whoami.wiki

On Wikipedia, citations exist for public verifiability. Here, the sources are private archives. Citations serve a different purpose: traceability. When a future agent (or the wiki owner) reads a claim and wants to find the original context, the citation should point them to a specific, locatable place in the vault.

MediaWiki's native ref system

All inline citations use <ref> tags, rendered via <references /> at the bottom of the page in a == References == section. This is standard MediaWiki and requires no custom extensions.

Jane was born in Munich and moved to Berlin at eighteen.<ref name="ig-2021-04-15">
{{Cite message|snapshot=a1b2c3d4e5f6|date=2021-04-15
|thread=janedoe_12345|note=Family background exchange}}</ref>

Citation templates

Four templates for inline citations, matching common source types in personal archives. A fifth template, {{Cite vault}}, is used in the Bibliography section to describe full archives consulted.

Cite message

For text message content (DMs, chats).

{{Cite message|snapshot=a1b2c3d4e5f6|date=2021-04-15
|thread=janedoe_12345|note=Family background exchange}}

Renders as: Instagram DM, 15 April 2021 (snapshot a1b2c3d4)

Cite voice note

For voice note content.

{{Cite voice note|number=7|date=2021-06-03|speaker=Jane
|snapshot=a1b2c3d4e5f6|note=Darkroom discovery story}}

Renders as: Voice note #7, Jane, 3 June 2021

Cite photo

For facts derived from photos or screenshots.

{{Cite photo|file=IMG_2847.jpg|hash=...|date=2021-05-20
|snapshot=a1b2c3d4e5f6|note=University ID confirming enrollment}}

Renders as: Photo: IMG_2847.jpg, 20 May 2021

Cite video

For video content.

{{Cite video|file=berlin_gallery_opening.mp4|date=2021-11-12
|snapshot=a1b2c3d4e5f6|note=Gallery opening footage}}

Renders as: Video: berlin_gallery_opening.mp4, 12 November 2021

Cite vault

For the Bibliography section. Describes a full vault snapshot consulted during research.

{{Cite vault|type=messages|snapshot=a1b2c3d4e5f6
|timestamp=2021-03-01/2022-05-15|note=Instagram DM thread with Jane Doe}}

Renders as: Vault: Instagram DM thread with Jane Doe, Mar 2021–May 2022 (snapshot a1b2c3d4)

Common fields

All templates include:

snapshot — the content-addressed vault snapshot hash (first 8 chars is fine for display)
date — the date of the source material
note — brief human-readable description of what this citation supports

{{Cite vault}} additionally includes:

type — the kind of archive (messages, photos, video, etc.)
timestamp — the date range of the material

Granularity

Not every sentence needs a citation. The goal is traceability, not exhaustiveness.

Always cite

Biographical facts (birth place, school name, family details). These are scattered across thousands of messages and hard to relocate without a pointer
Direct quotes and blockquotes. Cite the date and message source or voice note number
Dates of specific events ("they met on 12 November"). Cite the source confirming the date
Statistics and counts. Cite how they were derived
Claims that were corrected or disputed on the talk page. Cite the resolution source

Don't need individual citations

Broadly sourced observations ("photography became a recurring topic") that emerge across the entire thread
Information already attributed inline ("On 15 April, Jane said...") where the date itself serves as the locator
Content on episode pages where the entire page draws from a defined set of voice notes listed at the top

Named refs for reuse

Many facts from the same conversation session share a source. Use named refs:

Jane's mother is from Munich.<ref name="ig-2021-04-15" />
Her father works in Zurich.<ref name="ig-2021-05-02">
{{Cite message|snapshot=a1b2c3d4e5f6|date=2021-05-02
|thread=janedoe_12345|note=Family details, father in Zurich}}</ref>
She has a younger brother named Max.<ref name="ig-2021-04-15" />

Page structure

Every person page and episode page ends with two sections:

== References ==
<references />

== Bibliography ==
{{Cite vault|type=messages|snapshot=a1b2c3d4e5f6
|timestamp=2021-03-01/2022-05-15|note=Instagram DM thread with Jane Doe}}
{{Cite vault|type=voice_notes|snapshot=b2c3d4e5f6a1
|timestamp=2021-04-12/2021-06-03|note=47 voice notes, Jane and wiki owner}}

References are inline citations. Each one traces a specific claim back to a specific moment in the vault. They are auto-generated from <ref> tags.

Bibliography lists the full vault snapshots consulted for the page. This tells a reader (or agent) what data the page drew from overall, without tying it to individual claims.

These serve different purposes from Source: pages, which are system-level documentation of data sources available to agents (how to query them, what they contain, snapshot IDs). The relationship:

A Source:Instagram DMs page documents the data source and how agents access it
A {{Cite vault}} entry in the Bibliography says "this page used that data source, specifically this snapshot and date range"
A {{Cite message}} ref in the References says "this specific claim comes from this specific message"

Migration

Existing pages should add citations incrementally. An agent doesn't need to cite every claim in one pass. A reasonable approach:

First pass — cite all biographical facts in the Background section and all direct quotes/blockquotes
Second pass — cite date-specific events in the chronological arc
Third pass — cite anything flagged as corrected or disputed on the talk page

This can be spread across multiple tasks.

Citation System