Help talk:CS1 errors/Archive 2

Test and implementation processes
As someone who is familiar with professional implementation of computer code, I am familiar with finding bugs in multi-levelled code (down to kernal level), but for someone who is not they would have be pulling their hair out yesterday, and would have had no idea how to work out if it was a problem they had caused or a change elsewhere. While I appreciate that Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia that anyone can edit what are the test and implementation processes that for changing CS1 code?

I am deeply concerned that changes are being made to the functionality of the citation interfaces for which there have been no RfCs to agree the change in the functionality. This should be the first part change control process so that a functional specification can be generated .... But I assume I am teaching my mother how to suck eggs, because I assume that anyone messing around with this code is familiar with how user specification are drawn up; How a functional specification is generated from that user specification; how code is written from that functional specification and how tests are written to test against the functional specification to test the changes before implantation takes place. Luckily thanks to the history mechanism there is little need for a formal roll back procedure, but there should be a widely advertised forum where implementation errors can be discussed before a roll back takes place (as of course one has to identify cases of false positives). -- PBS (talk) 12:29, 25 August 2014 (UTC)


 * I have asked before for some sort of specification or style guide for CS1. The community have thus far declined.  Because you are familiar with software implementation, will you write a specification for us?


 * In lieu of a formal process, whenever I make changes to Module:Citation/CS1, or to templates outside of this project, I always talk about it. Always.  For CS1, changes are always made to the sandbox first; postings where I discuss the changes are usually here (unless started by someone else in some other place).  Before I update the live module, I always post a notification here and at WT:AWB with links to the relevant discussions at least a week in advance of the update. All of this so that editors can check my work.  This simple set of procedures is mostly effective.  It doesn't always work as yesterday demonstrates.  Do you have a better process that I should follow?


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 13:45, 25 August 2014 (UTC)

Cite template throwing invalid error message for date=yyyy-mm
The cite template has recently started to throw an error message for date=yyyy-mm. This is incorrect and needs to be fixed as the outcome of the RfC on this (Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers/Archive 146) was not to disallow this format. Also, it explicitly states that mass changes should be avoided, and if the cite template doesn't get fixed mass changes is exactly what will happen now. --Matthiaspaul (talk) 12:51, 14 October 2014 (UTC)


 * I think that the strike-through will just confuse people. What does it actually mean?  Right here, right now, CS1 considers xxxx-xx dates to be erroneous.  An editor sees an error message and clicks the Help link.  The condition in the article is described by text that has been struck through.  How is the editor supposed to interpret that? The purpose of Help:CS1 errors is to completely and accurately describe the error messages' meanings. To do otherwise is a disservice to the reader.


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 13:16, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Well, running into this I as a reader would interpret it as something in transition and simply not act on it. If I was curious, I would look at the talk page or in the history. Of course, the obvious fix to the problem is to just fix the module not to throw this error any more. If you think it can't be fixed easily, we could also add a note explaining the situation. --Matthiaspaul (talk) 14:06, 14 October 2014 (UTC)


 * I'm sure that's true for an editor of your experience level. For others, perhaps not.  Those who come to this help page are generally seeking answers, not more questions. It doesn't matter that there is dispute about the presence of an error message; it does matter that an error message exists and editors who come here want to know what it means and what to do about it.  The strike through should be removed.


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 15:44, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
 * How is this for a compromise? or this? —PC-XT+ 17:54, 14 October 2014 (UTC) 18:16, 14 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Isn't 'warn' a bit strong? The closing admin "[recommended] ... [that] mass changes [shouldn't be] made purely on the basis of [the] RfC." (emphasis mine)


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 21:44, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
 * ✅ Yes, it should be close to the wording of the RfC result. I made the change. —PC-XT+ 23:00, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

Strange date error
See Brahma Vaivarta Purana, at least 2 of the cited references of books are showing error with dates. I tried solving this, but couldn't. Bladesmulti (talk) 12:25, 16 October 2014 (UTC)


 * , I think. When two years are as far apart as they are in 1920 and 1974, it's probable that one is the year of first publication and the other is a more recent publication.  But, without I have it in my hand to be sure, I can't be sure.  Text that is not a date does not belong in a date-holding parameter.  I followed the JSTOR link to get the journal's date and used that.  Because the article is available at JSTOR, I deleted accessdate.


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 12:42, 16 October 2014 (UTC)
 * That was genius of you. Pretty good that you could also find JSTOR. Bladesmulti (talk) 13:05, 16 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Having error on Gliese 687 - Citation No.4 Bladesmulti (talk) 11:25, 23 October 2014 (UTC)
 * - changed June 20/24 1966 to June 20–24, 1966 per the source. GoingBatty (talk) 11:32, 23 October 2014 (UTC)


 * See citation No.12 on Bala Krishna. Bladesmulti (talk) 11:38, 30 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Looks a mess to me. Whoever placed that citation seems confused about what is actually being cited:
 * url links to a website that I presume is the author's website; isbn links to Special:BookSources which identifies this citation as a book citation (this is somewhat supported by the misuse of page which identifies the chapter and not a page; title refers to volumes 1-2 so which volume contains the 'chapter' identified in page; and of course the date is all buggered-up.
 * url links to a website that I presume is the author's website; isbn links to Special:BookSources which identifies this citation as a book citation (this is somewhat supported by the misuse of page which identifies the chapter and not a page; title refers to volumes 1-2 so which volume contains the 'chapter' identified in page; and of course the date is all buggered-up.


 * I found what is probably the quote the citation references here. That might allow you to fix the citation.


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 12:09, 30 October 2014 (UTC)

Undated
Not sure if this is the right place but a bot is changing the clear "undated" to the what the chuff does that mean "n.d.", if anybody can explain why we should change clear language and add confusion or point me to the right place to make the point, thanks. MilborneOne (talk) 15:59, 24 October 2014 (UTC)


 * This is as good a place as any, though, for a slightly larger audience of watchers, you might want to consider moving this topic to Help talk:Citation Style 1.


 * The use of  to indicate that there isn't an available date is consistent with APA and The Chicago Manual of Style.


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 16:17, 24 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Thank, it may well consistent with these American style guides but to the general reader it just causes confusion, it would better to have the field blank if you cant use the concise term like "undated" then some unknown american style abbreviation. Presume we put slavish following of random style guides over clarity. MilborneOne (talk) 16:27, 24 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Glad you asked, and couldnt agree more with MilborneOne! While I live in America, I am also not familiar with n.d. meaning no date. Ive seen it to mean not done in my line of work. I like 'no date' or 'undated', which is exactly what I used up until just this moment, when I got the error message that undated wont work.


 * I am not as angry as Milborne, but find his point is well taken, Trappist the monk. How much non-U.S. traffic goes over the en.wikipedia? Are there any estimates? 80% of readers and maybe a little less for editors? wild guess, but I'd be surprised if people outside the US are familiar with nd.


 * Also, I actually have never seen anybody mark the date field 'undated', although this is clearly quite often the case for webcitations (most if not all US gvt websites, except EPA) where a missing date in the reference is ambiguous. This goes to show, that the average Joe editor doesnt even know that 'no available date' is even an option. Case for education.--Wuerzele (talk) 03:21, 25 October 2014 (UTC)


 * A handful of searches reveal these data points:
 * Number of pages with citations using:
 * n.d.: 2,439
 * nd: 71 (BattyBot task 25 converts this form to 'n.d.')
 * undated: 782
 * no date: 269


 * I don't know why APA, CMOS, and apparently, The MLA Style Manual have chosen to use 'n.d.' I don't know if there are published style guides that use 'no date' or 'undated'. I do know that style in CS1 is primarily guided by Wikipedia's MOS and when that source is mute on a topic, is guided by published style guides.  That, as I understand it, is the goal at any rate.


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 10:06, 25 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Thank you for providing these data,Trappist the monk! I rest my case.--Wuerzele (talk) 05:32, 28 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Now that the errors are visible to all, BattyBot is also changing undated and no date to n.d. GoingBatty (talk) 23:50, 26 October 2014 (UTC)

Years before 0.
Regarding Help:CS1 errors. How to do the formatting to prevent a warning from showing up when the publication year is BCE? For example, if the publication "year=c. 431 BCE", then what needs to be changed to make the warning go away? Because I tried removing c., that doesn't fix it. I also tried B.C.E. and BC, and that doesn't fix it. I tried -431, and that isn't being accepted either. --82.136.210.153 (talk) 20:03, 27 October 2014 (UTC)


 * CS1 doesn't support dates before 100, consequently, it doesn't understand eras.


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 21:59, 27 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Does this mean that articles with such years in references are doomed to contain warnings until the end of time? --82.136.210.153 (talk) 22:49, 27 October 2014 (UTC)
 * "431 BCE" could go in origyear, with the publication date of the source you are actually citing (and viewing with your own eyes), or to which you are referring readers, in date. – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:03, 28 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Ah, yes; thanks. --82.136.210.153 (talk) 00:12, 28 October 2014 (UTC)

Help request: Another error trigger for date=? If so, please add it to the help section: Help:CS1_errors. Thanks.
I think I found another way a date can be bad, but I am not sure it's actually missing from Help:CS1_errors because I am very tired, and real life limitations will probably prevent me from making it back here.

I think I solved an error in Jafar Panahi triggered by the date being 07 instead of 7 with no leading zero. I based this on the following edit summaries:


 * (cur | prev) 02:05, October 29, 2014‎ Geekdiva (talk | contribs)‎ . . (71,792 bytes) (-1)‎ . . (→‎Earlier legal problems: Another try at fixing the date problem: date=07 May 2001 → date=7 May 2001) (undo)
 * (cur | prev) 01:59, October 29, 2014‎ Geekdiva (talk | contribs)‎ . . (71,793 bytes) (+8)‎ . . (→‎Earlier legal problems: Added |nolink=y to the Sic template to prevent error of Wikilink in title. While I corrected the date= formatting, that didn't correct the date= error. Removing space to fix.) (undo)
 * (cur | prev) 01:56, October 29, 2014‎ Geekdiva (talk | contribs)‎ . . (71,785 bytes) (+7)‎ . . (→‎Earlier legal problems: Filmaker[sic] → Filmaker Template:Sic. Kept spelling & used T:Sic since this is the title of the ref. Corrected date= error and updated accessdate=.) (undo)

Thanks! --Geekdiva (talk) 09:16, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
 * If you follow the link from the Help page to Manual_of_Style/Dates_and_numbers, you'll see the instructions "Do not 'zero-pad' month or day". Good job fixing the error! – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:28, 29 October 2014 (UTC)

I see. (Wow, I did make it back here after leaving the tab up all night & day!) The mnemonic/shortcut MOS:DATEFORMAT works for me, although WP:YR is shorter.

I did open some of the links in the Help text, but eventually my eyes just jumped to the bulleted list, where I didn't see a solution that matched my problem. It would be good if this section was rewritten in troubleshooting order. In particular, "Following discussion here and further notification here, this error message will be enabled for display 11–12 October 2014," was distracting & confusing.

Gotta run! Thanks again, --Geekdiva (talk) 20:53, 29 October 2014 (UTC)


 * I agree, that section was a mess. I've rewritten it to take out all of the examples.  Too much clutter.


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 22:29, 29 October 2014 (UTC)

underscores in parameter names used in error messages
At some point recently (during last year I would guess... maybe I'll track it down later), the recommended form of trans_title and trans_chapter was changed to trans-title and trans-chapter, respectively. That is, the underscores were changed to dashes. However the error messages for these when title or chapter are missing is still using the old underscore versions of these parameters:



The documentation still also uses the underscore versions in places it should not. The accelerated pace of cite template work since the the translation to LUA has done great things for Wikipedia but I think we need to be more meticulous in keeping the connected material (error messages, documentation, and so forth) as sync'ed as possible. Jason Quinn (talk) 19:36, 28 November 2014 (UTC)


 * The error messages were fixed in the sandbox some time ago. Your examples using that code:


 * I expect to update the live module from the sandbox tomorrow morning. Yep, documentation isn't what it could be.  We won't turn away helpers ...


