Challenge of the week: Correct simple errors in reference tags [closed]

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

• Helen E. Bowden - 1,298
• Esmé van der Westhuizen - 807
• Paula A. Hawkins - 777
• Carolyn S. Martin - 563
• Marion I. Poole - 418
• Teresa L. Downey - 394
• Patricia J. Ferdig - 372
• Sandie Schwartz - 291
• Katie M. Goodwin - 151
• Linda J. Peterson - 122

Comments

I’m in

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There doesn't need to be a space before the slash either.  It works with or without the space.

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The <references/> tag is supposed to be directly under the ==Sources== tag because sources shouldn't have any ref tags anyway. There shouldn't BE a footnotes section because the reference notes ARE the footnotes. If you want ==Research Notes== then you put those ABOVE sources.

Proper Order

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Greetings everyone and happy Saturday!

I enjoy cleaning and building up biographies.  Especially, when good solid sourcing and citing is presented.  Good solid sourcing is needed to connect to the global tree.  However, sometimes, wait... excuse me, most of the time I can't make heads or tails what the (already in place) sources are from an auto-generated GEDCOM import.  Dear Lord, help me understand who, why, where, and what determined that-that would be the answer.  In my opinion, it brings clutter to the universe.  The time and effort that goes into these can't be verified when not readable.  I apologize for sounding somewhat frustrated, but, in the amount of time it's taken me to write this comment, I've could of briefly built and cleaned at least 7 orphaned profiles.  Those who tackle GEDCOM's you have my blessings.  Thanks for your time.  

Paula Ann

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I corrected one yesterday by adding the references tag that was missing, when I went to change the status, it had already been changed to corrected by someone 2 days earlier. I added my correction to it. I thought maybe someone had changed it back in the interim, but when I looked at the changes log, there were no changes since Sept 2017 before mine. I just wanted to clarify that I wasn't trying to get a point on one that had already been corrected.

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Margaret, I have also seen that happen, which seemed like it was corrected.  When I made my change and saved the record, frequently, there would be an error in Red at the top because of a different critical error.  If the Save Anyway is not selected, the change is not actually saved, so I suspect the previous person didn't do that and thought they changed it, but they didn't.  I have seen the same thing when a suggestion shows a previous comment that it was fixed a while ago, so I always re-check and usually the change was not done or not done properly.

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Hi Linda, yes I did think maybe they hadn't saved it, and I have seen that red warning you mentioned, but wasn't one in this instance. I thought also that the tracker wouldn't have come up to change the status if they hadn't saved? Still learning about it all every day, but fun learning!

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Tracker would still come up.  You would see the most recent comment, if someone had recently changed it, since the Data Doctor list was created.  The 'other' problem could have been resolved by the time you made the change also.  

The other possibility is that the person made the change, didn't save it, then updated the status Tracker and forgot to change the profile.  As long as it is fixed now, that is the important part.

Selecting the Preview is always important after making a change to make sure that the change you made did fix the problem, ie. Footnotes now appear when they didn't before when the <references/> is done 'with or without' a space before the ending slash, since it does work both ways.

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Yes I always look at the preview to make sure I've got it right, great how one little typo can make such a difference to the profile and I like how correcting that can make such a huge difference. Glad it's all ok, I didn't want a problem with there being 2 corrected comments on the status. All good 

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I cant open this weeks challenge is anyone else having problems Thanks

Helen

Answer 1

I'm definitely in!

Answer 2

I will give it a go.

Answer 3

I have started on the last page of 863 Missing <references /> tag

Answer 4

Good use of my spare time !

I will concentrate on UK mostly with some unidentified profiles.

Answer 5

I'll give it a try!!

Answer 6

I will try to clean up the Wisconsin errors.

Answer 7

Count me  in

Answer 8

I'll do some

Answer 9

I'm in this week!

Answer 10

I'll spend some time this week fixing ref tags!

Answer 11

I'll tag along this week!

Answer 12

Yes I'll do some this week

Answer 13

I will do some, will start on the Surrey ones first

Answer 14

I'm in, do I I need to have a Data Doctor badge to participate ?

Comments

No!  I've been participating for weeks without one.

Answer 15

I'll try to do some. Thanks for organising the challenge.

Answer 16

I'm in. I'll focus on Pennsylvania.

Answer 17

I'll be working on Vermont profiles.

Answer 18

Tried to work on them, first five I opened were locked down.  No edit function.  Not worth leaving a message on a profile that was created in 2013, locked for edit, then abandoned. So discouraging.  Makes me cranky.  :(

Answer 19

I worked on a few. Don't forget to use Ctl-f to easily find those unbalanced ref tags!

Answer 20

I will do some because I need to learn how to do my own!