User talk:Müllidt.Thomas

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Hello, Müllidt.Thomas, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

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I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{helpme}} before the question. Again, welcome! PDCook (talk) 01:05, 29 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

{{helpme}} Dear Wikipedia-Team, I read that I should use more citations in my article... What does that mean exactly? Should I quote from external internet pages, how does that work? Thanks for your help! Müllidt.Thomas (talk) 08:51, 31 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Thomas,

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and encyclopedia's are collections of knowledge based upon reliable sources. There reliable sources allow a user to check if Wikipedia content is reliable, since man can simply check the external source. This is actually where citations come in - man should cite the sources used to write the article, so that other users can read those as well.

Citing sources is indeed quoting external websites, books and other data carriers. As mentioned before these sources should be reliable and not self published. It is preferred to cite there sources inline, meaning that a statement such as "Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program" will have its sources right after it so users can easily check that statement.

As for how to use references, i would point you to the WP:CITE page. Summary style it would be something like this:

Put the link between REF tags, like this: <ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:CITE</ref>
Place the link after the section you wish for it to reference.
(One time only) Create a reference section (==References==) and add the {{Reflist}} template under it. This is done by copying the text i just wrote including the curly brackets. Wikipedia will automatically generate a list based upon the ref tags placed in the text. Note: The reference section should be the last section in the article, as references under the reflist section are not detected by it.

I hope this helps, Excirial^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 11:13, 31 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]