References & notes

Two footnote tags, with different jobs:

• <ref> — a numbered reference [1]. All refs collect into an automatic list at the bottom of the page.
• <note> — a hover-only aside [note 1]. Notes never appear in any bottom list; their content lives in the hover tooltip.

Both markers show their content in a tooltip on hover, and the same parsed content feeds the bottom list — the two can never disagree.

References

Rome fell in 476.<ref>''The Decline and Fall'', ch. 1</ref>

Name a reference to cite it more than once — the reuse gets the same number:

First use.<ref name="gibbon">''The Decline and Fall''</ref>
…
Cited again.<ref name="gibbon" />

• The name value must be in double quotes — <ref name=gibbon> is not recognized.
• Reuse order doesn’t matter: <ref name="x" /> may appear before the definition.
• The bottom list is appended automatically whenever a page has references. {{Reflist}} is accepted out of MediaWiki habit but does nothing — there’s no need to write it.

Notes

The emperor abdicated.<note>Formally, he was deposed by Odoacer.</note>

Notes take no attributes — no names, no reuse. They number independently of references ([note 1], [note 2], …).

Markup inside

Reference and note content parses inline markup: wikilinks, ''italics'', '''bold''', external links, and safe HTML. Block markup (tables, headings, lists) doesn’t apply inside a footnote.

Keep footnote content simple: don’t nest a <ref> inside a <ref>, or put a <note> (or <math>/<syntaxhighlight>) inside one — the marker markup breaks visibly.

Who sees what — the reader toggles

Every reader controls footnote visibility from the wiki panel (the button next to the page title):

• Notes: on by default. Turning them off hides the [note n] markers.
• References: off by default. Numbered markers and the bottom list only appear for readers who switch References on.