This page exemplifies trickier Wikipedia syntax you might need to use. Feel free to edit source and copy it as needed.

Permanent links and diffs

Every time you save/publish a page, you create a new version in its history -- designated by the oldid number seen in the page's URL/addressbar.

In Wikipedia discussion, you often need to reference versions ("permalink") of a page and the differences ("diffs") between them using the oldid. There's a few ways to do this. I like to use Special:Permalink and Special:Diff, you can also use an external link (placing a complete URL in single brackets, which shows the external icon "".) For example:

a version ("permalink") of a page: Special:Permalink/623998644 or [1].
the difference ("diff") between
- two versions (i.e., oldids): Special:Diff/623998644/927024688 or [2] .
- a version and its previous: Special:Diff/623998644/prev or [3] .
- a version and the current version: Special:Diff/623998644/cur or [4] .

And you can, of course, use a nicer name for any of these links.

Citations

As I describe elsewhere, I prefer the {{sfn}} template for citations. If you are using the VisualEditor or {{cite}} template, you'll have to do the following.

Citing with a page number

The brontosaurus is thin at the head.^[1]^: 5 Then it becomes much thicker in the middle.^[1]^: 7 Then thin again at the tail^[1]^: 9

^ ^a ^b ^c Elk, Anne (November 16, 1972). Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses.

Indirect citation

The Ultrasaurus has a long neck.^[1]^: 43

^ Dilinger (1968) as cited in Elk, Anne (November 16, 1972). Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses.

[In this case, we read in Elk (on page 5) claimed that Dilinger (1968) reported that the Ultrasaurus had a long neck.]

[elk1972-1] Elk, Anne (November 16, 1972). Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses.

[elk1972-2] Dilinger (1968) as cited in Elk, Anne (November 16, 1972). Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses.

[1]

[1]