<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Wiki-syntax makes it easy to make user-friendly external links.

External links

If you want to link to a site outside of SCIFIPEDIA, it should almost always go under the "External links" heading at the end of an article.

The easiest way to make a link is to simply type in the full URL for the page you want to link to. If you want to make a link to Google, all you need to do is type:

http://www.google.com/

The wiki will automatically treat this text as a link (as has been done with the URL above) and will display the raw web address, including the "http://" part. In practice, you won't see this format much, as raw URLs are ugly and often give no clue to what the site actually is.

To make the link display something other than the URL, use one square bracket at each end. If you want to make a link to Google, type:

[http://www.google.com/]

This will display the link as a number in brackets, like this: [1]. This format is mostly used for citing sources within an article. It looks like a footnote, so it's best to use it only as such (for example, following a direct quote or a statement which requires a source). Also avoid using an external link when it's possible to accomplish the same thing with an internal link to a SCIFIPEDIA article.

If you want the link to appear with text that you specify, add an alternative title after the address separated by a space (not a pipe). So if you want the link to appear as Google search engine, just type:

[http://www.google.com/ Google search engine]

Note: Using certain characters, such as a pipe (|) in the URL of the link will cause the link to fail; however, URL syntax provides the ability to specify any character in a URL as a hexadecimal equivalent to its ASCII representation, so you can, for instance, write %7C instead of the pipe character.

When placed under the "External links" heading, the links should be listed in bullet-point format:

==External links==

*[http://www.google.com/ Google search engine]

For External Links relating to media properties, we've developed a ranking order for how multiple entries should be listed and it is as follows:

1. Official sites for titled project
2. Official sites for creative participants (actors, producers, writers) in the titled project
3. Reference sites (IMDB, etc.). Please note here that we don't choose to include links to other online encyclopedias, like Wikipedia. Since we're covering a subset of the material they cover, we could be seen, in a sense, as being in competition with them and we don't wish to send contributors and visitors away from SCIFIPEDIA. Their reputation and location are well-known and their material can easily be found. It is our view that external links to Wikipedia don't serve the same purpose as links to dedicated-subject wikis which would more appropriately be referenced here when they exist.
4. Fan sites for the project.
5. Fan sites for the participants.
6. Fan fiction sites.

Please note that we do not allow site banners or images to accompany links listings. If you wish to post site banners, you should contact our advertising department but we do not include advertising within the body of the Article content area.

Continue the tutorial with Talk pages>>