This is an archive of past discussions about Help:Cite errors. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
For the final point, consider a call with "cat=<blank>", defining the "cat" parameter but leaving it empty, or a call with "cat={{{cat|}}}", trying to pass the parameter from an outer template. The #if version of the code will see that the parameter is empty, and put the page in the default category. The second version will see that the parameter is defined, and attempt to put the page in a category with an empty name. See Help:Template#Handling parameters. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:55, 9 December 2013 (UTC)
All the pages outside mainspace are listed under omega. The category would be easier to work with if the different non-article namespaces were under separate sort key letters.
If by discussion you mean Wikipedia pages such as the Village Pump or Help Desk, then I see your point. I can remove that namespace, but we will have to accept that guideline and policy pages may have undisclosed errors. --Gadget850talk15:56, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
(e/c) Yes, I was referring to the Wikipedia archive pages in CAT:REF.
Since the subheadings on category pages are always uppercase, I've added a third column to your table. WP:SORTKEY suggests iota for files; we might as well stick with that. The current omega character is from {{Broken ref}}, is that right? -- John of Reading (talk) 16:06, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
Hi, adding in "Draft:" and "Wikipedia:" pages extends the Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting by about 200 items, and as noted above those should not be edited being they're archived. If those kinds of articles' errors need to be tracked, can they get a subpage or something instead of being among the "living" pages? - Salamurai (talk) 17:46, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
Not done: this is the talk page for discussing improvements to the page Help:Cite errors. Please make your request at the talk page for the article concerned. It's not clear what you want to do, but this edit was not good. If there is a problem with the article Véronique Sanson, the place to discuss it is Talk:Véronique Sanson. To request help, the left sidebar has a link Help where you will find links to various means of obtaining help. --Redrose64 (talk) 18:56, 15 March 2014 (UTC)
There are about 30 pages included in Category:Pages with missing references list beginning DW to DZ, and GMA. The template they transclude, {{GMA Network}}, has been edited to remove <ref> tags, and the pages no longer contain any surplus tags and no longer show an error message. Despite this, these pages still show in this category. Anyone help?: Noyster (talk), 11:13, 27 March 2014 (UTC)
Changes in category links are put into the job queue, and re-cached when the server load is low; this can take hours, days or weeks. You can force an update by editing the page, even a null edit. For example, I did some minor fixes on DWCW and it is no longer in the category. --Gadget850talk12:33, 27 March 2014 (UTC)
Cite error refs without references: role of bots
In the section Help:Cite_errors/Cite_error_refs_without_references#Proposals it gives reasons why missing {{reflist}} entries can't and shouldn't be fixed automatically. In fact, this is being fixed by both XqBot and YoBot, in most cases without leaving a problem, although it may take several weeks before either bot gets round to any particular article. However, the bots don't deal with the other most common cause of this big red error message, which is when people put in further <ref> tags below an existing {{reflist}}, as they quite often do. Ideal would be if this could be flagged to the editor at the time of saving; or if that is not possible, have a bot convert the opening <ref> into a *, and delete the closing </ref>, which would leave something usable: Noyster (talk), 10:04, 7 April 2014 (UTC)
There have been proposals to instead of displaying the error message, display {{reflist}}. This can be done, but it will always be placed at the very bottom of the page, will not have a heading and will be confusing for follow on editors. You can add a heading, but if you use wikimarkup, then the edit link will open the MEdiaWik error page; if you use HTML then the section is not listed in the TOC. --Gadget850talk11:04, 7 April 2014 (UTC)
Not done: as you have not requested a change. If you want to suggest a change, please request this in the form "Please replace XXX with YYY" or "Please add ZZZ between PPP and QQQ". Please also obtain consensus to back up your request. - Arjayay (talk) 13:42, 24 April 2014 (UTC)
For some reason, the page is displaying "Cite error: A list-defined reference named "FOOTNOTEBadman199940" is not used in the content". I have been scanning the article for FOOTNOTEBadman199940 but cannot find it. Help would be appreciated from another editor or a bot. XXSNUGGUMSXX (talk) 03:36, 26 April 2014 (UTC)
@XXSNUGGUMSXX: A large number of {{sfn}} were completely misused. It accepts up to four authors' surnames, a year, and a page identifier. Many uses were being given other information - title, publisher, ISBN etc., and it occurred to me that somebody had assumed that it was a shorthand for <ref>{{cite book}}</ref> whereas it is in fact a shorthand for <ref>{{harvnb}}</ref> I've fixed up the vast majority. --Redrose64 (talk) 11:59, 26 April 2014 (UTC)
Reflist error appearing when I've put the {{reflist}} template on the page.
I'm trying to edit the page for Leevi Madetoja by properly referencing the information, however since I've put both references AND the reflist template in the References section, it still displays the bug! Anyway to help?