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 19:58, 28 November 2014 (UTC)

Seasons and quarters are not allowed in date field
Many publications are listed as being published in a season, like "Spring 2011" or "Autumn 2012". An error is returned when this is put in the date field. These kinds of values should be accepted.  Blue Rasberry  (talk)  22:58, 19 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Seasons are allowed. For example,   generates:
 * Note that the season name must be capitalized. If you have an example where the season gives an error, please share it here.
 * For a previous discussion on quarters, please see Help talk:Citation Style 1/Archive 6. Thanks!  GoingBatty (talk) 23:04, 19 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the explanation - that works.
 * I think there is universal consensus in grammar guides that seasons are generic nouns, not proper nouns, and that it is incorrect to capitalize them. If the policy is to capitalize them on Wikipedia then I think that is nonintuitive, and that both capitalized and non-capitalized season names should be allowed unless there is an extraordinary reason to disallow grammatically correct usage.
 * a college guide from Purdue - "not the seasons"
 * some weird grammar website - "Seasons, such as winter, spring, summer and fall, do not require capitalization because they are generic nouns. Some people may confuse these words as being proper nouns and try to capitalize them using that rule of capitalization."
 * stackexchange has a grammar forum? - "The names of seasons should be left uncapitalized"
 * some other school - "Seasons are not capitalised."
 *  Blue Rasberry  (talk)  23:43, 19 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Please see Help:Citation Style 1, Help talk:Citation Style 1/Archive 5, and Help talk:Citation Style 1/Archive 6. GoingBatty (talk) 00:02, 20 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Please see Help:Citation Style 1, Help talk:Citation Style 1/Archive 5, and Help talk:Citation Style 1/Archive 6. GoingBatty (talk) 00:02, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

Correct format for the publication date of a bimonthly publication
I'm struggling to find an acceptable date format for the publication date of a bimonthly publication. The date is quoted by the publication itself as Jan/Feb 2015, but all my attempts to express that to the cite news template gives me a check date error. You can see my attempts in the history for Islay Airport. What format should I use?. -- chris_j_wood (talk) 20:10, 25 December 2014 (UTC)


 * WP:DATERANGE does not allow the use of the virgule as a date separator. The only separator allowed is an endash so the closest approximation of the Jan/Feb 2015 is Jan–Feb 2015. With that, the citation looks like this:
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 20:20, 25 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I tried dash but not endash; should have thought of that. -- chris_j_wood (talk) 22:34, 25 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I tried dash but not endash; should have thought of that. -- chris_j_wood (talk) 22:34, 25 December 2014 (UTC)

|format= requires |url= in Template:Cite encyclopedia
The clean up listing for WikiProject Somerset is showing several CS1 errors for articles ( including Athelm, Berhtwald, Robert Burnell, Sigeric the Serious) which use the Template:Cite encyclopedia for pages of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. I've looked at the template to try to repair the "|format= requires |url=" error, but can't understand what the problem is. Any help or advice appreciated.&mdash; Rod talk 09:38, 6 December 2014 (UTC)


 * At Athelm the two error messages arise because is not correctly handling format.   is unique in that it promotes parameters depending on what it's given.  For example from Athelm, the citation does not have article so the value in title is promoted to article, the aforementioned title, now vacated, receives its value from encyclopedia. Attendant parameters url and trans-title if present are also promoted. But format is not and should be. I have fixed that in the sandbox.


 * There is a second problem not of my doing at Athelm: the template is not a file format and so does not belong in format.  That template is best placed outside of the CS1 citation template.  Removing  from format will clear the error.




 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 13:46, 6 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I will not claim to understand all of that, but have copied your example into the article & will try to fiddle with the others to see if I can work them out.&mdash; Rod talk 14:00, 6 December 2014 (UTC)


 * @Rod instead of using cite encyclopedia consider using the wrapper cite ODNB which fills out most of the fields for you.
 * becomes
 * This also has the advantage of placing the article into the Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the ODNB which helps the WikiProject Dictionary of National Biography. Also consider adding DNBfirst if relevant. -- PBS (talk) 17:30, 14 February 2015 (UTC)
 * This also has the advantage of placing the article into the Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the ODNB which helps the WikiProject Dictionary of National Biography. Also consider adding DNBfirst if relevant. -- PBS (talk) 17:30, 14 February 2015 (UTC)
 * This also has the advantage of placing the article into the Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the ODNB which helps the WikiProject Dictionary of National Biography. Also consider adding DNBfirst if relevant. -- PBS (talk) 17:30, 14 February 2015 (UTC)
 * This also has the advantage of placing the article into the Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the ODNB which helps the WikiProject Dictionary of National Biography. Also consider adding DNBfirst if relevant. -- PBS (talk) 17:30, 14 February 2015 (UTC)

A bit tired of the overcare CS1 tries to impose
While it does help to bring more discipline to the dates field, there are many examples where (at least for me) it is a timewaster, the most recent example for me being at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warwick_Thornton#cite_ref-4 Neither the date 8 May, 2008 (nor 08 May, 2008) pass the redline test of CS1 for "archivedate=". Pray tell, whatsup?DadaNeem (talk) 00:22, 26 January 2015 (UTC)


 * CS1 simply enforces MOS:DATEFORMAT, and neither of your dates meet the allowed formats. The proper date is either May 8, 2008 or 8 May 2008. --  Gadget850talk 00:28, 26 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Since the article contains the hidden template Use dmy dates, "8 May 2008" is the proper format. GoingBatty (talk) 00:59, 26 January 2015 (UTC)

Chapter ignored error in redlink category
It appears that Non-innocent ligand has a redlink category Category:CS1 errors: chapter ignored instead of Category:CS1 errors: Chapter ignored. What's the best way to fix this? GoingBatty (talk) 22:16, 14 February 2015 (UTC)


 * This appears to be because of this . So, we can move the category to the new name  or we can change change the module back to .  It would appear that editor Jonesey95 is correct in that consistency suggests that  is the correct name and that the category should be moved.


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 22:31, 14 February 2015 (UTC)
 * I have created the new category. Articles will migrate from the old category to the new category as they are refreshed by the job queue, or whatever it is called. – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:41, 15 February 2015 (UTC)

book reviews
The error is flagged in Metal Ions in Life Sciences against some book reviews. These reviews occur in scientific journals but are not journal articles as such. Therefore they do not carry a title. The cite journal template correctly locates the book review but now gives this error. It did not do so before. I suggest a return to previous practice - don't make the title obligatory. Any response on Talk:Metal Ions in Life Sciences, please. Petergans (talk) 11:21, 3 March 2015 (UTC)


 * Titles are required. For journal citations (and  where journal is set) like this:
 * you can add none which will suppress the error message; if the parameter url is set, the citation must have a displayable title. For book reviews and the like that do not rise to the level of 'article' it might be a good idea to at least let readers know what the citation refers to by setting Book Reviews or something similar:
 * you can add none which will suppress the error message; if the parameter url is set, the citation must have a displayable title. For book reviews and the like that do not rise to the level of 'article' it might be a good idea to at least let readers know what the citation refers to by setting Book Reviews or something similar:
 * you can add none which will suppress the error message; if the parameter url is set, the citation must have a displayable title. For book reviews and the like that do not rise to the level of 'article' it might be a good idea to at least let readers know what the citation refers to by setting Book Reviews or something similar:


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 13:04, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

"Check date values" prevents editorial marks in citation date fields
It is common when a publication is known from a source other than the publication itself to indicate this in citations by using brackets around the date, like so:. Using this format in the date field of a citation template, however, generates the  error message, unlike "n.d." for when the date is truly unknowable. Is it possible to add an exception for brackets, or is that simply not meant to be used in this citation style? If the latter, is there some guide I can't find for whether to used n.d., or leave the field blank, or...? —KGF0 ( T | C ) 22:43, 19 March 2015 (UTC)


 * I'm have trouble wrapping my brain around when a publication is known from a source other than the publication itself. What does that mean, exactly?  Can you give us an example where this notation is required and also, is there some published style guide that describes it?


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 23:02, 19 March 2015 (UTC)
 * I suppose you could use orig-year. – Jonesey95 (talk) 02:06, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

No title error?
Could someone more familiar with these issues please take a look at Last Gasp (Inside No. 9)? I am using cite episode to cite "Inside Inside No. 9", and, though there is a title, an error is coming up. Have I done something wrong, or is this a false positive? Josh Milburn (talk) 11:24, 18 April 2015 (UTC)


 * It happens when Cite episode is used without a  parameter:


 * Some code or documentation should maybe be changed. Is there ever reason to use Cite episode without ? PrimeHunter (talk) 11:45, 18 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Some code or documentation should maybe be changed. Is there ever reason to use Cite episode without ? PrimeHunter (talk) 11:45, 18 April 2015 (UTC)


 * Correct. In this case, title is to series in  as chapter is to title in .  Citing just a book's chapter doesn't help a reader.  Of course, the documentation can almost always be made better.  That title means different things to different CS1 templates is a problem that we have yet to overcome.


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 11:57, 18 April 2015 (UTC)
 * What would you recommend I do? Josh Milburn (talk) 12:01, 18 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Is "Inside Inside No. 9" an episode of the series Inside No. 9 or is it something included on the series 1 DVD? If it isn't an episode of Inside No. 9 then perhaps you should be using.


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 12:20, 18 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your help- I will do just that. Josh Milburn (talk) 14:10, 18 April 2015 (UTC)

Old accessdates do not work
Prior to this edit (see edit summary text) I saw an error pointing to Help:CS1_errors. The date format wasn't obviously incorrect (checked by changing accessdate to date and the text here doesn't say anything about the restriction on the former). It seems intentional that accessdates can't be old (to make readers check if pages still exist "regularly" to then be able to point to an archive? A better way possible?) This should be documented. In case this is some strange error or the system is just made self checking (is it now?) then even better would be disabling the check (and remove the documentation or not add it). comp.arch (talk) 12:46, 21 April 2015 (UTC)


 * Here is the example:


 * is supposed to be a date an editor checked that the used content was at the linked source. Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001 so that is the oldest allowed access date:
 * is supposed to be a date an editor checked that the used content was at the linked source. Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001 so that is the oldest allowed access date:


 * accessdates which are too old should either be mentioned at the linked Help:CS1 errors or get their own section with a new link in the error message. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:03, 21 April 2015 (UTC)
 * accessdates which are too old should either be mentioned at the linked Help:CS1 errors or get their own section with a new link in the error message. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:03, 21 April 2015 (UTC)
 * accessdates which are too old should either be mentioned at the linked Help:CS1 errors or get their own section with a new link in the error message. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:03, 21 April 2015 (UTC)


 * I have added text about access dates to the help text. It reads as follows:


 * Access dates (in access-date) are checked to ensure that they are between 15 January 2001 (the founding date of Wikipedia) and the present, since they represent the date that an editor viewed a web-based source to verify a statement on Wikipedia.


 * Does that help? – Jonesey95 (talk) 13:07, 21 April 2015 (UTC)


 * Thank you both.. The date did not ring any bells (I've not edited WP that long), it makes sense now. My idea was plausible, but maybe no reason to expire dates.. comp.arch (talk) 14:01, 21 April 2015 (UTC)


 * Thanks. It's probably a rare problem so the new mention in Help:CS1 errors seems sufficient. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:15, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

This issue needs to be resolved, now
I'm getting sick of this. Hundreds Thousands of articles are affected and now display errors where they once worked fine because of the recent conversion. There was no discussion, no attempt to implement this in a thoughtful way. Chapter, section, etc, are perfectly reasonable parameters to expect in newspapers, periodicals, websites, books, and many other form of citations. The workarounds are simply not reasonable: title? No, not part of the title. departments? No, that sticks it in-front of the title, not correct in any citation style. at? wtf is that?

