Template:Uw-bareurl
Information icon Hello! Thank you for your efforts to improve Wikipedia, and in particular for adding references! However, adding a bare URL is not ideal, and exposes the reference to link rot. It is preferable to use proper citation templates when citing sources, including details such as title, author, date, and any other information necessary for a bibliographic citation. Here's an example of a full citation using the {{cite web}} template to cite a web page:
Lorem ipsum<ref>{{cite web |title=Download the Scanning Software - Windows and Mac |publisher=Canon Inc |work=Ask a Question |date=2022 |url=https://support.usa.canon.com/kb/index?page=content&id=ART174839 |access-date=2022-04-02}}</ref> dolor sit amet.which displays inline in the running text of the article as:
and displays under References as:
- ^ Download the Scanning Software - Windows and Mac". Ask a Question. Canon Inc. 2022. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
If you've already added one or more bare URLs to an article, there are tools available to expand them into full citations: try the Citer tool, or in the wikitext editor, try the reFill tool, and in the Visual Editor, the reference dialog can convert some bare urls into a full citation. Once again, thanks for adding references to articles.
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| File:Information icon4.svg | This template should always be substituted – use {{subst:Uw-bareurl}}. Any accidental transclusions will be automatically substituted by a bot. |
Usage
{{subst:Uw-bareurl}}{{subst:Uw-bareurl|Article}}references a specific article{{subst:Uw-bareurl|Article|Additional text}}adds text onto the end of the message instead of "Thank you"{{subst:Uw-bareurl||Additional text}}or{{subst:Uw-bareurl|2=Additional text}}also adds text onto the end of the message instead of "Thank you", but doesn't link a page as specified by the article.
Please remember to substitute the template using {{subst:Uw-bareurl}} rather than {{Uw-bareurl}}.
To customize your message, parameters are available; one to add the article name, and one to add additional text at the end of the message. If your param value contains an equal sign (as urls often do), then be sure to explicitly specify the positional parameter by number; i.e., use |1= or |2= followed by the value; e.g., |1=XYZ=Repainting, or |2=https://www.bbc.com/search?q=Kent+weather.
Notes
- Please refer to the index of message templates before using any template on user talk pages to warn a user. Applying the best template available for your purpose may help reduce confusion from the message you are sending.
- Find subst count and examples of this template on User talk pages using this advanced search.[2026; 2025; 2024] (Patience; this may take a while.)
- This standardized template conforms to guidelines by the user warnings project. You may discuss the visual appearance of these standardized templates (e.g. the image in the top-left corner) at the user warning talk page.
- This documentation is generated by the {{Single notice}} template, and used by numerous single-level user warnings or notice templates. It is located at Template:Single notice/inner(edit talk links history).
See also