Fixed in [2]. When a named reference is reused, the syntax is <ref name=Korhonen />. The reference was never closed before so the rest of the page was interpreted as part of the reference. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:27, 6 June 2014 (UTC)
Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) should be included in the list of species available. Citation: http://www.oldgrowthtimbers.com
Also
an advantage of reclaimed redwood is that it is the only way to obtain old growth wood of this species as there is no more harvest of old growth redwood. same citation as above.
— Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.196.62.62 (talk) 23:37, 9 June 2014
Cite error: The named reference http:.2F.2Fwww.giants-live.co. was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
I guess each .2F should be /. The relevant wikitext, with line breaks added, is:
...on June 29, 2013.<ref name="giants-live.com">
http://www.giants-live.com/a/id/102/Savickas-wins-Europe's-Strongest-Man-2013.html</ref>
...Dolina Charlotty, Poland)<ref name="http://www.giants-live.co."/>
The last line includes an incorrect ref name which generates the above message. I'll fix that now if no interruptions occur. Johnuniq (talk) 10:54, 11 June 2014 (UTC)
The error display is encoded, but otherwise spot on. "http://www.giants-live.co." is not the same as "giants-live.com". I will add a note to the help page. As noted at WP:NAMEDREFS: "Please consider keeping names simple and restricted to the standard English alphabet and numerals." --Gadget850talk15:08, 11 June 2014 (UTC)
Nalaka Godahewa
Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).
Probably this is a straight forward thing, but I cant sort out titled issue in the following article after adding a few new sources. Appreciate if anyone can help me here. I did check out the help page and tried several times but couldn't fix the issue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalaka_Godahewa— Preceding unsigned comment added by 126.15.198.169 (talk) 14:41, 15 June 2014 (UTC)
Citing is too hard, and pages are unreadable in edit mode.
Articles in edit mode are unreadable because every citation looks like this
<ref>{{cite journal | author = Addams M, Bach P D Q, Public J Q, Smith , Watson E, Xerxes F, Yao W, Zemin J | title = The Role of “Mixed” Orexigenic and Anorexigenic Signals and Autoantibodies Reacting with Appetite-Regulating Neuropeptides and Peptides of the Adipose Tissue-Gut-Brain Axis: Relevance to Food Intake and Nutritional Status in Patients with Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa | journal = Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry | volume = way too loud | issue = 38 | year = 2014 | kitchen-sink = included | pages = 1024-38 | pmid = 15863960 | doi = 10.1507/endocrj.52.271 | motto = "let's pipe in a few more tags"}}</ref>,
and there are multiple citations interrupting each sentence. All that gibberish should go only in a list at the bottom of the page. --Dan Wylie-Sears 2 (talk) 01:03, 17 July 2014 (UTC)
You're welcome to bring up this idea at Wikipedia:Village pump (policy). I suspect that you would not be the first to do so.
If you want to avoid this situation in articles that you have created, you can use <ref name="foo" /> in the body of the article and then list the refs at the bottom of the article. It does make it harder for editors to improve citations by editing sections, however. There are tradeoffs to everything. You could also try using the Syntax Highlighter, which you can find in Preferences -> Gadgets. – Jonesey95 (talk) 03:53, 17 July 2014 (UTC)
John Barnes Odonkor
41.218.231.214 (talk) 22:54, 5 September 2014 (UTC)
Musicians Union of Ghana
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Musicians Union of Ghana is an umbrella group that unites all musicians in Ghana irrespective of their music genre.
Bice Osei Kuffour is the current president of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA).Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page). [1] He was elected on August 18 2011 in Tamale in the Northern Region. The other candidates were John Barnes Odonkor,Gyedu Blay Ambolley, John Barnes Odonkor, Nana Tuffour and John Barnes Odonkor, Willi Roi. [2]
References[edit]
John Barnes Odonkor
Jump up ^ Accra"Odonkor". www.modernghana.com. Retrieved 19 August 2011. Text "Accra, Ghana" ignored (help); Text " Obour Elected MUSIGA President" ignored (help)
Jump up ^ http://www.obour.com/?p=143
John Barnes Odonkor
Flag of GhanaBiography icon This Ghanaian biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
John Barnes Odonkor John Barnes Odonkor John Barnes Odonkor John Barnes Odonkor
Categories: Ghanaian people stubsAddress IP 41.218.220.323.28Organisations based in GhanaGhanaian musicMinistry for Chieftaincy and Traditional AffairsUnited StateGhana
We have reduced Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting, in articles, to almost nothing. There are a lot in drafts, but I don't see much point in attacking those when (1) many of those errors will be corrected by the drafter, and (2) many of the drafts will never grow up and become articles. Agreed? Excellent.
Should Harv ref errors be put in this category, or a similar one?
