User:Bishonen/Diff and link tutorial

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[edit] Diffs and links

If you contribute an argument to a page like WP:RFC, WP:RFAR, WP:CN, or WP:ANI, it's essential to give evidence for your claims in the form of diffs and/or other links. Without such evidence, you will be taken less seriously. If you simply claim that "editor X has posted several personal attacks on talkpages" or "editor Y is edit warring on George W. Bush", you may be ignored, or told "diffs or it didn't happen".

Useful evidence consists of diffs to individual edits and links to page sections. Avoid linking to entire talkpages, as they are too long and diverse to be helpful. Never link to a page history or an editor's contributions, as those will probably have changed by the time somebody clicks on your link to view them.

[edit] How to harvest a diff

Find the page which contains the edit you want to refer to. Click on its history tab. Find the edit in the history list. (If that's a problem, clicking on the word last in the list will let you read the edit.) Right-click on its "last" button and select "Copy link location". The diff you want is now in your clipboard.

[edit] How to harvest a link to a page section

Find the page which contains the section you want to refer to. Click on "Permanent link" in the "Toolbox" in the lefthand sidebar. Go to the page's Table of Contents. Right-click on the name of the section you want to use, where it appears in the Table of Contents, and select "Copy link location". The section link you want is now in your clipboard.

[edit] How to put diffs and links into your text

Diffs and section links are both formatted in the same way. The whole of them must always be used, including the http://.

  1. Diffs and links will work if they're simply pasted into your text like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/InShaneee/Workshop&diff=next&oldid=115703696.
  2. Or you can make them neater by putting single (not double) square brackets round them. Typing this: [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/InShaneee/Workshop&diff=next&oldid=115703696] will give a note like this:[1].
  3. Or you can make them elegant by wrapping them into a word in your text. Typing this: [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/InShaneee/Workshop&diff=next&oldid=115703696 this] will give this link. Note the space between the link and the wrapper word.