Help:Citing sources - Transformers Wiki

About to add a cool new piece of info to TFWiki.net? Whoa, slow down there! Is it goated with the source?

Why cite?

TFWiki.net does not hold itself to the same strict notability standards as Wikipedia. This is because we are a wiki for toy robots, consulted mostly by toy robot nerds, and not a de-facto reference text for the whole world to consult on important topics.

Nonetheless, it's inherently useful to keep sources around.

• It lends credibility to the article, by letting readers fact-check surprising or unlikely-sounding statements.
• When we add information to the wiki, we should be paraphrasing the material for clarity and relevance—but it's good to also be able to refer to the original full source to be certain of its exact nuances.
• It's useful to know where a piece of information was given, so we can better understand its context and how widely it applies.
• When two sources conflict, it's helpful to be able to compare them directly.

And perhaps most importantly, TFWiki.net is often used as a reference by official creators working on the Transformers brand... which, in cases where our information turned out to be inaccurate or unclear, has resulted in the dreaded citogenesis.

How cite?

Citing fiction

It is absolutely critical that you refer to primary sources when writing about Transformers fiction. For many sources which are long out of circulation, our community blog maintains archives, while backups of text sources are kept in Category:Source material.

Unlike many fan wikis, which use footnotes to indicate which sections of a summary or biography are based on which sources, we have a {{storylink}} template which provides the title of the source—linking to the relevant article—inline with the text, so as not to break the flow of the story. We even have special storylinks for our sister wikis: GoBots Wiki has {{gbstorylink}}, and the IDW Hasbro Wiki has {{istorylink}}. Note that storylinks should only be used in fiction sections; otherwise, just use footnotes (see below).

Here are some examples!

Generations Selects Special Comic

[[Spike Witwicky (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Neo Autobot X]] used [[Rung (G1)|]]'s [[alternate mode]] to administer an Energon enema to a  [[Quintesson Judge]]. {{storylink|Abominus comic 2}}

Neo Autobot X used Rung's alternate mode to administer an Energon enema to a Quintesson Judge. Abominus comic 2

Go-Bots comic

In the cafeteria, [[Turbo (GoBots)|]] took out [[Tank (GoBots)|]] using the hot fry oil. {{gbstorylink|Go-Bots issue 5|Issue 5}}

In the cafeteria, Turbo took out Tank using the hot fry oil. Issue 5

M.A.S.K.: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand

[[Vanessa Warfield]] demonstrated her expertise in the field of quantum mechanics to [[Miles Mayhem]]. {{istorylink|M.A.S.K.: Revolution}}

Vanessa Warfield demonstrated her expertise in the field of quantum mechanics to Miles Mayhem. M.A.S.K.: Revolution

Citing online sources

For sections concerning Transformers from an "out of universe" perspective—i.e.in the real world—you can provide a footnote by surrounding some text with <ref></ref> tags. Make sure that at the bottom of the page (above the "External links"/"See also" sections if present) a References section has been added to display these footnotes, using the following:

==References==
{{reflist}}

Sometimes, you will want to link to the same reference in multiple places; if so, you can give the reference a name:

<ref name=usedtwice>This source supports two different statements in the article!</ref>

And then refer to it again later on:

<ref name=usedtwice />

For most online sources, we have a one-size-fits-all {{citesocial}} template to put inside the reference tags, which takes the information about the source and displays it in a standardised format, ideally linking directly to it. Crucially, the "quote" field allows you to transcribe the exact relevant quote to back up your statement—this is important because online sources have a tendency to disappear, as people stop paying web-hosting costs or purposefully delete their own social media posts.

Here is an example of the template in action:

{{citesocial|quote=Hey, look at me!  I'm waving!  No, I don't transform into a USB drive.  Why do peeps keep asking, lol?|link=https://twitter.com/ravagekitteh/status/5723818650|name=Ravage|site=Yatter|year=2009|month=11|day=15}}

"Hey, look at me! I'm waving! No, I don't transform into a USB drive. Why do peeps keep asking, lol?"—Ravage, Yatter, 2009/11/15

Check the template's full documentation for more examples; it also has a "title" field, if you want to quote the name of an article or similar, and a "defunct" field for if the source's link is dead. You should always check the Wayback Machine first, though, to see if a copy of the website was saved. Failing that, you might want to use your search engine to dig up a mirrored copy of the source—for example, a fansite reporting on it. Sometimes, a broken link might just be due to a change in domain name! When adding a link to an article, we strongly recommend saving it on the Wayback Machine to ensure a copy is preserved for posterity.

If quoting an audiovisual source, such as a podcast or panel recording, please provide the timestamp of the relevant part! It's especially useful in these cases to correctly transcribe the quote in full.

At times, you may want to personally reach out to an official Transformers creator for confirmation or elaboration on a point regarding something they worked on. We'd like to stress, for the love of god, if you do this—please be very polite, and have respect for their time and the fact that they might not have the answer you're looking for.

Citing images

When uploading an image (art, photo, screencap, whatever), please state where the image comes from (issue number, episode title, book name, etc.) and the names of everyone known to have contributed to the image. It is important that artists and photographers be credited for their work!

The wiki has Category:Image templates, a monstrously huge suite of templates which basically provide forms you can fill out with all of this metadata. The easiest way to find an appropriate one is to click on an existing image on the wiki, click "edit" at the top, and copy the existing code, swapping out the specific information. Make sure a copyright template has been applied, so we can declare that our usage of the image (assuming we do not own it) falls under fair use.

In cases where you have modified the image in some way by comparison to the original source—for instance, translated or removed text, colour-correction, background removal—then please make a note of how exactly the image has been changed in its description. Please note that the wiki prohibits the use of any kind of AI upscaling or extension, as it cannot be guaranteed that AI-modified images are an accurate reflection of the content. Images should be posted at their original resolution, and if that makes an image too small, well, deal with it!

How not to cite

If you're in a rush, you might be tempted to just leave the link to whatever source supports your edit in the edit summary field, or trust that a source linked on a talk page is enough, or simply that other editors will take your word for it. Please don't do this! It's trivial even to just leave a link with a brief remark as a hidden comment (see below) in the page's source code, right next to the information in question, which someone else can format into a proper citation—so there's no excuse to make things more difficult for your fellow editors.

<!--This text only shows up if you view the page's source code.-->

If all else fails

As a last resort, if you can't find a source to back up a certain statement, you can mark it with the {{fact}} template,^{[citation needed]} which provides a link to this very help page. Note that you shouldn't use this to mark information you think is spurious; if something doesn't look right and there's absolutely nothing to back it up, you should just remove it from the article entirely! Or, if you're on the fence, ask around on the relevant talk page or our Discord server to see if anyone has any more information.