Advice: Citations

This page is a guide describing **how to create citations** in articles.

Because of the loose canon of the FOP Universe, referencing in articles is not completely necessary, and so far there are no established rules on sourcing. The reference tag is still a good way to clean up articles that excessively link to other articles, especially character pages referencing episodes.

## Information

### Reliable Sources

Official Pages
* ***The Fairly OddParents! (TV Show)***
* Butch Hartman Official Forums
* Nickelodeon - Press Releases

Fan Pages
### Canon vs Fanon

The OddParents universe has a very non-continuous canon. What may be established as an unbreakable rule in one episode may be completely disregarded the next. So the line is usually blurred between what is canon and what is not. A good example of this is Timmy's age, he is said to be age ten yet has had multiple birthdays in the series, but there are no references to him being eleven so it is not correct to change his age to eleven after seeing these episodes. If something is established in an episode it should be reference, if it is contradicted that should also be referenced.

Fanon is information that is invented by the fans. It can be admittedly hard to keep track of what is canon and not, especially since the series is still on going and the community is growing, so if something is insert into an article that is *iffy* then it should be marked with the {{Fact}} tag, or if it is known to be false then removed outright. For users who want to discuss fanon information or related articles such as fanfiction and fanart, please visit The Fairly Oddparents Fanon Wiki.

## Reference Tag

To add a citation to an article, use this tag.

```
Something happened and then something else happened. <ref>Reference here!</ref>

```

This will create:

Something happened and then something else happened
Which will add this to where the <references/> or Template:Reflist tag was used. There is no difference between the two tags.

You can also add multiple citations which link to the same thing.

```
Something happened, <ref name="refname">Reference here!</ref> then something else happened.<ref name="refname">Reference here!</ref>
But after that, nothing happened.<ref>Next reference!</ref>

```

Which will create:

Something happened,  then something else happened. Then nothing happened.
Which will add this to where the <references/> or Template:Reflist tag was used. There is no difference between the two tags.

1. ↑ Reference here!
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Reference here!
3. ↑ Next reference!

The *refname* is used to link these articles into a common grouping. You can use as many different names as you want, but the number you want grouped together will have to have identical reference names. This only applies to the same page the ref tag was made.

At the end of the article, even after the nav box if the page has one, should include this code:

```
==References==
<references/>
or
{{reflist]]

```

That will put the reference section neatly at the bottom and out of the way. Clicking on the number link will automatically bring users to the bottom and on some browsers highlight what they selected.