Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Locke Cole (talk | contribs) at 22:28, 16 November 2008 (→Dates: disputed per WP:MOSNUM). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

It has been suggested that CONTEXT and BUILD be merged into this page. (Discuss) Proposed since October 2008.

This guideline is a part of the English Misplaced Pages's Manual of Style. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though occasional exceptions may apply. Any substantive edit to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.

Shortcuts WP:MOSLINK MOS:LINK

Linking is one of the most important features of Misplaced Pages. It binds the project together into an interconnected whole, and provides instant pathways to locations both within and outside the project that are likely to increase our readers' understanding of the topic at hand. The basic types of link—internal and external, piped and unpiped—are explained on this page in terms of their mechanical aspects and the contexts in which they are used.

Internal links

Items in Misplaced Pages articles can be linked to other Misplaced Pages articles that provide information that significantly adds to readers' understanding of the topic. This can be done directly ("]", which results in "Ant"), or through a piped link ("]", which results in "five new species" in the text, but still links to the article "Ant").

Internal links add to the cohesion and utility of Misplaced Pages by allowing readers to deepen their understanding of a topic by conveniently accessing other articles. These links should be included where it is most likely that readers might want to use them; for example, in article leads, the beginnings of new sections, table cells, and image captions.

• Do not link items in the title or headings.
• Do not pipe links in disambiguation pages.
• Avoid placing two links next to each other in the text so that they look like one link (such as internal links).

Overlinking and underlinking

Many articles are underlinked or overlinked. An article is likely to be considered underlinked if subjects are not linked that are necessary to the understanding of the article. An article may be overlinked if any of the following is true:

• There are links to articles that are not likely to exist, or if they did would have little significance in the context of the article;
• Low added-value items are linked without reason—such as 1995, 1980s, and 20th century.
• A link for any single term is excessively repeated in the same article. "Excessive" typically means more than once for the same term in an article. The purpose of links is to direct the reader to a new spot at a point where the reader is most likely to take a temporary detour due to a need for more information; this is usually on the first occurrence of the term, although the subsequent linking of an important item distant from its previous occurrence in an article may occasionally be appropriate in a table or in a subsection to which readers may jump directly, either within the article or via a section-link from another article.

Piped links

• WP:EGG

It is possible to link words that are not exactly the same as the linked article title—for example, ]. However, make sure that it is still clear what the link refers to without having to follow the link.

When forming plurals, do so thus: ]s. This is clearer to read in wiki form than ]—and easier to type. This syntax is also applicable to adjective constructs such as ]n and the like. Hyphens and apostrophes must be included in the link to show as part of the same word. For example, ] or ]. Keeping possessive apostrophes inside the link, where possible, makes for more readable text and source, though either form is acceptable for possessive forms of links such as ]'s or ].

Links are not sensitive to initial capitalization (see below), so pipe-linking to fix a capitalization problem should never be necessary. Rather, it is most simple to directly use the form that is most readable in the clear text.

Avoid piping links from "year" to "year something" or "something year" (e.g., ]) in the main prose of an article in most cases. Use an explicit cross-reference, e.g., ''(see ])'', if it is appropriate to link a year to such an article at all. However, piped links may be useful:

• in places where compact presentation is important (some tables, infoboxes and lists); and
• in the main prose of articles in which such links are used heavily, as is often the case with sports biographies that link to numerous season articles.

Do not use a piped link to avoid otherwise legitimate redirect targets that fit well within the scope of the text. This assists in determining when a significant number of references to redirected links warrant more detailed articles.

Automated processes should not pipe links to redirects. Instead, the link should always be examined in context. For more information, see Misplaced Pages:Disambiguation, Misplaced Pages:Redirect#Do not "fix" links to redirects that are not broken, and Misplaced Pages:Redirects with possibilities.

Keep piped links as intuitive as possible. Do not use piped links to create "easter egg links", that require the reader to follow them before understanding what's going on. Also remember that there are people who print the articles. For example, do not write this:

...and by mid-century the puns and sexual humor were (with only a few ]) back in to stay.

The readers will not see the hidden reference to Thomas Bowdler unless they click or hover over the piped exceptions link—in a print version, there is no link to select, and the reference is lost. Instead, reference the article explicitly by using a "see also" or by rephrasing:

...and by mid-century the puns and sexual humor were (with only a few exceptions; see ]) back in to stay.

