BIONICLEsector01:Help/References

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Editing Tutorial

What are References?

References are the resources that a given page draws its information from. References come in two forms: the Appearances list, which contains all of the media sources (books, movies, comics, etc.), and the Citations, which specify the particular location of a piece of information.

How to Make

Citations use a built-in extension to generate a reference list. However, the information in question must be tagged using a special code, which will contain the source of the information being cited. Typically this is for information that is not corroborated by any other source, though there are other uses.

To add a citation, add the source between two ref tags, like this: <ref></ref>. References should follow proper MLA format: Author Surname, Name. "Title." Source Name, page number. Source Publication, Date. Fill in as much data as possible, and include a link in the Source section. Any of the fields without information available can be omitted, and multiple citations from the same source can be abbreviated.

  • Example:

One of the Rahkshi powers Tahu absorbed using the Golden Armor was Quick Healing.<ref>Farshtey, Greg. "[https://community.lego.com/t5/LEGO-General/Chat-with-Greg-Farshtey/m-p/9800349/highlight/true#M232484 Chat with Greg Farshtey] p.321." LEGO Message Boards, 15. May 2014</ref>

Which becomes:

One of the Rahkshi powers Tahu absorbed using the Golden Armor was Quick Healing.[1]

  • Example 2 (same source, different information):

However, if Tahu were to remove the Golden Armor, he would lose these powers.<ref>GregF. "[https://community.lego.com/t5/LEGO-General/Chat-with-Greg-Farshtey/m-p/10675727/highlight/true#M245990 Chat with GregF] p.380." LMB, 7/30/14</ref>

Which becomes:

However, if Tahu were to remove the Golden Armor, he would lose these powers.[2]

These examples appear in a reference table like this:
==References==

  1. Farshtey, Greg. "Chat with Greg Farshtey p.321." LEGO Message Boards, 15. May 2014
  2. GregF. "Chat with GregF p.380." LMB, 7/30/14

Citations from an identical place within a source, but that have to appear on different parts of the page, can also be created via shortcuts.

  • Example:

One of the Rahkshi powers Tahu absorbed using the Golden Armor was Quick Healing.<ref name="Greg1">Farshtey, Greg. "[https://community.lego.com/t5/LEGO-General/Chat-with-Greg-Farshtey/m-p/9800349/highlight/true#M232484 Chat with Greg Farshtey] p.321." LEGO Message Boards, 15. May 2014</ref>

Which becomes:

One of the Rahkshi powers Tahu absorbed using the Golden Armor was Quick Healing.[1]

  • Example 2 (identical source, different place location)

However, Greg does not know how many other powers Tahu has<ref name="Greg1"/>

Which becomes:

However, Greg does not know how many other powers Tahu has[1]

These examples appear in a reference table like this:
==References==

  1. 1.0 1.1 Farshtey, Greg. "Chat with Greg Farshtey p.321." LEGO Message Boards, 15. May 2014


However, without a reference source list (denoted by the <references/> tag), the used citations will create an error message. A preformatted reference tag exists at Template:Reflist, and is to be included below the Appearances Section, and above the See Also and External Links sections.

  • Example:

===Appearances===
* ''[[BIONICLE Chronicles 1: Tale of the Toa]]''
===References===
{{Reflist}}
===See Also===
*[[Gallery:Tahu]]

What to Cite

Information that is located in a non-obvious or accessible source should be the focus of citations. Most recent BIONICLE story information has come from the LEGO Message Boards "Chat with Greg Farshtey" thread, which provides the only current outlet for otherwise unknown pieces of information.

Citations can also be used for information that does not appear in the primary source, and that is instead contextualized by another source. For example, in BIONICLE: The Legend Reborn, Mata Nui fights the Skrall warlord Tuma and defeats him by noticing and targeting a pre-existing back injury. Tuma had previously suffered the injury in the serial Empire of the Skrall (something Mata Nui would have no knowledge of), while Mata Nui learned to exploit weaknesses in the reader book BIONICLE: Challenge of Mata Nui. Both sources are two steps removed from another, thus citation of the respective source would take place on the opposite page.

Citation Needed

Page text that does not have any source or reference defining its information should be given the Citation Needed template, Template:CN, denoted like so:

Tahu's primary armor color is pink.{{CN}}

This will appear as:

Tahu's primary armor color is pink.[citation needed]

The CN template will direct back to this page, where readers can discover how they can add the citation.