Undertale Wiki:Verifiability

Wiki content should be verifiable. This means that readers should have the ability to prove it is true, accurate, or justified, should doubts arise. This standard describes how to add verifiability to statements in wiki content by citing sources and how to handle unverifiable content or content with unreliable sources.

Citing

Citing sources is done by using references (footnotes) that appear next to statements as well as at the bottom of the page. You can either use the reference tool in the visual editor or the <ref> tags in the source editor to add references to the page. They are placed immediately after the text it applies to. Any punctuation, except dashes and parentheses, is placed before the citation.

• Yes: Deltarune was released on October 31.^[1]
• Yes: Undertale (released on September 15^[1]) is a game by Toby Fox.^[2]
• Yes: Deltarune—a game by Toby Fox^[1]— was released on October 31.^[2]
• No: Undertale (released on September 15)^[1] is a game by Toby Fox^[2].

When formatting references, there are several citation templates that are used across the wiki to standardize reference formatting. In general, citations are meant to include the following information:

1. Name or alias of the author or speaker
2. Date of publishing or submission of the source
3. Name of website or work source was posted in
4. Link to where the relevant source can be found
5. Page number, section name, or video time, if the source is lengthy

Sources

This is a list of sources you can use when citing from the wiki, together with their reliability.

• Content from within Undertale or Deltarune is the most reliable source for all information on the wiki. Dialogue quotes are the most common type of citation and easily verifiable using the fan-regulated resources for Undertale or fan-regulated resources for Deltarune.
• Content from within Undertale or Deltarune's code or files is the most comprehensive source for how the games actually behave, and can be verified using online code dumps for either Undertale or Deltarune, or using UndertaleModTool.
  • However, it should be taken into account that what the code states, but isn't available through the game itself, is not strictly canonical to the games and in-game content always takes precedence in terms of reliability.
• Content from official Undertale, Deltarune or developer social media, Kickstarter campaigns, and other affiliated websites.
  • Such content should be archived using either Wayback Machine or archive.today, to preserve the integrity of sources even in case of their deletion.
  • Exercise caution when citing such sources as canonical (for example, in a character's personality, plot, or relationships sections), as Toby Fox has stated multiple times that content from outside the games themselves should not be taken as canonical. It is always acceptable to cite such sources for development information.
  • Websites or social media accounts that were previously associated with either the games or their developers can be used as a source within the relevant period of time that they were associated. For example: Toby Fox's old website can be used as a source for when a particular track was published on his website.
• Statements by Toby Fox from books, newspapers and interviews, if used in a similar manner to social media posts. If the particular news outlet or book cited is behind a paywall, please contact any member of the wiki's administration.
• Videos or social media posts that are used for demonstrating or elaborating on a point made in a wiki article are not particularly reliable, but can be used as sources if they are easily proven as true. For example: gameplay videos demonstrating maximum stats runs, blog posts analyzing the differences between English and Japanese dialogue, or tweets with videos showing similarities in chord progression between two tracks.

Unverifiable content

If you find questionable content that has not been properly cited, you can add the {{Citation needed}} template next to it to mark it as dubious, or offer feedback on the respective article. Before marking, try finding a source first. If you are very doubtful of the claims presented, you may instead delete the content while providing an adequate edit summary of why you did so. Don't mark for verification content that is obvious vandalism, or controversial claims of living people.

If your own work is marked or deleted for lack of citation, provide a citation the next time you re-add such content.