Please fix this by making the previously usable parameters work. I'm tired of having to update dozens to hundreds of articles, many of which are good or featured, to remedy an undiscussed fuck-up. If someone "needs" this to be in RfC question format: Should these errors be fixed in the citation template or the numerous affected articles where it previously worked. -  Floydian  τ ¢ 21:05, 28 April 2015 (UTC)
 * The at parameter is not new, it's been around for years. Longer than me, in fact; and I notch up 6 years this time next week. It's for use when a page parameter is unsuitable. You might put section B, p. 4, col. E -- Red rose64 (talk) 21:57, 28 April 2015 (UTC)


 * it would be helpful for you to provide specific examples of the problem you are citing. The above paragraph does not make the specific problem clear. For example, cite book supports chapters with no trouble. Example citations from actual articles are always helpful.

or someone else: it would be helpful to have side-by-side comparison of what citations looked like before and after the "chapter ignored" error message was added. Did cite journal display the value of chapter? The question in the RFC presumes that it did but does not provide evidence of that. – Jonesey95 (talk) 22:35, 28 April 2015 (UTC)


 * Hard for me to pull up a before example since even diffs will load the current template, but for current examples just rummage through the 5200 articles in the category I linked above. All I know is that I've used it since I started editing heavily in 2010. Not saying "at" is new, I'm saying it doesn't replace chapter/section. In cite news, I'd use the section parameter for the various newspaper sections (and those aren't departments); in cite periodical (or cite journal since the former seems to have vanished), I'd use it when an entry had multiple sections. In cite web, it has obvious uses for long websites with section headers. In cite report, chapter and section are essentially synonymous, but neither works now. These templates merely need to pass along the value as appropriate, so I'm not sure why this isn't a simple case of fix what was broken. 5000 "chapter=ignored" errors means something in the template must be wonky or not upgraded in the Lua conversions. -  Floydian  τ ¢ 23:06, 28 April 2015 (UTC)
 * never existed. If it did there would be at least one entry in [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&page=Template%3ACite+periodical its log], which would include either a "delete" or a "move", but there are neither. -- Red rose64 (talk) 23:16, 28 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Aye... can't say I have the best memory. Could've sworn it does, but I saw the same in the logs and second guessed myself. -  Floydian  τ ¢ 23:21, 28 April 2015 (UTC)


 * A chapter ignored error message was added 29 November 2014 in [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Module:Citation/CS1&diff=635886691&oldid=630937755]. The first discussion afterwards was Help talk:Citation Style 1/Archive 6. I don't know whether the error message has been produced in all the same situations since 29 November. I examined cite journal and that template did render the section parameter before 29 November. See for example which shows that on 21 November this reference displayed the section parameter "New Evidence Concerning the Structure, Composition, and Maturation of Class I (Polylabdanoid) Resinites" instead of an error message. The reference code now renders:


 * PrimeHunter (talk) 00:28, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
 * PrimeHunter (talk) 00:28, 29 April 2015 (UTC)


 * Thanks. This is why examples are helpful. That example citation is for a book. I know that this is not the answer you want to hear, but I have fixed it by changing the template to cite book, which is how I have fixed a few dozen citations in this category (I haven't spent much time on this category yet). I have found that the presence of an ISBN is usually a giveaway that cite book is the right one to use.


 * I agree with the general idea that some of the citations in the category may work better with section/chapter parameters in templates that currently don't render them, but some specific examples to demonstrate the need could be persuasive. For an example of a discussion where real citations from real articles resulted in a change to the template code, see this discussion about "Christmas" as an issue date. – Jonesey95 (talk) 01:33, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Ontario Highway 407 has a whole dingy of them. -  Floydian  τ ¢ 04:00, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Just making sure this doesn't go stale. -  Floydian  τ ¢ 03:17, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I must have missed the last post. Thanks for the bump. Ontario Highway 407 needed to use department instead of section. See Template:Cite news for an explanation. – Jonesey95 (talk) 13:36, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Ok, but why not make chapter/section pass into the same CS1 parameter as department does and clear 5000 errors at once instead of one article at a time, especially considering some editors are doing AWB runs and just wiping out the parameter and values from citations in articles? -  Floydian  τ ¢ 17:37, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
 * In answer to your first question, making chapter an alias of department would not work, because they are two different types of data and are displayed differently.


 * In answer to your second question, if editors are deleting parameters and their values instead of fixing errors properly, those edits should be reverted, or the editors should at least be questioned about their reasoning on their talk pages. Nobody here would recommend removing a poorly formatted date, for example, just because the month was spelled wrong. – Jonesey95 (talk) 22:57, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Well then, though I know you mean as well with me as I do with you, what solution do you propose for the remaining 5200 articles affected by this? A quick solution to a majority of the problems, or numerous solutions to a simple problem? -  Floydian  τ ¢ 05:48, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
 * I suggest that we fix them, just as we have fixed tens of thousands of errors in 22 other CS1 error categories that have been emptied over the last two years. Most of those categories have been cleared out article by article by dedicated gnomes. It takes time, but it is not hard to do. If we find, while fixing the errors, specific cases that appear to not have a good fix, we post at Help talk:Citation Style 1 and ask about them. Usually, that discussion leads to a way to fix the specific error. Occasionally, the discussion leads to a change in the citation module.
 * In the meantime, if the error messages bother you, you can hide the error messages. – Jonesey95 (talk) 13:07, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
 * I'll second that there's no reason the code shouldn't just have  render as   and it seems idiotic to remove functionality. —  Llywelyn II   05:38, 3 June 2015 (UTC)

"Bad" date
Your code currently reads 2-digit years as an error. They're not. Fix it. Thanks. — Llywelyn II   05:38, 3 June 2015 (UTC)

Also, whether you do improve the code or not (seems unlikely, given the coders' response above concerning ), your current list of error messages doesn't explain that 2-digit years do cause errors or how to go about fixing the problem. At the very least, patch that up. Thanks. — Llywelyn II   05:42, 3 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Two-digit versions of four-digit years are ambiguous (i.e. does "15" mean "2015", "1915", or something else?). I looked at MOS:BADDATEFORMAT, and that fact does not appear to be mentioned explicitly there, perhaps because it is obvious to many editors. The fix is to supply a four-digit year, following any of the formats that are provided in that table. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:05, 3 June 2015 (UTC)
 * We do not appreciate comments like "They're not. Fix it." Two-digit years are an error, since they are not just contrary to the Wikipedia Manual of Style but are also ambiguous, and so we will not "fix it". If you follow the "(help)" link, you will see that it shows in its sixth bullet "date formats listed in WP:BADDATEFORMAT", and two-digit years are among those unacceptable date formats. There is nothing to "fix". -- Red rose64 (talk) 14:07, 3 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Two-digit years are not listed at and are perfectly straightforward. The code is hinky. —  Llywelyn II   05:11, 4 June 2015 (UTC)
 * From WP:BADDATEFORMAT:
 * 07-04-15 → Do not abbreviate year to two digits
 * the ‍ '​02 elections → Do not use an apostrophe to abbreviate year
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 12:02, 4 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I suspect that Editor LlywelynII is referring to this citation from Angles:
 * where 98 causes an error. This, I think, is one of those cases where 98 was the year that the original text was written but that version is not the version consulted for the article.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 15:12, 3 June 2015 (UTC)
 * That "98" should go in orig-year. – Jonesey95 (talk) 02:53, 4 June 2015 (UTC)
 * No, it shouldn't. It's a reference to the original Latin text, not to the translation. — Llywelyn II   05:11, 4 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I'm skeptical. It would seem a rare thing for a Wikipedia editor to have access to an original Latin text from the first century CE.  Much more likely, would be a copy or transcription made much later in which case, date should be the date of the copy or transcription and 98.  orig-year has nothing to do with whether the referenced source is a translation or in its original language.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 12:02, 4 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I have added Two-digit year to the list of errors.[//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Help:CS1_errors&diff=665462048&oldid=662389533] PrimeHunter (talk) 12:28, 4 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I have added Two-digit year to the list of errors.[//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Help:CS1_errors&diff=665462048&oldid=662389533] PrimeHunter (talk) 12:28, 4 June 2015 (UTC)

Bad error message in date value
This error message is not a result of an error (there's no error...) but of the incomplete description of date at Manual of Style/Dates and numbers which led to bad formatting of Module:Citation/CS1. See my example from Sobibór extermination camp. The referenced paper was published with the date: "15 March 2011 – 15 June 2011". This is what I wrote in  ... and of course, I got an error message because we don't have anything like this in our guidelines. It is "either" 15 March 2011 "or" 15 June 2011, not both. "Dashes" are reserved only for the years, and that's it. See Help:CS1 errors#Check date values in: |param1=, |param2=, ... Can you help? Thanks, Poeticbent  talk  00:44, 9 June 2015 (UTC)


 * For date ranges in the same year, state the year only once:
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 00:52, 9 June 2015 (UTC)
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 00:52, 9 June 2015 (UTC)
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 00:52, 9 June 2015 (UTC)


 * The source is about work done "15.04 – 15.06. 2011" (note that 04 is April and not March). It doesn't say it was written in that period. It refers to mid-September 2011 as scheduled so it was apparently written or completed after 15 June 2011 and before mid-September 2011. It seems suitable to only give  . PrimeHunter (talk) 01:15, 9 June 2015 (UTC)
 * The specific guidance provided above by Trappist the monk is on the page that the OP linked to. Do a find on the page for "between specific dates in different months". It's in the "Ranges" section. – Jonesey95 (talk) 03:40, 9 June 2015 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the help, all of you. Everything works fine now. But for the sake of argument, please note that our Manual of Style makes this option extremely hard to find. It is only a side note at the end of a sentence about something else.  Poeticbent  talk  04:36, 9 June 2015 (UTC)

Usage of "Undated"
Usage of "date=Undated" generates "Undated." or "(Undated)" as wished for in various cite entries, but it also generates an error display. It is very relevant sometimes to indicate specifically that there is no date given in the source. Example: footnotes 17 and 22 in this permalinked version of an article. How should the undated status of the source be indicated without generating error messages? I don't see advice given on this point within cite and various date information sources. sincerely, -- do ncr  am  17:10, 8 July 2015 (UTC)


 * Template:Citation last sentence of the first bullet point:
 * For approximate year, precede with " ", like this:  ; for no date, add as
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 18:00, 8 July 2015 (UTC)


 * , Thank you! That works fine.  And, I revised that Citation Style documentation to make such treatment more prominent (i.e. to use the word "undated" explicitly and to bring out n.d. treatment to a separate paragraph from c. treatment). -- do  ncr  am  19:36, 8 July 2015 (UTC)


 * And I revised the style guide (Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers) to give this n.d. treatment for missing dates, too. -- do ncr  am  06:03, 12 July 2015 (UTC)


 * I have reverted Doncram's change to WP:MOSNUM because that guideline, and it's parent guideline WP:MOS, don't address citations. This is easy to tell because if you look at a real style manual, the Chicago Manual of Style, it is 52 mm thick and 7 mm are devoted to citations (about 13%) In MOS and MOSNUM there are only a few sentences about citations.


 * In addition, Wikipedia does not have a house style. The CS1 and CS2 styles that use the corresponding templates have chosen to use "n.d." to indicate no date, but other styles may use other notation. And if an article isn't using CS1 or CS2, whatever the consistent consensus is at the article governs. Jc3s5h (talk) 14:55, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

Periodical partial/nonstandard dates
The documentation for Template:Cite journal says "date: Date of source being referenced. Can be full date (day, month, and year) or partial date (month and year, season and year, or year)" the linked page Help:Citation_Style_1 says "Sources are at liberty to use other ways of expressing dates, such as "spring-summer" or a date in a religious calendar; editors should report the date as expressed by the source." I am trying to cite American Book Review, Volume 23, Number 2, January/February 2002] and "January/February 2002" gives a date error. This is in Draft:Mekeel Mcbride. DES (talk) 13:09, 9 July 2015 (UTC)
 * January–February 2002 -- Red rose64 (talk) 13:15, 9 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Was the help text not helpful?
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 13:26, 9 July 2015 (UTC)
 * I didn't find it so, but I probably should have, i wan't thinking of this as a range but as a non-standard date, so i didn't follow the link to the section that discussed ranges. Several examples on the help page might be a good idea. DES (talk) 12:49, 11 July 2015 (UTC)

What do this tennis subject for Because the guys or girl that is talking to me he or she doesn't know
74.69.154.137 (talk) 17:31, 16 July 2015 (UTC)

If you want to suggest a change, please request this on the talk page of the relevant article in the form "Please replace XXX with YYY" or "Please add ZZZ between PPP and QQQ". Please also cite reliable sources to back up your request, without which no information should be added to, or changed in, any article. - Arjayay (talk) 17:40, 16 July 2015 (UTC)
 * ❌ as you are in the wrong place, since this page is only to discuss improvements to Help:CS1 errors.

