, as with book titles, etc.
# Reference articles as sparingly as possible, while still sourcing all of the facts.
# Links are required in references.
# When using them, references are required in infoboxes.
# When citing an external link, a permanent archival link must also be included in the citation template if available. Use [https://web.archive.org/ Internet Archive's Wayback Machine] for this purpose. If Wayback Machine's "Save Page Now" feature does not work for a specific case, use [http://www.webcitation.org/ WebCite] instead.
# When citing social media posts (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.) in articles, an accompanying screenshot of the post must be uploaded to Harry Potter Fanon and linked in the reference itself.