Forum:Standardizing citations

Forums: Index → Community Proposal → Standardizing citations

So here's a proposal I have been thinking about recently: the standardization of citations on this wiki. I've noticed a couple people have different ways of formatting citations; for example, I usually go with the following format as per here:

• <ref>'''[[Halo: Retribution]]''', ''page 242''</ref>

However, I've been going through other wikis and Wikipedia for references, and I think I may have found a way I prefer that I know I've seen a couple people use here or at least similar to it. In my opinion, it looks neater and lines up with some pre-existing citation standards. So here is how I'm thinking we should standardize our citations for now on:

• For typical novels: <ref>''[[Halo: Warfleet]]'', p. 33</ref> or <ref>''[[Halo: Retribution]]'', Chapter 23, p. 242</ref> (page number is optional in this case, unless it is a quote)
• For comics: <ref>''[[Halo: Escalation]]'', [[Halo: Escalation Issue 1|Issue #1]]</ref>
• For anthologies: <ref>"[[Oasis]]" – ''[[Halo: Fractures]]'', p. 253</ref>
• For levels: <ref>''[[Halo 5: Guardians]]'', "[[Reunion]]"</ref> or <ref>''[[Halo 5: Guardians]]'', campaign level, "[[Reunion]]"</ref>
• For terminals: <ref>''[[Halo 2: Anniversary]]'', "[[Terminal/Halo 2: Anniversary|Terminal #5]]"</ref>
• For Phoenix Logs: <ref>''[[Halo Wars 2]]'', "[[Phoenix Log]]" – Atriox</ref>
• URLs: This one I'm not so sure about and I am open to suggestions, but I guess our current standard is fine with [URL-HERE '''Source of webpage''': ''Title of webpage'']

So those are just my recommendations and I'm open to suggestions. Let me know if I'm missing any common citation format too.{{Citation needed}}

Comments

Leave comments and suggestions below:

I do agree that the suggestion makes more sense than our current format - having the title in bold and page in italics is kind of arbitrary and just extra hassle - though it'd be a colossal amount of work implementing the change. The only things I'd change that in the case of anthologies, maybe have the main title and short story in the same order as game levels or comic issues just to keep the same logic consistent, rather than have the short story come first. Also, in regards to citing Phoenix Logs or other similar sources, I think it would be more consistent with the format (with e.g. game level citations) to put the quotation marks on the specific entry being cited, as in Phoenix Log – "Atriox" rather than "Phoenix Log" – Atriox. --Jugus (talk) 00:01, 5 September 2017 (EDT)

Yeah, definitely a lot of work, but I wouldn't recommend anyone going out of their way to make the change, only doing it when creating new articles or rewriting current ones perhaps. And the reason I have the short story listed first in the citation is so the format makes it clear that the page listed is "page x" within the anthology, rather than the short story itself. But I agree with the Phoenix Log suggestion, it makes more sense that way. --NightHammer^{(talk)(contribs)} 00:46, 5 September 2017 (EDT)

Is the number symbol for comic issues or terminals really necessary though? Lord Susto 02:21, 6 September 2017 (EDT)

Nope, and to be honest I don't know why I included it here for the terminals because I never use it for terminals myself. --NightHammer^{(talk)(contribs)} 02:27, 6 September 2017 (EDT)

Support. — subtank 12:22, 5 September 2017 (EDT)

Support. — Alright then. I'm onboard. Lord Susto 02:54, 6 September 2017 (EDT)