Holiday bad date
"Holiday 2010" throws an error as a bad date. I know it's not one of the standard months/seasons, but shouldn't this be all right? – czar   09:32, 7 August 2015 (UTC)


 * "Holiday" sounds vague for an international encyclopedia. Your example appears to be:
 * Did the magazine only say "Holiday 2010"? If it said issue 84 then shouldn't 2010 be sufficient? Is it known to be from December? PrimeHunter (talk) 11:26, 7 August 2015 (UTC)
 * It might be one of those mags that comes out every four weeks, so thirteen issues a year - twelve dated for a month, the extra one might fit between June and July, or between December and January. See Template talk:Cite journal/Archive 5. -- Red rose64 (talk) 11:48, 7 August 2015 (UTC)
 * If "Holiday 2010" is what the publisher printed on the cover, that's what the issue is named. Your choices are just leave the red error message, persuade the maintainers of the template to change the template, or format the citation by hand and not use a template. Jc3s5h (talk) 13:53, 7 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Or add the date outside the template like below, but it probably shouldn't be recommended. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:29, 7 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Holiday 2010.
 * WikiProject Video games/Reference library/Retro Gamer and the RetroGamer archive say that the date for issue 84 is 9 December 2010. The cover appears not to display a date. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:41, 7 August 2015 (UTC)
 * In which case, the issue with cover date December 2010 was probably published on 11 November 2010. -- Red rose64 (talk) 18:37, 7 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Magazines on a 13-month cycle such as Retro Gamer commonly refer to their 13th issue as the Holiday issue (as it has no month and would be incorrect to call the "November" or "December" issue, which already exist). I don't know about Park Productions' relation to the magazine (or whether it can be trusted) but for simplicity's sake, I'm just going to change my citation to December 2010. I do recommend lifting the error message for these edge cases in the future. – czar   19:23, 7 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Please don't put December 2010 if it wasn't the actual December 2010 issue that was used. That would fail WP:V because the Wikipedia text would not be supported by the cited source. -- Red rose64 (talk) 19:59, 7 August 2015 (UTC)
 * The magazine itself does not list a date/month on its cover, its TOC, or its masthead. The Park Productions site says it was released December 2010 and this Wikia says issue #84 was a holiday issue. It's ambiguous, and I would prefer to use "Holiday 2010" but the web of CS1 is a black box to me. If the change is made, I'd be happy to update my citations. – czar   20:13, 7 August 2015 (UTC)
 * The magazine itself does not list a date/month on its cover, its TOC, or its masthead. The Park Productions site says it was released December 2010 and this Wikia says issue #84 was a holiday issue. It's ambiguous, and I would prefer to use "Holiday 2010" but the web of CS1 is a black box to me. If the change is made, I'd be happy to update my citations. – czar   20:13, 7 August 2015 (UTC)

February 29
In this documentation, 1900 February 29 is given as an example of a nonexistent date. Very cute. But that date did exist, in countries (such as Russia) that were still using the Julian calendar in 1900. I'd change the example, except that it may accurately reflect the behaviour of the warnings. In that case, the warnings should change. —Toby Bartels (talk) 22:47, 8 August 2015 (UTC)


 * I don't know that anyone who edited that table set out to be cute. 29 February 1900 is acknowledged to have existed, along with the same date in 1700 and 1800.  In that help section it is noted that Julian leap days will produce this error.  This is because it is not possible for the validation code to distinguish between the Julian and Gregorian calendars in the overlap period of 1582 – c. 1923; the code assumes Gregorian.


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 23:10, 8 August 2015 (UTC)

Uppercase spelling of a month is a problem?
I was surprised that

generated a data error. It went away when I changed AUGUST to August. I'm surprised that an uppercase spelling of a month, which I believe is fairly common, and in no way ambiguous, is a problem.-- S Philbrick (Talk)  18:31, 23 August 2015 (UTC)
 * I added an example of this here to demonstrate the error. I also suggest using Title Case for the author's name instead of all caps, and using either MDY or DMY, but not both in any given article.  GoingBatty (talk) 19:12, 23 August 2015 (UTC)


 * Your very short response raises a surprisingly large number of issues.


 * First, an admittedly anal point. The table of examples has a column heading with the word "incorrect". That word choice is, in fact, incorrect. Very few of the entries in that column are examples of incorrect date usage. I suspect that some are specified in well respected style guides. They may all be examples of dates that cannot be parsed by our template but that doesn't make them incorrect. We ought to consider a better term. Off the top my head I will suggest "date formats not accepted by our citation template". That's a bit of a mouthful and there may be a better, shorter term.


 * In some cases, most notably in the example of a date such as 7/5/2015, the date format is perfectly understandable in a restricted geographic area, but ambiguous in a publication intended for a worldwide audience. It is perfectly appropriate for us to require an unambiguous date convention, but we shouldn't call the original format "incorrect".


 * I understand the reason for not writing our template to accept input such as "Febr.". I believe it is nonstandard and not common. It would be unreasonable to expect us to incorporate every possible abbreviation of months. However the use of all-caps for the month falls into a different category, in my opinion. I have seen it used in a number of publications. I think there is some value in using the exact style used by the source, subject to the comments above that in the case of ambiguous or rare usage we can override it. Unlike "Febr." Where it might take a couple seconds for a reader to figure out what it means, I can't imagine anyone will look at "AUGUST" and wonder which month is meant. There's also a practical consideration. I create a citation by copying and pasting the information from the source. Requiring that I convert months to title case is physically possible but either adds considerable manual work, or requires that I write code to do the processing. I would be interested in feedback on whether anyone else sees value in writing the date the same way the source does. For example, I'm not a fan of specifying authors names or article titles with all caps, but I often do so if that is how it is done in the source. Is this convention a bad idea? Is it different for authors names than for dates?


 * I also note you suggested using a common date format in the site. I'd like to discuss this in a bit more depth. I personally think the world ought to adopt the DMY convention with the month spelled out, but I understand I don't get to make all the rules. However, because I think it's the ideal choice, I always use it for my access date field. As noted, though, I'd like to use the source's date convention for the date of the article. If the community feels there is no value in reproducing the sources date convention, I suppose I could convert everything to DMY, although that's additional work. What value does it deliver?-- S Philbrick  (Talk)  21:02, 23 August 2015 (UTC)


 * The "Incorrect" column has both unacceptable date formats and bad dates like non-existent or future dates. I think it's clear enough that "Incorrect" means "Don't do this in Wikipedia." It isn't just for citation templates. Many of the issues are also at WP:BADDATEFORMAT which is linked in the section. All caps looks bad when mixed with normal capitalization so I agree we should avoid it in both names, months and titles. Months are just the only of these which is checked by citation templates. All caps references like at [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kia_Nurse&oldid=677498959#References] draw attention above other references for no good reason. I also don't see a good reason to keep a date format from the source. We are just saying when the source was made. It's not a big deal for me but consistent date formats in the references looks better. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:11, 23 August 2015 (UTC)


 * There is a bot that periodically trolls through and fixes shouted dates so no work is required on your part as long as what you leave behind isn't ambiguous or completely unintelligible.


 * I agree with Editor PrimeHunter that all-caps looks bad. I have been thinking about adding a maintenance category that would list pages that have shouting citation components so that these might be fixed by some sort of clever bot and the gnome hoard.


 * Here is probably not the place to discuss multiple date styles in a page. That is probably best done at WT:MOSDATE as that topic falls under the purview of MOS:DATEUNIFY.


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 22:29, 23 August 2015 (UTC)


 * A few concepts:
 * Many publications have their own style guides that specify style choices that are to be used within the publication. Wikipedia is one such publication. The "Wikipedia Manual of Style" and "Wikipedia Manual of Style/Dates and numbers" specifies which style choices are accepted within Wikipedia and does not attempt to be a general-purpose style guide for any writing environment.
 * It isn't "my access date field", it's Wikipedia's. Wikipedia has decided to decide on the format of the access date field first by limiting the choices allowed in "Wikipedia Manual of Style/Dates and numbers" and "Help:Citation style 1, and then allowing a consensus of the editors at a particular article to make a consistent choice from the acceptable choices.
 * In Wikipedia, as in every other publication I'm familiar with, style choices should be consistent within an article. (Some publications strive for consistent choices throughout the whole publication, but not Wikipedia.) The style used in various sources are irrelevant, except for a direct quote. Jc3s5h (talk) 22:35, 23 August 2015 (UTC)


 * MOS:ALLCAPS is unambiguous about 's original comment. "Avoid writing with all capitals, including small caps, when they have only a stylistic function." – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:00, 23 August 2015 (UTC)
 * @PrimeHunter I count 16 examples, only three of which appear to be "incorrect". It is a curious choice of a term when it applies to a decided small minority of the entries.-- S Philbrick (Talk)  23:13, 23 August 2015 (UTC)
 * What work or short phrase would you use to mean "not acceptable for use in Wikipedia articles except direct quotes and titles"? Jc3s5h (talk) 23:23, 23 August 2015 (UTC)


 * @PrimeHunter I count 16 examples, only three of which appear to be "incorrect". It is a curious choice of a term when it applies to a decided small minority of the entries.


 * You misunderstand. When I said " my access date field" I wasn't using "my" to modify "field" but "access". It is, indeed "my access" not Wikipedia's. I am fine with the Wikipedia community deciding on a date ofrmat for that field. If it has been decided upon, please point me to it. I believe I'm using one of the acceptable formats; if that is incorrect please let me know.
 * I do not like shouting, but there is a difference between what we do in Wikipedia's voice, in which I think we should avoid shouting as much as possible, and what we do when citing sources. If we were using a direct quotation from a source, and the speaker used a date in one of our "incorrect" formats, we wouldn't change it. That part is clear, what is in clear to me is whether the style choices of the source when it comes to title and dates deserve the same consideration, which is why am asking for opinions.-- S Philbrick  (Talk)  23:24, 23 August 2015 (UTC)
 * What word or short phrase would you use to mean "not acceptable for use in Wikipedia articles except direct quotes and titles"? Jc3s5h (talk) 23:23, 23 August 2015 (UTC)
 * , the examples are incorrect according to MOS. See, for example, WP:DATESNO, which is linked from the prose above the table. The MOS uses the word "unacceptable". If you would like to change the wording on the CS1 Errors page to "Unacceptable" and "Acceptable", that works for me.


 * As for your responses to other editors and some of your statements above, you are complaining about guidelines provided in MOS (e.g. do not use all caps, and do not use the ambiguous format 7/5/2015). If you have a problem with those guidelines, please take your suggestions to the appropriate MOS talk page. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:29, 23 August 2015 (UTC)


 * Thank you for supporting my point. While a manual of style may include examples of items to be avoided because they are literally incorrect, in many cases they simply specify a convention to be followed. There's nothing wrong with this, it is highly useful to adopt standard conventions. However it is incorrect, in many cases to identify alternative conventions as "incorrect". It would be better to specify them as unacceptable. That's what's done in Manual of Style/Dates and numbers. Note that the word "incorrect" does not appear. (Unfortunately, I note the ubiquity in Manual of Style, but that's not a windmill I'm ready to take on today.)