...and by mid-century the puns and sexual humor were back in to stay, ] being an exception.

Similarly, use:

After an earlier disaster (see Bombay Explosion (1944)),...

"After the earlier explosion in Bombay,...

not

After an earlier disaster,...

Piped links should be honest, rather than introducing "subtext". For example, the two sentences:

"He denied the allegation."

and

"He denied the allegation."

are identical on the surface, but the links imply two opposite readings. In this example, neither link is appropriate.

Linking to subsections can be useful, since it can take the reader immediately to the information that is most focused on the original topic. Links to a subheading on a page are denoted by a # symbol between the page title and the subheading (]). For example, to link to the "Culture" subsection of the Oman article, type ]. When naming a piped link, think about what the reader will believe the link is about; in this example, the piped section-link should not be named "Oman", because the reader will think that link goes to the general article on Oman.

Precision

Links should use the most precise target that arises in the context, even where the target is a simple redirect to a less specific page. For example, link to "V8 engine" rather than "V8 engine".

Red links

An internal link that displays in red points to a page that does not exist by that name. This will be for one of the following reasons:

1. an article has not yet been created there; or
2. there is a misspelling or plural left inside the link brackets;
3. an article on that topic has a different title and needs a redirect, or (more commonly) an easy and intuitive piped link.

Thus, many red links point to "buds" from which Misplaced Pages will grow in the future (Number 1), while others signify fixable problems (Numbers 2 and 3).

An example would be red link, which can be easily changed via piped link to the correct red link. If a red link is within the context of the article, and it is a topic with the potential to eventually be a neutral, verifiable encyclopedia article, then the link should be kept as an invitation for an editor to begin the appropriate article with this title. Such links do not have an expiration date, beyond which they must be "fixed".

Note that the color of such links depends on the settings of the individual Misplaced Pages reader, and red is only the default; a reader can change his or her personal style so this internal link class shows up in another color.

External links

Misplaced Pages is not a link collection and an article comprising only links is contrary to the "what Misplaced Pages is not" policy.

Syntax

The syntax for referencing a URL is simple. Just enclose it in single brackets:

The URL must begin with http:// or another common protocol, such as ftp:// or news://.

In addition, putting URLs in plain text with no markup automatically produces a link, for example http://www.example.org/. However, this feature may disappear in a future release. Therefore, in cases where you wish to display the URL because it is intrinsically valuable information, it is better to use the short form of the URL (host name) as the optional text: produces www.example.org.

Link titles

You should not add a descriptive title to an embedded HTML link within an article. Instead, when giving an embedded link as a source within an article, simply enclose the URL in square brackets, like this: . However, you should add a descriptive title when an external link is offered in the References, Further reading, or External links section. This is done by supplying descriptive text after the URL, separated by a space and enclosing it all in square brackets.

For example, to add a title to a bare URL such as http://en.wikipedia.org/ (this is rendered as "http://en.wikipedia.org/"), use the following syntax: (this is rendered as "an open-content encyclopedia").

Generally, URLs are ugly and uninformative; it is better for a meaningful title to be displayed rather than the URL itself. For example, "European Space Agency website" is much more reader-friendly than "http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/index.html". There may be exceptions where the URL is well known or is the company name. In this case, putting both the url and a valid title will be more informative: for example, "European Space Agency website, www.esa.int".

If the URL is displayed, make it as simple as possible; for example, if the index.html is superfluous, remove it (but be sure to check in preview mode first).

The "printable version" of a page displays all URLs in full, including those given a title, so no information is lost.

URLs as embedded (numbered) links

Without the optional text, external references appear as automatically numbered links: For example,

is displayed like this:

When an embedded HTML link is used to provide an inline source in an article, a numbered link should be used after the punctuation, like this, with a full citation given in the References section. See Misplaced Pages:Cite sources and Misplaced Pages:Verifiability for more information.

When placed in the References and External links sections, these links should be expanded with link text, and preferably a full citation, including the name of the article, the author, the journal or newspaper the article appeared in, the date it was published, and the date retrieved.

Position in article

Embedded links are positioned after the sentence or paragraph they are being used as a source for, and after the punctuation, like this.

