Template:Selfref/doc

The Selfref template adds a hatnote to a Wikipedia article that will not appear in any reuse of Wikipedia article content. In Wikipedia terminology, self-references in an article usually mention Wikipedia directly or tell readers to take an action that has to take place on Wikipedia, such as editing the article. Typically, self-references within Wikipedia articles to the Wikipedia project should be avoided. Reading such information off-site would only cause confusion.

With this template, you can safely make a self-reference where needed, but that need is rare. Before using this template, make sure the self-reference that you're thinking of adding doesn't fall into one of the types listed at Self-references to avoid. Most other hatnote templates, such as for and about support a selfref parameter which may be more convenient to use.

To see this behavior, view a printable version of an article that has a self-reference hatnote, and notice how this template masks its content.

Usage
This template should not be substituted.

In most cases, is used to create a disambiguation link to a page in the "Wikipedia:" namespace from article-space; for instance, the page Objectivity (disambiguation) could have a self-referential "hatnote" link at the top:.

When using in this way, use the following format:

which produces:

italicized (Wikipedia house style for self-referential notes), and both preceded and followed by a linebreak.

For inline use (in body text, mid-sentence, and in hatnotes), without the indentation and line breaking, use :

which produces: (illustrated here on the same line as other content).

Template also has the parameter inline:

However, it does not always function properly, and may cause a line break under some circumstances.

Unprintworthy content
Rarely, there is other, non-self-referential content which shouldn't appear in mirrors, print editions, or other off-Wikipedia reuses of Wikipedia content, and which shouldn't be italicized as a self-reference.

It is preferable to mark such unprintworthy content with the Unprintworthy inline template (which includes the  CSS class, but not the   class, since links in such content will not be internal self-references). Although not all mirror sites do so, the content in question can be removed by reusers of WP content, without any reformatting, by ignoring or removing content marked up by this template, or more accurately by the  CSS class that it (and some other templates) use.

Note: The following syntax has been obsolete since 2008, and if you see it, replace it as described below.

There was a, pre-2008 legacy usage of that was used for such unprintworthy cases, and pre-dates the Unprintworthy inline template. This is to simply end the template with a pipe character – :

This method cannot be depended upon. For one thing, many editors would interpret the ending pipe as an error and remove it, turning the template into an indented self-ref hatnote! It also has not been used since 2008. Any remaining uses of it should be replaced with Selfref inline (if real a self-references) or Unprintworthy inline (if simply unprintworthy).