 * I have no objection if you want to make this change. And while you're there, how about replacing the cs1 templates with  templates so that editors can see (copy if they want) the incorrect/unacceptable and correct/acceptable parameters.  There really is no need for us to be showing all of those error messages and unrelated stuff that's necessary to have a cs1 template render without errors.


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 00:17, 24 August 2015 (UTC)


 * Any objection to changing "incorrect" to "unacceptable"?-- S Philbrick (Talk)  00:03, 24 August 2015 (UTC)
 * In this context of source code producing an error message, I think incorrect/correct is better than unacceptable/acceptable. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:11, 24 August 2015 (UTC)
 * , you wrote "however, because I think it's the ideal choice, I always use it for my access date field" and also asked if that is incorrect. The access date field should be one of the formats described at Help:Citation Style 1 and be consistent with the other access dates in the article. If you are writing a new article today and you want to write both the publication dates and the access dates in the DMY format, fine. But if you are editing an article that already exists, and nearly all of the access dates are in the form YYYY-MM-DD, you should use that format, and ideally would correct the few exceptions to follow the format too. Jc3s5h (talk) 23:33, 23 August 2015 (UTC)


 * Your 3 of 16 count is based on your own interpretation of "incorrect" as universally wrong. Most will probably interpret it as it is intended: incorrect here, i.e. not how it should be done in Wikipedia. A link in an error message leads to the section. It seems natural to me to use "incorrect" about whatever caused the error message the user is presumably trying to fix, and to use "correct" about the fix. Also note that the section starts: "When and  templates contain date-holding parameters, an automated test is done to see if the dates are real dates that comply with a subset of WP:DATESNO". I don't think a column heading is the place for a long explanation. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:36, 23 August 2015 (UTC)
 * My interpretation of "incorrect" is something that is not correct. I'm stunned that you would disagree. How do you interpret it? 2002-03 is not an incorrect date. If you think it is, I can point you to literally hundreds of thousands of usages of that format, none of which have been challenged. It is, I grant, a format with a technically possible ambiguity issue, so I support the Wikipedia decision to disallow it as a format. Choosing a convention that disallows it is not the same as saying it is incorrect. All parameter fields have acceptable and unacceptable input. Input might also be unacceptable because it's incorrect, but incorrect and unacceptable are not synonyms.-- S Philbrick (Talk)  00:20, 24 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Of course "incorrect" means not correct. The question is where is it not correct? In all languages and societies? In English? In the English Wikipedia? In citation templates in the English Wikipedia? When you get an error message from a citation template in the English Wikipedia, I think it's perfectly reasonable to assume that when the explanation says "incorrect" it refers to the used template. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:41, 24 August 2015 (UTC)
 * The question of whether the style choices of the source when it comes to title and dates deserve the same consideration as when we [are] using a direct quotation from a source is, I think, sort of vaguely answered by WP:CITEHOW wherein some aspects of styling for titles and other elements is loosely specified. For matters of citation styling not tied to dates, WT:CITE is probably a better venue than this backwater.


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 23:57, 23 August 2015 (UTC)

Based on the above conversation, I have modified the explanation of date errors to make it clearer that the CS1 templates are highlighting date formats that are unacceptable (the word used in the MOS) per the WP Manual of Style, not enforcing a set of arbitrary rules. I also updated a bit of the prose to reinforce that same idea. Thank you to for pointing out that the explanations could have been clearer and more consistent with the MOS, and for the other thoughtful comments above. Now back to fixing articles. – Jonesey95 (talk) 03:00, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

Request to clarify error for cite episode
Just fixed the following CS1 error on Gary Carter:

, which clearly has a title, generates:

which has an added series, generates:

Would it be possible for the error message to be changed so that it guides editors to add series? Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 03:49, 25 August 2015 (UTC)


 * fixed in the sandbox; see Help_talk:Citation_Style_1


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 09:52, 25 August 2015 (UTC)

Useless strictness of field format checking on citation template-family
Hi, I'm enjoying Wikimedia projects for several years, and also I love type-system on computer languages for several decades. However, recently I'm suffered from format error messages mainly on citation template family.

Thanks for your advances, --Clusternote (talk) 05:50, 30 September 2015 (UTC)
 * 1) Arbitrary date formats with rational reasons: Date format on citations take potentially various formats with rational reasons. For example, "circa 2015", "2014–2015", "last updated on 2015", "first half of 21th century", "20th or 21th century", etc. However, these all format are reported as error. How can we avoid this inappropriate error message ?
 * 2) " External link in |work= ": Often we refer the specific web-page or chapter on larger-work, and we want to point the entire work by URL as a gentle manner. However now, hyperlink (URL) on "work" field on citation template-family is reported as error. What action is needed to remove this useless format checking ?
 * Item #1 above is explained in detail here. In short, dates are checked against Wikipedia's Manual of Style. You can avoid the message by choosing a date format that is listed in the "Acceptable" column.


 * Item #2 is a new citation error check, and it may need some refinement. I think we might be over-reaching a bit with our URL detection in title parameters, given that we do not offer a * -url parameter that accompanies each parameter that would be useful to match with a URL. As the error category continues to populate, it has become clear that there is a desire among editors to provide useful links to match journal and encyclopedia, for example. It might be useful to start a discussion about this specific request at the most-watched CS1 discussion page, Help talk:Citation Style 1. – Jonesey95 (talk) 06:07, 30 September 2015 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your advices.&emsp; For the item #2, I'll try to discuss join to a topic on that forum. (possibly the series of citations in the form " on  " might be appropriate on this situation)&emsp; For the item #1, I'm sorry for I'm missed the WP:DATERANGE. However, I'm still puzzled for un-support of circa on date field for avoiding the pollution of WP:COinS metadata. --Clusternote (talk) 00:25, 1 October 2015 (UTC)
 * P.S. According to a topic on the above forum,
 * seems the solution. Item #2 was resolved. Thanks, --Clusternote (talk) 00:48, 1 October 2015 (UTC)
 * seems the solution. Item #2 was resolved. Thanks, --Clusternote (talk) 00:48, 1 October 2015 (UTC)

Dates in BCE
I was looking at Varro (who write books about BCE 60) and was even trying to create a cite. It doesn't like date. What can I tweaked something? Unbuttered parsnip (talk) mytime= Wed 21:47, wikitime=  13:47, 28 October 2015 (UTC)


 * I'm quite certain you didn't read a book that was actually created in 60 BCE; you must have read a copy that was printed much more recently. So you should set date to the publication date of the copy you read, and set orig-year to the date Varro wrote it. Jc3s5h (talk) 16:03, 28 October 2015 (UTC)


 * It's not possible to be certain of any such thing. Furthermore, the situation is still a mess, practically speaking. There are lots of old or common texts that are commonly cited and we may not have the ability to check the perfect veracity of a reprint against the original.  They may be well known quotes like Shakespeare or even some foreign thing, where we can look around and assemble the name of the chapter and verse and title. Sometimes we need to generally say "this said this" but we still want to cleanly cite who wrote it and when and what kind of document it is.  So the best I can come up with is to just pick a modern reprint and cite that.  Apparently,   magically lacks the strictness, at least for now. — Smuckola(talk) 00:56, 10 November 2015 (UTC)


 * In other words, say where you read it. That's a basic WP guideline. Picking a modern reprint and citing that is exactly what you are supposed to do. – Jonesey95 (talk) 03:36, 10 November 2015 (UTC)
 * I know, but I'm saying not everyone has access to everything. And if I did, I can't necessarily literally verify that it's true to the 100 B.C. original.  Also, not everyone is a scholar. So sometimes I have to literally pick one to cite. :\ Aside from that, the   segment is sometimes excessively strict like if the actual timeframe for a magazine is quarterly or seasonal. In that case, the template blocks me from stating literally the exactly correct thing, and I do have to just make up something wrong.— Smuckola(talk) 04:05, 10 November 2015 (UTC)
 * I guess I don't understand the difference between what you're saying and what I am saying. Yes, you do literally have to pick one source, the source that you are looking at, to cite.


 * As for seasonal magazine issues, they should work just fine. Something like works. – Jonesey95 (talk) 06:02, 10 November 2015 (UTC)


 * Okay I guess I'll try it again ;) — Smuckola(talk) 06:03, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

circa dates
I am getting errors from |date=c. 1970 but what are you supposed to do when you don't have an exact date of original publication. Saying 1970 is wrong and leaving it out completely is not helpful to the reader. Kerry (talk) 20:37, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Don't use the template; simply write c. 1970.   adds a bunch of non-date cruft to the metadata:
 * c. 1970
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 20:47, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Link in parameter
The "External link in | =" section says:

"External link in | =

This error occurs when any of the CS1 or CS2 citation title-holding parameters – |title=, |chapter=, |work= or any of their aliases – hold a properly formatted external link (URL)." Not a helpful description. If someone knows your system well enough to know all the aliases for your parameters, he would presumably know your system well enough to avoid such a mistake in the first place. Would it be better to actually list the aliases, or link to them, rather than assume that everyone has memorized them? Previous discussion here. Art LaPella (talk) 21:28, 21 November 2015 (UTC)


 * If you feel that the help text is inadequate, you are free to improve it. Please do; documentation is never done and there are rarely enough hands to do it.


 * In Module:Citation/CS1/sandbox, I have improved the reporting for that particular error so that it now reports the offending parameter name rather than the generic name.


 * I have also tweaked the detection code so that it will catch bare urls as well as external wikilinks. The purpose of the test is to alert editors that the url that they have included in a title, chapter, and/or work parameter is corrupting the citation's metadata.  Your  merely masks the problem:


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 00:44, 22 November 2015 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your proposed sandbox change; it relieves my objection, to the extent I understand it. I believe this edit satisfies your objection to my previous edit. I do occasionally edit documentation on help pages and template documents, when I feel I understand them well enough. In this case, I believe the text is OK as is, because your change to the code will prevent the problem, assuming there is no practical way to list all present and future aliases. Art LaPella (talk) 02:13, 22 November 2015 (UTC)

date values in error
I have a magazine source which lists its date as "Aug./Sept. 2002", which generates a "Check date values in: |date=" error in my reflist. Is there a proper way to indicate a two-month range of source dates? —  fourthords  &#124; =Λ= &#124;  21:45, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
 * The full stop in short months is no longer valid and Sept is no longer a valid abbreviation for September. I would go for full months "August–September 2002" but "Aug–Sep 2002" is acceptable. Note it is an en-dash not a dash between the months to avoid the error. Keith D (talk) 23:03, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
 * That worked perfectly, thanks! —   fourthords  &#124; =Λ= &#124;  23:35, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

CS1 errors: invisible characters
The latest update of cleanup lists (eg Somerset) includes articles tagged as "CS1 errors: invisible characters" (examples Alexander Briant & Athelney Abbey). I've looked at Help:CS1 errors# character in |param= at position n but I'm having problems identifying what needs fixing - any suggestions? Also other CS1 error categories are generally displayed in the hidden categories at the bottom of an article, which I use to check I have fixed the error, however this one doesn't appear to be.&mdash; Rod talk 18:35, 8 December 2015 (UTC)
 * The error you're seeing was caused by Catholic. That error has been fixed in this edit to the template. Template changes sometimes take a while to propagate to articles, which is why you might see the error but not the category; to make sure you're seeing the latest version of an article, do a null edit (click edit and then save without making any changes). – Jonesey95 (talk) 21:06, 8 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I will wait for it to propagate.&mdash; Rod talk 08:02, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

February 29
Within the last week, a new CS1 error has been created for dates such as 2004-02-29, e.g. citation 98 at Anachronox. However, this date is correct because 2004 was a leap year. How can this be cleared? DrKay (talk) 18:07, 9 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Date validation failing on leap days?