A full citation should then be added to the References section. Links not used as sources can be listed in the External links section:

== External links ==

* [http://

* [http://

As with other top-level headings, two equal signs should be used to mark up the external links heading (see Headings elsewhere in the article).

If there is a dispute on the position of an embedded link, consider organizing alphabetically.

See Misplaced Pages:Citing sources#Embedded links for how to format these, and Misplaced Pages:Verifiability, which is policy.

Non-English-language sites

Webpages in English are highly preferred. Linking to non-English pages may still be useful for readers in the following cases:

• when the website is the subject of the article
• when linking to pages with maps, diagrams, photos, tables (explain the key terms with the link, so that people who do not know the language can interpret them)
• when the webpage contains key or authoritative information found on no English-language site and is used as a citation (or when translations on English-language sites are not authoritative).

In such cases, indicate what language the site is in. For example:

• El País, a Spanish-language newspaper from Madrid

You can also indicate the language by putting a language icon after the link. This is done using Template:Languageicon by typing {{Languageicon|<language code>|<language name>}}. Alternatively, type {{xx icon}}, where xx is the language code. See Category:Language icon templates for a list of these templates and the list of ISO 639 codes.

File type

If the link is not to an HTML file, identify the file type. Useful templates are available: {{PDFlink}}, {{DOClink}}, {{RTFlink}}. If a browser plugin is required to view to the file, mention that as well.

File size

If the link is to a large file (in the case of HTML, including the images), a note about that is useful. Someone with a slow connection may decide not to use it.

Alternative styles of link

Links to articles in other Wikimedia Foundation projects such as Wiktionary and Wikiquote can be done with special link templates such as Template:Wikiquote. These will display as a blue box with a logo. Similar templates exist for some free content resources that are not run by the Wikimedia Foundation. These boxes are formatted in light green to distinguish them from Misplaced Pages's official sister projects. A list of such templates can be found at Misplaced Pages:List of templates linking to other free content projects.

Other considerations

Capitalization

Wikilinking is not case-sensitive, so editors should generally choose upper or lower case for the initial character of the linked article title or the piped text as would normally apply in the sentence. The same applies for piped external links that occur in running prose.

Quotations

In general, do not include links in quotations; links can alter the form or emphasis of the original.

Dates

The following section's wording or inclusion in this policy or guideline is disputed or under discussion. Please see the relevant talk page discussion for further information.

For guidance on the linking of dates, see WP:CONTEXT#Dates. In most cases, date items (days, years, centuries and so on) are not linked. In particular, the day and year links that were formerly recommended to make the autoformatting function work are no longer considered desirable.

Units

In tables and infoboxes, units should not be internally linked to Misplaced Pages pages.

Checking links as they are created

One of the commonest errors in linking occurs when editors do not check to see whether a link they have created goes to the intended location. This is especially true when a mistake is not obvious to the reader or to other editors. The text of links needs to be exact, and many Misplaced Pages destinations have a number of similar titles. To avoid such problems, which can be irritating for readers, the following procedure is recommended, especially for editors who are new to creating links.

1. Carefully key in the link.
2. Click on "Show preview".
3. In the display-mode, click on the links to check they go where you intend; if they do not, fix them. If a destination page does not appear to exist, do a quick search to determine whether the article has a differently worded title or the subject is treated in a section of another article. Adjust the link accordingly, or leave it as a red link.
4. Return to the "Show preview" page using your browser's return button.
5. Click on "Save page".

By following naming conventions, an internal link will be much more likely to lead to an existing article. When there is not yet an article about the subject, a good link will make the creation of a correctly named article much easier for subsequent writers.

Link maintenance

Linking and continual change are both central features of Misplaced Pages; however, continual change makes linking vulnerable to acquired technical faults and the provision of different information from that which was originally intended. This is true of both "outgoing" links (from an article) and "incoming" links (to an article).

• Outgoing links: These should be checked from time to time for unintended changes that are undesirable; if the opportunity arises to improve their formatting, appropriateness and focus, this should be done.
• Incoming links: Creating an article will turn blue any existing red links to its title (redlinks are usually created in the hope that an article will eventually be written). Therefore, when creating an article, it is wise to check "What links here" to identify such redlinks, if any, and that they are appropriate.

See also

• Help:Link

Notes

1. This change was made on August 24, 2008, on the basis of this archived discussion.

• Misplaced Pages style guidelines
• General style guidelines