User blog:LimitlessLegends/References Guide

A common term used throughout wikia, be them for Fanon or Canon purposes, are the References. Of course, they are also commonly used even outside of wikia.

They are used to reinforce and serve as proof for a piece of information that has been laid out in article, effectively "canonizing" it.

Here in Kenganverse Fanon, they are mostly used in informational articles such as characters, locations, amongst others, taking information from role-plays, where the stories go.

Creating
Creating references is simpler than it seems to be. Most of them are supposed to have names, accompanied by a link to the roleplay containing that information in question and a short description of the events.

This short description depends solely on the user, what they want to highlight from that particular scene, what they want to prove through that piece.

 

A personal example of mine would be:

 

Let's break it down, the piece up there is used to show that Rena Argo's alias is "Segundo" and he works in the Underworld, however, that it not the sole piece of information there.

Through interpretation and reading in-between lines, this same reference is used to reinforce his politeness in the personality section, and to put down the chronology of events in the history section.

Naming
The reference's name is totally up to the user, who just has to make sure that a new reference won't be using an existing name. If that happens, they will overlap one another.

Sometimes, it is best to use letters directly related to the roleplay reference, or any word that might remind the user of it.

Using
Most of the difficulty probably stems when using a reference more than once. More than likely, users will just copy-paste a previously used reference somewhere else. However, that is not needed at all.

As long as you always have the original reference piece, such as a  , if you want to use it again somewhere, you can instead use this kind of code:

 

Simply substitute most of the code and end it before the link, as shown above, this will make the editor recognize one is replicating an existing reference. Doing this not only saves you unnecessary bytes and data, but it keeps from cramping up your vision whenever you edit the article.

Placement
Where to put a reference depends solely on how they are structured.

The example of mine used above can be placed in the infobox, introduction, and miscellaneous places. It denotes how Argo works in the Underworld, what his alias is, and how he acts.

Therefore, it is very dependant on the highlight of the description. It doesn't need to be overly long, but don't be afraid to leave it somewhat long if necessary.

Showing Up
For the references to properly show up and highlight whenever you pass by them, you have to include this code at the bottom of the page:

==References==