There are many articles with errors in Harvard-style references, like those in this version of Zhongfeng Mingben (I have since fixed the errors).
If you do not see the red errors, you can put the following in your common.js or vector.js:
// Show sfn and harv reference errors
importScript('User:Ucucha/HarvErrors.js');
These Harv ref errors do not appear to have a maintenance category assigned to them. Should they be placed in the Cite Errors category, or can a new category be created?
Note that the error category should be populated only from templates that create footnote references, like {{sfn}}, and not from citation templates like {{citation}}, since the former lead to broken links and the latter are not necessarily indicative of an error. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:35, 27 September 2014 (UTC)
There is no categorisation because the error message comes purely from a user script; such scripts are effective only at page load time, and also only for the user running the script. Categorisation needs to be on the saved version of a page, so some means of detecting the broken link would need to be built into {{harv}}, {{harvnb}}{{sfn}} etc. (eight templates in total, IIRC). But I know that regular templates cannot detect a broken link within a page (there is no equivalent to {{#ifexist:}} for anchors), and I don't think that Lua-ised templates can either. --Redrose64 (talk) 14:48, 27 September 2014 (UTC)
Thanks for the explanation. Maybe a bot could run through all pages that use {{sfn}} and similar templates periodically, add a maintenance category for broken links, and also periodically run through the maintenance category to remove the category from articles where the error no longer exists. Is that something that (a) sounds possible and (b) sounds useful? If so, I can propose it at Bot Requests if there is a consensus here or elsewhere in favor of it.
It looks like the harv/harvnb/sfn templates are used in about 50,000 articles, so that's not too many to scan periodically. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:23, 27 September 2014 (UTC)
But surely common.js is like any other javascript - it is executed client-side, when the page is loaded? It can create a link to a cat page, but cannot actually put the page into that cat. --Redrose64 (talk) 19:04, 27 September 2014 (UTC)
I don't understand the intent. Why do we need this change?
"At least one instance of the template or templates on this page..." Redundant since this would not be used on a template page that did not have references.
"...includes reference/citation tags" No. The template page where this is used includes <ref> tags. What is a citation tag?
"The references/citations they define are:" Why does this show even when no groups are defined?
Gadget850: Confusion/malfunction arose with the above because the template is used on (at least) two different types of template-related page: templates' own pages and template testcase pages. There's now an amended version of the sandbox which I hope works both ways. After some second/third thoughts, the noincludes within the template have also been removed.
Redrose64:
You really don't see anything other than "purely cosmetic reasons" for the rearranged code..?
Please examine the sandbox history. I have mentioned this before, as recently as Thursday.
It looks like you are adding a conditional so this will display "References/citations occurring on this page are listed below." on a testcases subpage. I don't understand why a simple {{reflist}} would not suffice. You really need to outline the changes and the rationale when you make a proposal. --Gadget850talk13:50, 24 November 2014 (UTC)
I think I may have misunderstood where/how this template is meant to be used – if I recall correctly, I was originally prompted by its use on this testcases page. I hadn't noticed that the template's documentation begins (italics added) "This template is used to show the references used in a template on the template page", so perhaps I should replace it with {{reflist}} on that testcases page (and then on other testcases pages where I find it in use)..? Sardanaphalus (talk) 17:13, 25 November 2014 (UTC)
Copying
I found a source on a page and it is useful to another page. But when I put the ref name their, it says it was invoked but never defined. Why does this happen? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dinosaur Fan (talk • contribs)
Please learn to do it yourself. I guess you copied the code <ref name="Farke, et al"/> from Aquilops to Dinosaur size, but that code only tells the software to look for the definition of "Farke, et al" somewhere else on the current page. You need to find and copy that definition. Search the source of Aquilops for "Farke, et al", for example with Ctrl+F in many browsers. One of the occurrences of "Farke, et al" defines it with this code which you must copy to Dinosaur size: <ref name="Farke, et al">{{Cite journal |first1=Andrew A. |last1=Farke |first2=W. Desmond |last2=Maxwell |first3=Richard L. |last3=Cifelli |first4=Mathew J. |last4=Wedel |date=2014-12-10 |title=A Ceratopsian Dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Western North America, and the Biogeography of Neoceratopsia |journal=[[PLoS ONE]] |volume=9 |issue=12 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0112055 |url=http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0112055}}</ref>. PrimeHunter (talk) 05:36, 19 December 2014 (UTC)
@Dinosaur Fan: You were almost right in [5]. Each ref name should only be defined once on a page so the second time you should have kept <ref name="Farke, et al" />. It's technically allowed to define a ref name more than once but only one of the definitions is used when the reference is displayed so it's very confusing if an editor later edits the unused definition and doesn't see any change in the displayed reference. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:52, 19 December 2014 (UTC)
