Help:Editing/Links

IntactiWiki articles intensely rely on links, to other articles, to other information outside the IntactiWiki. Here you learn about the differences and how to format and use them.

Internal links

Whenever you want to link to another IntactiWiki article, this is done by the title of the article, enclosed in double square brackets. Linking to other wiki articles is also named wikifying.

Note: There is constant debate as to whether every occurrence of a term that exists as a wiki article should be linked, or just the first in a paragraph, or just the first in an article. To make it easier for readers of an IntactiWiki article, we recommend linking every occurrence of a wiki term in an article where it makes sense.

Simple links

Here is an example:

Please don't forget to read about [[intactivists]], too.

Result: Please don't forget to read about intactivists, too.

Uppercase/lowercase issues

The English IntactiWiki doesn't care much about uppercase/lowercase spelling of article titles in internal links. Here is another example:

Maybe you never heard about [[foreskin]] before.

Result: Maybe you never heard about foreskin before.

Note: When you click on the marked word foreskin to open the relevant article, you will see that its title is capitalized. This works fine for the first word of an article's title.

This may not work for [[Langerhans Cells]], by the way, just for [[Langerhans cells]].

Result: This may not work for Langerhans Cells, by the way, just for Langerhans cells and langerhans cells, because only the first word of an article's title will be auto-capitalized for the link.

Note: Here you see a red link, because the article Langerhans Cells doesn't exist. In IntactiWiki, we use sentence-style capitalization also to avoid internal link issues like this one.

Links with different text

But of course, you can assign any text to an article link. Here are some examples.

With the | character, you can add the text to be shown as the link title, so the [[Langerhans cells|Langerhans Cells]] link may work like this. You can also use redirect pages when linking to a more complex article, like [[glans|this one]]. And you can use plural endings and stuff to have a nicer text, e.g. when you're talking about multiple [[foreskin]]s.

Result: With the | character, you can add the text to be shown as the link title, so the Langerhans Cells link may work like this. You can also use redirect pages when linking to a more complex article, like this one. And you can use plural endings and stuff to have a nicer text, e.g. when you're talking about multiple foreskins.

External links

Opposite to internal links, external links which point to somewhere in the web, are basically recognized by the Wiki engine without further formatting. They just have to be complete URLs.

Simple links

Here is an example:

Have you ever visited the https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki?

Result: Have you ever visited the https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki?

Links with text

Of course you can assign a text to that link instead of showing the complete URL, which can be much easier to read. Then you have to enclose the URL in single square brackets, add a space character and the title text.

Have you ever visited the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki]?

Result: Have you ever visited the MediaWiki?

Note: Please keep in mind that in external links, the link and the link text are not separated by a | character (like in internal links) but by a space character!

Links with more information

In general, it is a good idea to check an external link into the web every now and then. Web URLs can expire or be redirected. Therefore, it is recommended using the Template:REFweb instead, when you're using the URL as a reference and add at least the accessdate parameter. Here is an example:

Have you ever visited the MediaWiki<ref>{{REFweb |url=https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki |title=MediaWiki |accessdate=2019-09-25}}</ref>?

Result: Have you ever visited the MediaWiki?