Forum:How to make the citation templates work properly?

Hello everyone.

So I'm trying to help out this wiki. One of the things I'm trying to do, is make it to where you can cite sources, reference, and all that. Basically, what I did, is I copy/pasted all the templates I thought I needed from Wikipedia and put them into the wiki. Now I don't see any redlinks anymore in the reflist template, but it still looks VERY weird and buggy. I know I'm missing SOMETHING. But what am I missing?

Here's a sandbox article so I can show you what I mean:

http://reptiles.wikia.com/index.php?title=Reptile_Wiki:Sandbox&oldid=2749

--Thesaurus Rex 10:58, August 26, 2010 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia's code is not very good to use on Wikia. Its probably better to use w:c:templates. —Manyman (talk) 12:22, August 26, 2010 (UTC)


 * I haven't looked at it, but you might be missing the CSS to go with these templates. -- ◄mendel► 16:20, August 26, 2010 (UTC)


 * This forum post may help. w:c:rappelz:Forum:Acknowledging your Sources using Footnotes Don't bother with the cite template - the REF tags are easy enough to use and you are in direct control of what appears in the footnote this way.
 * -- najevi 18:32, August 26, 2010 (UTC)


 * So how do I fix it? Thesaurus Rex 06:40, August 27, 2010 (UTC)
 * Lemme try to re-word that, sounded too vague. Do I simply delete all of the templates I pulled in from Wikipedia, since I didn't need them anyway? What templates SHOULD I bring in regarding this matter? And how do I make the reflist text smaller, like how they have it in Wikipedia and other wikis? --Thesaurus Rex 07:59, August 27, 2010 (UTC)
 * Lemme try to re-word that, sounded too vague. Do I simply delete all of the templates I pulled in from Wikipedia, since I didn't need them anyway? What templates SHOULD I bring in regarding this matter? And how do I make the reflist text smaller, like how they have it in Wikipedia and other wikis? --Thesaurus Rex 07:59, August 27, 2010 (UTC)


 * As Mendel said above you are probably missing some CSS code associated with the templates from Wikipedia. see -here (do NOT copy all the file as it is associated with many different templates). I'm not good with CSS so will not say which bits are needed as i had problems when I copied it originally and got it wrong. As others have said if possible try wikia versions of templates as they are less complex. Wikipedia version are being rewritten all the time and getting more complex as allsorts of multi-case and error checking bits are built into new core modules that are optimised to wikipedias version of MediaWiki.


 * As regards what to bring in and what not to partially depends if you are importing lots of wikipedia articles. For easy importing with out red template links it initially appears an easy option to import the associate Wikipedia templates but that rapidly spirals out of control as they are like an Ice Berg. You only see the tip of it above the water (in the article). Part of the problem is the documentation often has lots of others used in the examples. Striping 'lesser' useful ones out and all the red links takes alot of effort. Also cleaning up all the interwiki links (contained in the noinclude section usually with the Doc template link) and the PP-template calls - used by wikipedia to display a padlock icon on locked pages (but part of a whole suite of related templates if you copy the documentation). This is best removed or replace by wikias simple version as it is only decorative (just shows an icon if page protected /locked) which in general 99% should not be as it stops users updating them & will create extra work for admins who have to action the changes. Imported pages/doc also needing updationg for all the links to wikipedia policy pages which need redirection to a wikis own version (if it exists) or an extra "Wikipedia:" adding infront of the link title to actually link to the correct page as they are in the wikipedia project namespace not in article space. Then there are all the categories to rename/ remove as the structure is far too complex and you end up with hundreds of redlinked categories to sort out. Not I would not actualy remove all categories from articles as you soon find that you are adding them back later as the wiki grows.


 * Comments based on my experience / mistakes made when starting a wiki (an still trying to unravel some of them now) as do you spend time on structure or building content !! Be wary of using templates from lots of other wikis as they may not all be compatible and record were they are from in the edit summary or in the doc page (helps if there are problems/ for later users to understand them & i've forgoten were i found stuff originially) also the source should be credited under wikia license the same as anybody reusing your articles should credit you - BulldozerD11 13:50, August 27, 2010 (UTC)


 * Don't know if this will help, but we have two templates that we use on the WoT wiki that have helped us a lot. They are the ref template and the notes template The first one is used like this: . The second one is placed at the bottom of the page and adds a "Notes" heading with all of the footnotes. It also automatically groups references that are the same into one footnote reference. See this page for an example on how it is used. Hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions.  Willie  -  HtS  16:08, August 27, 2010 (UTC)
 * Ok, well, I replaced the 'cite web' template with one from Wikia Templates, and it fixed that. But here's what I found: MediaWiki:Common.css, for some reason, was deleted. Take a look. =\ --Thesaurus Rex 08:01, August 28, 2010 (UTC)
 * Back in 2007, yes. At the time, Wikia created messaging.wikia.com to hold "default" MediaWiki: pages for every wiki, so the duplicates residing on the individual wikis were deleted. If you create the page anew, the central common.css will be copied into your edit window, so you won't lose anything. -- ◄mendel► 11:44, August 28, 2010 (UTC)
 * You mean like remaking common.css? Can't, not an admin yet. :( --Thesaurus Rex 01:15, August 29, 2010 (UTC)
 * No, I mean for all intents and purposes, it's still there, just stored elsewhere. "View Source" if you want to see what it is. -- ◄mendel► 10:45, August 30, 2010 (UTC)
 * Ok, so is it up to date or anything? --Thesaurus Rex 21:04, August 30, 2010 (UTC)
 * Ok, so is it up to date or anything? --Thesaurus Rex 21:04, August 30, 2010 (UTC)