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 19:32, 9 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks. DrKay (talk) 07:36, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

url error
Greetings, I am getting a url error for the following address http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a_a_3nNhiTw/UWPQ3OrD3AI/AAAAAAAAwuw/EWt2B0CErAQ/s320/4.JPG, but it is a valid, legit link. I believe it's because it starts with "1" and .com. But the link actually works and thus is correct. MPJ  -US 17:12, 12 December 2015 (UTC)


 * Where are you seeing this? This example using your url seems to work:
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 17:18, 12 December 2015 (UTC)
 * I get this errror in a couple of articles where it is used - one example is in Metálico.  MPJ  -US 17:43, 12 December 2015 (UTC)
 * A null edit fixed that.
 * I get this errror in a couple of articles where it is used - one example is in Metálico.  MPJ  -US 17:43, 12 December 2015 (UTC)
 * A null edit fixed that.


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 18:21, 12 December 2015 (UTC)
 * That fixed it, thank you I did not know that trick.  MPJ  -US 19:56, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

Port number url error
Some articles, such as Barisal City Corporation cite a source with a port number in a url, which results in some variety of the "Check |url= value" error message.



I've substituted a url without a port number wherever there is one that works, but some just won't work without a port number. What to do? Worldbruce (talk) 17:59, 16 December 2015 (UTC)


 * Do nothing. Fixed in the sandbox.  See Spurious 'Check |url= value' error."


 * Your example using the sandbox:


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 18:16, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Todays date plus one day is 1 January 2016?
Article suggests in "Check date values in: |param1=, |param2=" section todays date plus one day is 1 January 2016. The code used is. Here this seems to correctly generate crandles (talk) 13:10, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Pages that you see are rendered and then cached. You are probably seeing the page as it was rendered on 31 December 2015.  Try a null edit and see if that doesn't change the date.


 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 13:48, 7 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Thank you that solved it crandles (talk) 13:59, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Possible glitch in reference code
I was told that you might be able to help. I saw a red URL reference error on the Eden ahbez page, and can't figure out how to get it to go away. It's reference #10 and the full text of the reference is this: It shows up as this: Life Magazine May 10, 1948, pp. 131-135 Nature Boy Check. Is it because the Wiki code doesn't recognize the .pt domain? If so, can a request be made to fix that?Timtempleton (talk) 20:32, 12 January 2016 (UTC)


 * The error message is correct. url should have the url and nothing else. Here we have the url, a magazine title, a date, and page numbers; none of which belong in url.  Rewriting your template to use :
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 20:47, 12 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I suggest you use the English version of Google Books and remove "Magazine":
 * Happy editing! GoingBatty (talk) 04:00, 13 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Doh - can't believe I missed the fact that the other parameter names were missing. And thanks for all the other good ideas - I was having trouble finding the English version.  I didn't write that original code - was reading about this obscure forgotten person who wrote a song made famous by Nat King Cole that David Bowie also covered for the film Moulin Rouge, and saw the red code and was trying to fix it.Timtempleton (talk) 08:06, 13 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Happy editing! GoingBatty (talk) 04:00, 13 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Doh - can't believe I missed the fact that the other parameter names were missing. And thanks for all the other good ideas - I was having trouble finding the English version.  I didn't write that original code - was reading about this obscure forgotten person who wrote a song made famous by Nat King Cole that David Bowie also covered for the film Moulin Rouge, and saw the red code and was trying to fix it.Timtempleton (talk) 08:06, 13 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Happy editing! GoingBatty (talk) 04:00, 13 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Doh - can't believe I missed the fact that the other parameter names were missing. And thanks for all the other good ideas - I was having trouble finding the English version.  I didn't write that original code - was reading about this obscure forgotten person who wrote a song made famous by Nat King Cole that David Bowie also covered for the film Moulin Rouge, and saw the red code and was trying to fix it.Timtempleton (talk) 08:06, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

Dates in the author field
Once the current backlog of incorrect articles has been dealt with,, here's another check that could be added: Author fields that look too much like dates. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:51, 19 January 2016 (UTC)
 * BattyBot will remove the date & time from the author parameter when the date in author matches the date in the date field (e.g. . If you have more examples of safe removals that could be done, please let me know.  Thanks!  GoingBatty (talk) 06:07, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Error: "|contribution= ignored"
Is there some reason this is being displayed at Palomar Transient Factory? LeadSongDog come howl!  20:09, 19 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Because this:
 * is the cs2 equivalent of (it contains Proceedings of SPIE).
 * is the cs2 equivalent of (it contains Proceedings of SPIE).
 * is the cs2 equivalent of (it contains Proceedings of SPIE).


 * What it probably should be is this:
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 20:33, 19 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Thank you. Should there not be something in the proferred help to explain the error message? LeadSongDog come howl!  16:51, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I don't know how to do that without creating help text that, by its shear volume, would be off-putting to readers. If anyone knows how to solve this problem, I'm all ears.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 17:04, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I don't know how to do that without creating help text that, by its shear volume, would be off-putting to readers. If anyone knows how to solve this problem, I'm all ears.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 17:04, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Archive date missing in URL from archive.org
When I added a reference to a scanned copy of book published in 1860 (about the Metropolitan Interments Act 1850 on Kensal Green Cemetery), I recorded the archive.org page as the archive of the item, with the "original" shown as Google's scan. However, contrary to the automatic error message "For web resources archived at archive.org,[1] the archival date can be found in the |archive-url=", the URL (https://archive.org/details/metropolitanint00glengoog) does not include a date, nor is the "archival" date shown in the metadata on that archive page. What is shown is the date Google scanned the book, but that's not the date that archive.org added the scan to their archive. So, I recommend the error message be amended to read "the archival date is usually found in". Inkwzitv (talk) 18:41, 6 February 2016 (UTC)
 * The scanned book is not a "web resource" (i.e. it's not an archived version of the Google Books web page), it's part of their "texts" resources - see the icons on the top left of the URL you provided. My suggestion for the Kensal Green Cemetery article is to include either a link to Google Books or the Internet Archive, but not both in the same citation template.  GoingBatty (talk) 19:10, 6 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Archive date and access date are not relevant for books, and should not be included in the reference. The only relevant date for physical books is the date of publication. We use access and archive dates for websites and the like, because their contents can change over time. A particular edition of a physical book does not change, even if you happen to be looking at a copy of it online. --Srleffler (talk) 21:24, 27 February 2016 (UTC)

BC Dates?
Is there a way to cite a BC date without a CS1 error? Example:

--Srleffler (talk) 21:19, 27 February 2016 (UTC)
 * cs1|2 do not support dates earlier than 100 CE. You can cite a modern edition and include the original's date in orig-year.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 21:44, 27 February 2016 (UTC)
 * In fact, Srleffler should be giving the date of the edition he/she read. Jc3s5h (talk) 23:22, 27 February 2016 (UTC)

Access-date localization
Hello, can someone help me? I want to localize Cite web from English Wikipedia but I am failing to localize "access-date". Is it possible to change the date format of "access-date" field to another in module configurations? (currently it is YYYY-MM-DD).--Zygimantus (talk) 07:32, 5 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Perhaps. Localize where?  Do you mean at another language Wikipedia?  Which one?  At en.wiki access-date accepts ymd, mdy, and dmy dates per MOS:DATEFORMAT so to add another date format to en.wiki's version of cs1|2 requires changes to MOS:DATEFORMAT.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 11:22, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

External link in |title= because URL in actual title
What is the recommended cite journal approach in the rare case where a title actually includes a url, such as the journal article "New allele frequency database: http://www.allelefrequencies.net", cited in HLA-DQ8? --Worldbruce (talk) 15:25, 6 April 2016 (UTC)


 * Wrap it in  tags:
 * The delete character error arises because MediaWiki changed how it encodes stripmarkers; the error message will go away when next the Modules are updated:
 * You should not place multiple authors in author. In this case, the best parameter to use is vauthors.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 15:41, 6 April 2016 (UTC)
 * You should not place multiple authors in author. In this case, the best parameter to use is vauthors.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 15:41, 6 April 2016 (UTC)
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 15:41, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

Quarterly date issues
The date issues with Quarterly journals hasn't been fixed despite being raised before: see here and here. Is anyone able to add something to prevent the red-error messages that appear for perfectly valid dating terminology? Current example at Raymond Vernon. Carcharoth (talk) 11:24, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Because cs1|2 follows the date styles specified in MOS:NUM, it would be best if that document had something more definitive than a single mention (which refers to seasons and not to quarterly dates, per se).


 * It has been suggested that cs1|2 establish the necessary 'rule' that dictates appropriate use of a quarterly date. The idea died aborning due to lack of interest.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 11:24, 12 April 2016 (UTC)


 * Yes, I see. Are you saying I need to go down the corridor to room 345, get form B67a filled out in triplicate, and then come back here before any changes can be made? Carcharoth (talk) 13:56, 12 April 2016 (UTC)
 * No. It means that if you want to change the MOS, you need to propose that change. The date checking here at CS1 reflects MOS, for the most part. For example, when there was confusion about how months should be abbreviated, an editor started an RfC at MOS to determine a consensus on that issue. The CS1 templates now check for month abbreviations that match that outcome. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:10, 12 April 2016 (UTC)
 * There is absolutely no need to go anywhere near the manual of style. This is a citation issue, not a manual of style issue. Citing sources is clear (version quoted from): "Seasonal publication dates and differing calendar systems - Publication dates, for both older and recent sources, should be written with the goal of helping the reader find the publication and, once found, confirm that the correct publication has been located. For example, if the publication date bears a date in the Julian calendar, it should not be converted to the Gregorian calendar. If the publication date was given as a season or holiday, such as 'Winter' or 'Christmas' of a particular year or two-year span, it should not be converted to a month or date, such as July–August or December 25. If a publication provided both seasonal and specific dates, prefer the specific one." The citation guideline is being correctly followed, and this error-detection module is incorrectly flagging up errors in the use of this citation template. It needs to be fixed. It doesn't need a manual of style RfC, it just needs common sense to add something that avoids error messages being produced upon use of quarterly and seasonal publication dates (and various other non-standard date formats). These dates formats are correct. A system that produces error messages when there is no error is broken. Carcharoth (talk) 15:28, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

I will raise this issue at Help talk:Citation Style 1. Carcharoth (talk) 16:18, 12 April 2016 (UTC)
 * I have struck my above doctrinaire comment. I will say, however, that when we added "Christmas" as an acceptable date, we did some research to show that there were actual citations using "Christmas" as an issue "month" and tracking down images of magazine covers that showed "Christmas YYYY" on the cover. See this discussion for those links. Some similar due diligence would probably be in order here. – Jonesey95 (talk) 17:18, 12 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Thank you. There is this example. "3rd Qtr., 1999". How many do you want? Carcharoth (talk) 17:30, 12 April 2016 (UTC)
 * That's a useful one. Here's a Link to list of issues for that journal, Journal of International Business Studies, which dated its issues with "Qtr", in addition to volume and issue numbers, for many years.


