Citation Needed

2005

Date: 16 February 2005 · Place: Wikipedia, Template namespace · Figures: Ta bu shi da yu, Wikipedia editor (template creator) · Wikipedia editor community · Tags: Template, Wiki 01. A Template That Reaches the Street On 16 February 2005, English Wikipedia editor Ta bu shi da yu creates the Template:Citation needed markup. The template inserts a small bracketed superscript at the end of an unsourced sentence: [citation needed]. It is a workflow tool, meant only for editors patrolling articles. It immediately becomes the most-deployed inline template on the English Wikipedia. By 2010 hundreds of thousands of pages carry the tag at least once. 02. The Markup Becomes a Punchline By 2007 readers are wearing T-shirts printed CITIZENS HAVE THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS [CITATION NEEDED]. Picket signs carry it at protests. Forum posts append it sarcastically to obvious lies. The template detaches from Wikipedia and becomes a generic skepticism gesture, the textual equivalent of an arched eyebrow. Citation Needed is the first piece of platform-specific markup to escape its platform and become free-floating cultural vocabulary. It is the model for the [intensifies] greentext, the /s sarcasm tag, the air-quote, every snowclone-shaped sigil that lets you punctuate a sentence with disbelief. "[citation needed]" — Wikipedia Template:Citation needed, 16 February 2005 Sources • Wikipedia, Template:Citation needed history (16 February 2005) • The Atlantic, 'How citation needed became the internet's favorite phrase' (2014) • Wikipedia, History of citation-needed template