Challenge of the week: Correct simple errors in reference tags

Question

Hi WikiTreers,

Will you join our "Data Doctors" Challenge of the week?

This is an easy one to participate in, once you know how reference tags work, i.e.:

1. A footnote needs to start with <ref> and end with </ref>.
2. There needs to be a <references /> tag directly below the == Sources == headline for the footnotes to display.

Using these tags is naturally confusing for Newts. It's very frustrating for new members when a tag is missing or misplaced and they can't figure out why footnotes aren't appearing.

Once again, Aleš has come up with something incredibly helpful. He's prepared a report of profiles from around the tree where a reference tag appears to be misplaced. Click here for the list.

Can you help fix them?

The member with the most points at 11:59pm EDT on Sunday night will get the Winner badge this week and the bragging rights. But we'll all benefit from a neater, cleaner shared tree.

If you're participating, please post here to let us know. It's nice to cheer each other on. Or post if you have any questions about how to participate.

Thanks for helping!

Real-time tracking results: See your stats 
alongside other participants here.

Top 10

• Joe P. Stennet - 1,352
• Helen E. Edwards - 1,327
• Carolyn S. Martin - 878
• Kelly T. O'Hair - 552
• Laura A. DeSpain - 311
• Linda J. Peterson - 284
• Anders Lönnermark - 270
• Karen E. Gunn - 198
• Jodi J. Emond - 95
• Carl F. Dickason - 78

Comments

Challenge is active.

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I'll help with this

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I'm in!

Though as usual, everything I look at has already been corrected and the status has not been updated, so annoying. I randomly pick a section to work on to find it's been done, total waste of time. There must be another way!

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I'm having the same problem. Every one I've looked at was already corrected. Am I looking at an out of date list? Not sure if I'm doing something wrong

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I did a bunch and toward the end I was having trouble finding ones to correct, so I retired. It would be nice to have a more dynamic list to know which ones to work on, but it is what it is I suppose.

I imagine when the effort level is a bit higher on a fix, and it takes more time to correct, this might not be such an issue. These were relatively easy to fix.

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I have encountered one complaint, accusing me of deleting references. The very short profile had no <references /> tag so I added one, but the 2 see also source links had numbers "1." and "2." so I changed them to "*" to avoid numbering confusion. The one <ref> had something like "No sources will add later..."...  I've seen some very terse profiles on this trip. :(

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If working from prepared lists is problematic in finding uncorrected suggestions, you can always use WikiTree+ to have direct access to suggestions

https://wikitree.sdms.si/default.htm?report=err6&Query=&MaxErrors=500&ErrorID=869

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I will try to help.

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You can work on a selected state or country which would have all the suggestions not just in the challenge, but you can  easily select the Suggestions that are part of the challenge.

You can use wikitree + as Ales said to get a dynamic list of a specific suggestion or on the other list, select the open column which has only the profiles that can be edited And then jump down a bunch of pages.  Looking at the url as you go to the next page, you can see where the page number is, if you want to jump a bunch of pages at a time.

Some of the reference suggestions are easier than others to work on.

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That helps quite a bit. Thanks.

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Thank you I was trying to figure out the difference between list for the challenge and tree+

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I'm noticing a disturbing trend on the addition of the <references /> tag. I am seeing profiles where someone fixed it by adding it, then someone else came back in and deleted the tag, maybe thinking it was a request for references? See Paradise-40 and Mullen-1425  (there are more).

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I just added the references tag back onto Paradise-40.  It is possible that when the person was adding the other sources to the profile that they wiped out the references tag without realizing it.

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I think the other could be the same. If I see in changes log that it was removed when nothing else was added, then it is intentional. Otherwise, I think it is being done unintentionally.

Answer 1

I will help!

Carolyn

Comments

These may be simple errors but so far they require quite a bit of work. The profiles I have looked at have many, many sources and it takes some time to find the exact one (even searching for the info) and then there is a bit of checking to make sure the source is correct and the profile is not messed up. I doubt I will be doing very many of these. Sorry.

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Just adding a <references /> or removing an extra one can be easy, but you are right, some of them are tricky and can be very time consuming. When fixing inline refs it gets even more tricky. In those tricky cases I have tried to do a little research on my own and have added sources when I can.  I just hope it is all appreciated in the spirit of improving the site.

I have to admit to walking away from a few big profiles that were riddled with mistakes and disorganization.

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Hi,

Thanks. I am glad to know it is not just me. I  tried again several times but was too frustrated. I am using my time on suggestions under my relative's profiles. I will crank out some edits for the next challenge.\

Carolyn

Answer 2

I will work on this.

Answer 3

I will work on these

Answer 4

I will work on some of these

Answer 5

I'll work on a few of the pre-1500 Suggestions

Answer 6

Please count me in. Thank you.

Answer 7

Oh what the heck, I'm in. ;)

Answer 8

Will get, what i can done.

Answer 9

I'll work on these.

Answer 10

I will try to help. Do I need to be a Data Doctor?

Answer 11

Count me in!

Answer 12

I'll help with this

Answer 13

I'll chip in.

Answer 14

I will help!

Answer 15

I'd love to help, but I just don't 'get' the formatting for references.  I include references wherever possible, but on the public profiles, it always looks a mess.

Answer 16

I said I would but when I clicked on a hint for ones needing help they had already been tended to!

Answer 17

Sure, I'll help.

Answer 18

Throw my name in the bucket, I'll help.

Comments

This challenge is not showing on my tracker.

Answer 19

I’ll give it a go