 * You might also propose a MOS-style standard for what formats would be acceptable, e.g. "3rd Qtr.", "3rd Qtr", "Third Quarter", etc. It's nice to settle on something consistent. – Jonesey95 (talk) 18:23, 12 April 2016 (UTC)


 * That journal also used seasonal dates if you go back earlier still. As for a MOS-style standard, that would be nice, but I would prefer to leave that to people that really care about that. I don't mind inconsistency across articles as long as people can understand what is meant. "3rd Qtr.", "3rd Qtr", "Third Quarter" are all understandable by the reader, and that is the main thing. What I want is to see support added for quarterly dates, and the error-detection system updated to accept those dates. I do accept that the error-detection system will need a MOS-style standard to work with, so is this like a Catch-22 situation? I don't want to thrash out a MOS-style standard, but those maintaining the error-detection system need such a standard? Seems like the error-detection system is forcing people to think in MOS-mode, so to speak. Positively Pavlovian reinforcement. :-) Carcharoth (talk) 22:02, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Archive-url timestamp
I've run across a seemingly widespread error where working urls from archive.org cause a message like "|archive-url= is malformed: timestamp (help)". E.g. see |archive-url%3D+is+malformed%3A+timestamp&searchToken=3wpj8anrfjehhny97wes54d5e this search. Apparently, archive.org has added a new directory to their urls (diff), so the timestamp is now in web.archive.org/web/ which causes old links to fail our internal template check. De728631 (talk) 11:54, 16 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Fixed in Module:Citation/CS1. Null edits will fix pages with this error message.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 11:59, 16 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Thank you. Maybe we should a have bot make null edits on all these pages. De728631 (talk) 16:28, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

Re: Archive-url timestamp
I've run accross the same error message but apparently for a different reason. The error message was shown because I added the string "id_" to the teimstamp part of the archive.org's URL. Example: this version of XWT article (see error message at reference No. 3). Error message disappeared when I changed  archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160416213029 id_ /https://github.com/mono/xwt/blob/master/README.markdown  to  archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160416213029/https://github.com/mono/xwt/blob/master/README.markdown  (20160416213029id_ => 20160416213029). However, adding id_ in archive links is legal, it removes site's additional markup and in this case it is useful because additional markup makes page appear less clear (I guess there are some unsolved technical issues at archive.org regarding this). Expert intervention would be appreciated :) Ajgorhoe (talk) 22:01, 16 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Yep, this is a known error. I'm noodling out a solution.  Partially fixed in the sandbox:
 * Interestingly, while the  suffix makes the archived page appear all pretty-like, it breaks the back button.  Websites should never ever break the back button.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 22:27, 16 April 2016 (UTC)
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 22:27, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

"incomplete year-initial dates" and editing for clarity about date problems, for arriving editors
What is an "incomplete year-initial date"? I just dropped it from the list of date format problems in the "Check date values" section (in this diff. If someone wishes to restore it, could you please include an example or a link?  Including to please include an example in the table "Examples of unacceptable dates and how to fix them".

Also, I made other revisions in this series of edits, trying to make the section more comprehensible to editors arriving to this section from date errors in articles. Arriving editors don't know what is above or below, and they don't want to have to wade through technically correct but dense information. Really most editors would rather "pattern-match" on potential date formats, rather than ponder vague advice like avoiding "misplaced, incorrect, or extraneous punctuation". So giving them a link which allows them to jump down to the table of examples is helpful.

And the introductory two sentences were dense and confusing, at least to me, so I tried to clarify them, including by naming linked things more precisely. Hopefully the revised text is more straightforward and the changes have not introduced any technical errors. -- do ncr  am  22:30, 20 June 2016 (UTC)
 * The "incomplete..." date is listed as "Ambiguous date range or year and month" in the table. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:21, 20 June 2016 (UTC)


 * Ah, so "2002-03" is an example. It is either a "year-initial date" (but is it not complete as a month-and-year?  or is it  "incomplete" because it does not include the day?) or it is a date range.
 * Can't we improve upon the label in the table, "Ambiguous date range or year and month"? There is no ambiguous date range, nor any ambiguous year.  There is ambiguity between whether it is a date range or it is a date in year-and-month format.  How about "Ambiguity: month-and-year or date range?", with hyphens and switched order for clarity about what are the alternatives compared by "or"?  Or clarify by using "versus" instead: "Date range vs. month and year", or "Ambiguity: date range vs. month-and-year"?


 * Relatedly, I don't like the label '"mm-dd-yyyy" or "dd-mm-yyyy" date format', which is another in the table. In pattern-matching mode, I would go, like, "yup, my date is in MM-DD-YYYY format" (or in the other one).  The label does not suggest there is anything wrong.  How about 'Ambiguity: "MM-DD-YYYY" or "DD-MM-YYYY"?', or '.  Or how about 'Unclear: "MM-DD-YYYY" vs. "DD-MM-YYYY"'.  Or how about 'Avoid MM-DD-YYYY and DD-MM-YYYY" or "Avoid MM-DD-YYYY and DD-MM-YYYY (ambiguous)". While "YYYY-MM-DD" is okay.


 * Maybe I am belaboring this, but I'll go on: Only some of the labelsconvey that something is wrong.  Perhaps especially strange are the pair:  "Zero-padding" (January 04, 1987), and "One-digit month or day" (2007-3-6) where the sin is not zero-padding.  "Zero-padding" is not a clearly negative label.  What to do, if anything?
 * Perhaps put one after another in the table, to make it clear zero-padding is sometimes outlawed and sometimes required. (But why, as that doesn't really help pattern-matchers.)
 * Perhaps relabel them. What is the problem, really, with either? Perhaps zero-padding is wrong when the type of date format is one where zero-padding usually does not often occur. ("Month D, Year" is the common way we write out dates when we are writing out full sentences, and then zero-padding looks wrong / is rare / doesn't accomplish anything in terms of lining up dates better in columns.)  And failure to zero pad is wrong when the type of date format is like how computer printouts of databases often are, where zero-padding is usual so that numbers line up?  (Aside: where is the reasoning about what is right and wrong in CS1 explained somewhere?)  How about revising to: "Zero-padding where rare" or "Zero-padding when it is unusual" or "where uncommon"?  And revise the other to "Not zero-padding where it is usual"?  I dunno. -- do  ncr  am  21:46, 22 June 2016 (UTC)


 * An incomplete year initial date can also have the form yy-mm-dd or yyyy-m-d, both of which are in the table.


 * Not clear to me how this:
 * "...an automated test is done to see if the dates are real dates that comply with a CS1-related subset of Wikipedia's Manual of Style..."
 * is more clear than this:
 * "... an automated test is done to see if the dates are real dates that comply with a subset of Wikipedia's Manual of Style..."
 * I wonder if it wouldn't be better for the error message help text to link to the compliance table instead of the Dates heading.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 23:40, 20 June 2016 (UTC)
 * moved the following comment out of my comment—Trappist the monk (talk) 00:24, 23 June 2016 (UTC)
 * (Jumping in) Oh, you are saying those are incomplete in a different way than omitting the day.
 * In the first case, the table label is "Two-digit year" (87-12-06). Apparently YYYY-MM-DD is okay, but not YY-MM-DD. Perhaps because (like in 07-12-06), it may be ambiguous with DD-MM-YY and MM-DD-YY.  For pattern-matchers, perhaps it would be better to put this example together with the example on MM-DD-YY and DD-MM-YY.
 * In the second case, the table label is "One-digit month or day" (2007-3-6). Which is apparently wrong when a year-initial hyphenated numerical date ("YYYY-MM-DD") is used.  Perhaps make the label into a transition statement:  "YYYY-MM-DD is okay, but zero-pad"?  I dunno. -- do  ncr  am  21:46, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Please don't insert text I did not write into my comments.
 * Yes, remember y2k?
 * The only MOS accepted all numerical date format is YYYY-MM-DD which is modeled after ISO 8601. That international standard requires zero padding of day and month numbers between 1 and 9 inclusive.  MOS has taken the position that it is inappropriate to zero-pad day numbers in mdy and dmy dates.  cs1|2 complies with all of this.
 * I have no basis for an opinion on 'pattern matching', but isn't that what reading is? Pattern matching is what allows us to consume whole words without analyzing each and every letter, right?  Even when some of those letters are jmulbed up into a non-word.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 00:24, 23 June 2016 (UTC)
 * About inserting Talk page comments, I believe that by indenting 2 steps I avoided confusion about whose text was whose. When there is a list of items, it is subjective whether it is good for keeping stuff together, item-wise, or bad for chopping up another editor's writing.  But okay. -- do  ncr  am  05:56, 23 June 2016 (UTC)
 * I have no basis for an opinion on 'pattern matching', but isn't that what reading is? Pattern matching is what allows us to consume whole words without analyzing each and every letter, right?  Even when some of those letters are jmulbed up into a non-word.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 00:24, 23 June 2016 (UTC)
 * About inserting Talk page comments, I believe that by indenting 2 steps I avoided confusion about whose text was whose. When there is a list of items, it is subjective whether it is good for keeping stuff together, item-wise, or bad for chopping up another editor's writing.  But okay. -- do  ncr  am  05:56, 23 June 2016 (UTC)


 * I thought "subset" would link to a definition of what a subset is, like in mathematics, so this was to avoid surprising the reader. And the actual target, the Dates heading, did not seem to be obviously a subset of anything, so labeling it "CS1-related subset" was my way of trying to make it more sensible. (I was not sure, but eventually decided that the CS1 rules, within MOS, are the "subset" that was intended.  Rather than the CS1 section on dates being a subset of CS1.)  I agree that linking to the compliance table, the section titled "CS1 compliance with Wikipedia's Manual of Style", would be better than linking to the section titled "Dates", of which it is a part.
 * But CS1 rules are apparently not a subset of MOS, they are inconsistent with MOS, says that subsection. So perhaps call it a "version":
 * "... an automated test is done to see if the dates are real dates that comply with a CS1 version of Wikipedia's Manual of Style..."
 * or, better, try to call it what is really meant:
 * "... an automated test is done to see if the dates are real dates that comply with Citation Style 1, a house style that is used in many Wikipedia articles"
 * if that is an acceptable way to roughly define CS1. I am not going to implement any of these musings into the article. -- do ncr  am  21:46, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
 * I guess I disagree. The whole suite of MOS rules for dates encompasses some date types and styles that are inappropriate or impossible for citations in general and for cs1|2 in particular.  Where it can and where appropriate, cs1|2 hews closely to the rules set down in the MOS; this is why I chose the 'subset' term: because the rules that cs1|2 obeys are a subset of the rules established by MOS.  Where cs1|2 can't or doesn't obey a MOS rule, the reason is generally provided in the table.
 * I get your point about the 'subset' word definition so perhaps that sentence can be rewritten:
 * "... an automated test is done to see if the dates are real dates that comply with a subset of the date rules in Wikipedia's Manual of Style...
 * You wrote: they are inconsistent with MOS, says that subsection – where?
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 00:24, 23 June 2016 (UTC)
 * I like your revised sentence better than what's in the article.
 * About "inconsistent", the linked section states "For various reasons, CS1 is not fully compliant with MOS:DATEFORMAT." I don't know what are the reasons or ways CS1 is not fully compliant, but I take MOS:DATEFORMAT is part of MOS.  Non-compliant = inconsistent.  I wasn't referring to anything else. -- do  ncr  am  05:56, 23 June 2016 (UTC)
 * About "inconsistent", the linked section states "For various reasons, CS1 is not fully compliant with MOS:DATEFORMAT." I don't know what are the reasons or ways CS1 is not fully compliant, but I take MOS:DATEFORMAT is part of MOS.  Non-compliant = inconsistent.  I wasn't referring to anything else. -- do  ncr  am  05:56, 23 June 2016 (UTC)

Zero width joiner errors are not always errors
Zero width joiner may not be needed in English, but at least in some languages having it in the text is not an error, but a requirement. One example is Malayalam, and indeed, a lot of articles that have an error about Zero width joiner have citations in Malayalam. For example, Mehboob (singer), Muktha (actress), Vaikom Muhammad Basheer and many others.

My suggestions:
 * Separate the category that lists articles with citations that have a Zero width joiner from categories of other invisible characters. Currently they are lumped with line feed, carriage return and other characters, which are also invisible, but of a different nature. Better yet, consider separating each invisible character to its own category.
 * Don't produce an error at all when the citation is written in the Malayalam script. Reading the article Zero-width joiner I can see that it is also useful in Devanagari and Kannada scripts, and there may be others.

Thanks. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 05:34, 11 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Beep User:Trappist the monk :) --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 19:24, 14 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Yep, know about this. There is a mention at Feature requests.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 11:48, 17 July 2016 (UTC)

Date=December 1985-January 1986
Is there a way of getting it to accept this without the Check date values in: |date= (help) error? The magazine I'm citing is dated Dec1985/Jan1986.

If the date range didn't cross the year, we wouldn't be having this conversation (so January-1986-February 1986, for example, works). I suspect it's an unintentional coding error that can't be overcome, but it'd be nice to be wrong. Cheers, Bromley86 (talk) 06:51, 22 July 2016 (UTC) Yes, like this:
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 09:49, 22 July 2016 (UTC)
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 09:49, 22 July 2016 (UTC)
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 09:49, 22 July 2016 (UTC)


 * Cheers Trapp! Feeling a little silly, as I was doing things like cut & pasting the examples on the article page here and didn't think to try spaces:
 * Bromley86 (talk) 10:56, 22 July 2016 (UTC)
 * I have added a new example to the good/bad table of date formats to cover full date ranges. – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:26, 22 July 2016 (UTC)

No-date errors
In the past, I've filled the year parameter with "n.d." (for "no date") when using the Harvard style, like here at Maxinquaye, so the footnotes are consistent (i.e. author-date; Smith 2001, or Smith n.d. when the article has no date/year). Is there a way to hide the error message that now shows up? It's appearing throughout the bibliographies to all my FAs lol. Dan56 (talk) 03:23, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Works fine: &rarr; – Jonesey95 (talk) 13:17, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Oh, I see, you're trying to disambiguate multiple n.d. sources by the same author. I don't know of an elegant way to do that. – Jonesey95 (talk) 13:17, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Remove the brackets from n.d.[a] → n.d.a
 * year (date) disambiguators are single alpha characters without punctuation.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 14:54, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
 * year (date) disambiguators are single alpha characters without punctuation.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 14:54, 5 August 2016 (UTC)

CS1 error, no access date give causes an error.
See this example where the red errors appears in the references. In this case only a year or a month and a year are given. Before I embark on doing a large number of corrections, I am just wondering if this is supposed to be flagged up as such. When I click on the help function it goes to the Check date values section here. But when I look at the manual of style on acceptable date formats here, I notice that this should not be issue? Or am I seeing that wrong? Karst (talk) 10:11, 9 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Help text says: "The access date (in access-date) is checked to ensure that it contains a full date (day, month, and year)..."; so the error is not about formatting. access-date is to be used to identify the date that an ephemeral source supported a statement in a Wikipedia article so the whole date is required.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 12:14, 9 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Okay. Correcting this manually would require going through the article history. And in the case of Aid (rapper) this is complicated by the fact it only runs to August 2012. This while the majority of citation access dates were earlier. There is a similar problem with Boombox Saints, while the Carson Allen references only give a year, making it almost impossible to find  the exact date for each reference. Is there a bot option? Karst (talk) 13:05, 9 August 2016 (UTC)
 * For these kinds of errors, it is ok to go to the source and check to see if the source (still) supports the statement in the Wikipedia article. If it does, great, change access-date to the date of verification.  If it does not, see if there is an archived copy of the page that does support the Wikipedia article or supply a new source.
 * I don't think that a bot can assert that a statement in a Wikipedia article was supported by an ephemeral source on a specified date. That is a human trick.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 15:41, 9 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the advice - appreciate it. Karst (talk) 15:43, 9 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the advice - appreciate it. Karst (talk) 15:43, 9 August 2016 (UTC)

Wikipedia + Wikiquote
I'm a little nervous my work will be undone so forgive my abstraction, but I thought it might be potentially valuable. On an article about a living person who is known for using catch phrases and famous quotes there is a short list. I've started adding citations for when they used those famous quotes, as well as credit to the famous name with Wikipedia link, and then after the linked name another reference to the Wikiquote page of that famous name. Something like so: Is there a better way to do this or format it? I hope you can understand what I mean, and that this format is reasonable, and perhaps either as is or better modified it might be worthy to include in the style guide. ~  JasonCarswell   (talk)   23:52, 9 September 2016 (UTC)
 * "Fool me once..."(ref YouTube.com/speech /ref) ~ ((George Bush))(ref Wikiquote.com/George Bush /ref)
 * I picked the Tolstoy "History would be a wonderful thing ..." quote at random.


 * The first two references can be improved:
 * But, I don't know what you intended with this one:
 * A quick search of that wikiquote page did not reveal a match to the quote; so why is this reference there?
 * But, I don't know what you intended with this one:
 * A quick search of that wikiquote page did not reveal a match to the quote; so why is this reference there?
 * But, I don't know what you intended with this one:
 * A quick search of that wikiquote page did not reveal a match to the quote; so why is this reference there?
 * A quick search of that wikiquote page did not reveal a match to the quote; so why is this reference there?
 * A quick search of that wikiquote page did not reveal a match to the quote; so why is this reference there?


 * As an aside, the url is not necessary:  → Leo Tolstoy (the pipe trick doesn't work inside  tags)
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 01:01, 10 September 2016 (UTC)

legitimate PMC numbers now above CS1 template limit.
Copied from the Help Desk

I've been cleaning up CS1 citation errors lately, and I've noticed a couple of cases where apparently valid PMC values (e.g., Oncogenomics ref 29; Orphan gene ref 30) have generated an error. I'm not real knowledgeable about the PMC system, but I think it might be because the value we check against (5000000) needs to be increased. Could someone who knows more about PMC's take a look and confirm? Thanks. --Floatjon (talk) 09:28, 29 September 2016 (UTC)
 * Fixed in the sandbox. Those errors should go away at the next update to Module:Citation/CS1.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 10:19, 29 September 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes, I see the change in Module:Citation/CS1/Identifiers/sandbox, bumping to 6000000, what's the expected date on the next sync?Naraht (talk) 10:32, 29 September 2016 (UTC)

error info and link to help in en: not in de:
I recreated an error to see if the English wikipedia and the German do act the same, and at least for me they don't. In the English one I get the "error/link to help" at the end, e.g. this Text "url http://example.com " ignored (help); when I leave out the = in url=http parameter of &lt;ref&gt;{{cite news. When I recreate the same error in German wikipedia I get no such error. The URL in the ref just misses, and the rest (like the title=) is still there. Of course, accepting the error of an invalid URL in a ref is quite senseless since the URL is the main info of a ref (unless it's a hard printed ref). Why is that so? Why no info about the error in the German wikipedia? Also, why is there no German version of this help page? And a 2nd error about this help page I just encountered. I want to put some info for myself on my userpage. Since this help page not exists in German, I wanted to add it with en:Help:CS1_errors. When I use the very same syntax on the English wikipedia (even when there the en: is not needed) it is okay, but when I use it on the German wikipedia there is just nothing, it tot expands into a valid URL. Another URL, to mw: (mediawiki) works okay on both the German wikipedia and the English wikipedia... I have to code it like so to work: &#x5B;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:CS1_errors en:Help:CS1_errors] but coding stuff like so sucks, compared to the shorter version above... Rava77 (talk) 18:26, 14 November 2016 (UTC)
 * de.wiki does not use cs1|2 as it is implemented at en.wiki. For example, our {{tlx|cite book}} uses our Module:Citation/CS1 while at de.wiki de:Vorlage:Literatur uses de:Modul:Vorlage:Literatur.


 * You can try this:  to link to this help page.  Not sure how much real use it is since de.wiki and en.wiki do not share the underlying citation template code.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 18:41, 14 November 2016 (UTC)


 * Trappist, that cannot be right. I just used the same code on en: and on de, on my user page test pages, both using the  kind of code, and in both cases it created the kind of ref I wanted. So, maybe de: uses its own but also supports the en: one? Anyhow, in my book it makes not much sense when every other language wikipedia uses its own code for such stuff, you then have to kill your time with learning all that different nonsense instead of editing articles... (When you only have to learn one set of code that's no nonsense, that's okay, but when you are active in 2 or 2+ languages and have to learn new code for each of these, that makes no real sense to me...)
 * And  works okay... I presume it works on English with mw:Title and on German with mw:Title but German needs :en:Title is one more quirky wikipedia behaviour?
 * Update: Look here, I used the above code on de: and it works fine: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Diskussion:Lua/Modul/Zitation#.3Cref.3E.7B.7Bcite_news_.3F Rava77 (talk) 21:15, 14 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Despite your assertion that I am wrong, I am right. de.wiki has its own de:Vorlage:Cite_news which is not at all the same as en.wiki's {{tlx|cite news}}.  Compare the output of the two templates:
 * The Riots: 15 Years After, example.com. Abgerufen am 14. November 2016. – de.wiki Vorlage:Cite_news
 * {{cite news |url=http://example.com |title=The Riots: 15 Years After |accessdate=2016-11-14 |publisher=example.com}} – en.wiki {{tld|cite news}}
 * The templates take many of the same parameters as input but that is where the similarity ends. de.wiki and en.wiki use entirely different software to process those 'inputs'.
 * It is not necessarily {{tq|one more quirky wikipedia behaviour}}. In the olden days before WikiData, to connect to an article on the same subject in another wiki we used the form  .  This mechanism does not produce a visible link in the article text but does add a language link in the page's left column under the Languages heading (Sprachen at de.wiki).  Add   to your user page, click Vorschau zeigen, and notice in the left column the Sprachen heading has changed to In anderen Sprachen and there is an English link to Help_talk:CS1_errors.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 22:11, 14 November 2016 (UTC)
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 22:11, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

┌────────────────────────────────┘ "Despite your assertion that I am wrong, I am right. de.wiki has its own de:Vorlage:Cite_news which is not at all the same as en.wiki's {{tlx|cite news}}." Seems we had a misunderstanding here. I never doubted you that de:wiki has its own templates. I just realized that en: templates can work on en: and de:, that's all. And sure, as you pointed out, one prints its results in English, one in German, but even on en:wiki, the German template still works as it should, and the English template also works on de:wiki. Both sure keep their language as it was. That is the one sad thing in all this,if it was coded a bit differently, there could have been just one template for any language wikipedia, and the language the wiki itself is of then would determine which text to print, that is: on en: print, on de: print   It would have been possible to implement it like so, and looking at the different language versions of this help page (Dansk, Eesti, Español, Galego, 한국어, Ilokano, עברית,  Norsk bokmål, ଓଡ଼ିଆ, Português, Slovenščina, Српски / srpski and 中文) I can only presume that all these language wikipedia use the same English style ref template, and that there are also some like the German wikipedia who use their own or a different version... Like I said, I would have liked it if there was only just one version for all wikipedias, the English version and that the language the wikipedia runs in determines what text is printed by the arguments used. I presume the above listed language wikis just do it like so... Sorry for the misunderstanding. But looking at the output there is one big difference between the handling of the templates. When using the en: template on de:, de prints the Text in German, as it should be, so you can still use the en: template on de:. But, like you showed above it not works the other way around, when using the German template on en:, it not prints the info in English but the info is still in German... That key difference means that at least editors of German wikipedia can either use the en: or the de: templates, and both will give the wanted results: The info text in German. So, at least at part I got what I wanted. Thanks for the help, Cheers. Rava77 (talk) 02:09, 15 November 2016 (UTC)
 * If you look at the source text for de:Vorlage:Cite_news, you will see how it works. It accepts many of the English-language parameters that are used in the English Wikipedia's {{tl|cite news}} template. It is designed so that editors can copy English-language {{tl|cite news}} templates to the German Wikipedia without translating the parameters. We have templates like that here, such as {{tl|Cita news}} (same basic idea, implemented a bit differently) and {{tl|Literatur}}. – Jonesey95 (talk) 04:56, 15 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the heads up. And hopefully the last question on that, when I used {{tl|Cite news}} and had a systax error, it not linked me to its {{tl|Cite news}} page or to a (non existing) Help:Cite news_errors but to Help:CS1_errors. I presume  is more generic than  ? Rava77 (talk) 07:30, 15 November 2016 (UTC)
 * At en.wiki, all cs1|2 templates – {{tlx|cite book}}, {{tlx|cite journal}}, {{tlx|cite news}}, {{tlx|cite web}}, {{tlx|citation}}, and the 19 others – are all processed by Module:Citation/CS1. Because the error detection code is the same regardless of template, error message help text is confined to this single Help:CS1 errors page.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 12:31, 15 November 2016 (UTC)