Help talk:Cite errors/Archive 7

Semi-protected edit request on 11 January 2015
I have no idea what other officers who may not have liked Gen Robinett called him, but he was widely known ONLY as Robbie. This should be corrected as it reflects badly on him. As his niece, I know this for a fact. I knew my uncle very well from infancy to his death in 1975.

Choate152 (talk) 22:56, 11 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Wrong page, see Talk:Paul McDonald Robinett, and that article is not semiprotected Cannolis (talk) 23:06, 11 January 2015 (UTC)

Need help on Selena
I don't understand the language used in the help page for the error, can anyone help me out? Best, .jona talk  18:54, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
 * After some scratching around, I've fixed one of the errors and have edited the help page to mention Certification Cite Ref. -- John of Reading (talk) 20:05, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

What's changed?
Why has the number of entries in Category:Pages with missing references list snowballed to over 100? Some of the pages on it, such as Ely_and_Littleport_riots_of_1816, haven't been edited for many months, but they now have a red "Cite error" message at the bottom Noyster (talk),  10:23, 26 May 2015 (UTC)
 * This is probably change to  see Template talk:Refn. -- Red rose64 (talk) 11:32, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

DId someone break the template again?
At Ahmed Zayat, which worked yesterday, I'm now getting the "Cite error: There are  tags or templates on this page, but the references will not show without a  template or  template (see the help page)." message... Montanabw (talk) 18:52, 26 May 2015 (UTC)
 * This is because in you added a  without making sure that there was also a . I've fixed it with . -- Red rose64 (talk) 19:08, 26 May 2015 (UTC)
 * I did a notes the way I have done it for several years... and it worked yesterday... Montanabw (talk) 19:17, 26 May 2015 (UTC)
 * There is no in the version where you added that, nor is there any evidence of one being added or removed in [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ahmed_Zayat&action=history&dir=prev&offset=20150525203300 subsequent edits] until my fix mentioned above. -- Red rose64 (talk) 19:28, 26 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Aw whoops, I've been going back and forth between that one and American Pharoah (which DID have the same problem but also has notes, I must have confused the two. Swore is twa there at some point, but maybe I had a brain fart, wouldn't be the first time... Sigh...  Montanabw (talk) 03:02, 27 May 2015 (UTC)

References colour
You can't, for instance, format a reference with, or give it an id. Why is this? For television series where the header row is coloured blue, references are basically invisible against them. Is there a way to colour references black/white? Alex &#124; The &#124; Whovian 16:02, 13 September 2015 (UTC)
 * The  tags look like HTML, but they aren't - they're a MediaWiki extension, see mw:Extension:Cite. You therefore cannot expect that would accept global HTML attributes like  . Wrap it in a suitably-styled  element, as in  Don't attempt to set   - links should be left in their "natural" colours, blue for unvisited; purple for visited, etc. -- Red rose64 (talk) 18:28, 13 September 2015 (UTC)

CNET reference
Why is the CNET reference broken and invoked but not defined and can someone please fix it? -- PK2 (talk) 08:22, 20 September 2015 (UTC)
 * I guess you mean on some article. Based on your contributions I guess it's Google Translate but at the time of your edit or before that I could find no cite errors. I then looked at your edits after posting here and found [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Google_Translate&diff=prev&oldid=681903582] which is broken because no reference has been defined with . I fixed that in [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Google_Translate&diff=681907516&oldid=681904129] ([//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Google_Translate&type=revision&diff=681907516&oldid=681903582 diff to broken version]). When you ask for help about something, please say where it is in a way that enables others to see the issue. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:25, 20 September 2015 (UTC)

Thank you PrimeHunter. Is that how you fix the references? -- PK2 (talk) 12:58, 20 September 2015 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure what you are asking. It's how to use a reference more than once by naming it. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:09, 20 September 2015 (UTC)

Article contains nothing
The article contains nothing. Please send it to Articles for deletion.Giantnut76 (talk) 11:37, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Which article are you referring to? PrimeHunter (talk) 12:01, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Targeted work.
Oct 2015 Hi Admins/super users, can we exclude all except articles from this Cat, and place the help templates in the Cat blurb, for other backlog Cat's this also may apply as best practice, all old notice boards, draft etc should not be shown here, cheers The Original Filfi (talk) 22:55, 5 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Are you referring to Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting? Category talk:Pages with incorrect ref formatting is one of four category talk pages redirecting here. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:16, 5 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Hi, yes (Category talk:Pages with incorrect ref formatting) I have been trying to keep on top of this Cat and occasionally bursts of indiscriminate work elsewhere.The Original Filfi (talk) 23:26, 5 October 2015 (UTC)
 * If you're looking at namespaces to exclude, you might consider the list under "Notes" in, which we developed for all of the CS1 errors generated by a group of citation templates. It works very well. – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:31, 6 October 2015 (UTC)

ThisCite error: Invalid tag; name defined multiple times with different content
This error is spawning along many pages after a recent software upgrade, but the related category doesn't seem to catch up with the new issue, is still around 200 pages and doesn't show some pages I've randomly seen, in it-wiki we still have more than 3,000 pages with this error. Is this problem discussed anywhere? Thanks for reply.--Demostene119 (talk) 19:52, 18 October 2015 (UTC)
 * That error message doesn't add a tracking category, at least not at the English Wikipedia. Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting is for other errors. The search currently gives 120 results. That's probably far from all of them but you could try searching itwiki for the Italian equivalent if you want to at least find some of the affected articles there. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:44, 18 October 2015 (UTC)
 * I created a feature request in Phabricator for this. It should have been done as part of the creation of the error message, but it was missed, I guess. – Jonesey95 (talk) 04:49, 19 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Some admin just needs to update MediaWiki:Cite error references duplicate key message with broken ref template:


 * And add subpage for this error (placing subpage name in help). -- Edgars2007  (talk/contribs) 06:51, 19 October 2015 (UTC)
 * I have created MediaWiki:Cite error references duplicate key and Help:Cite errors/Cite error references duplicate key. Affected pages are now added to Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting. In the Italian Wikipedia, it:MediaWiki:Cite error references duplicate key must be created and add pages to it:Categoria:Pagine con errori nell'uso delle note if you want to see them there. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:41, 19 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Many tanks, I'll report it in it-wiki.Demostene119 (talk) 13:02, 19 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Sorry, it appears I was wrong. The Italian Wikipedia does things differently. it:MediaWiki:Cite error is also displayed for the error and it adds the category (the English MediaWiki:Cite error does not). I think the problem is instead that the link tables for the articles have not been updated since the error message was introduced. Some actions like a purge can rebuild the article itself and add new categories at the bottom without updating the corresponding category pages. A null edit (or any other edit) of the article would also update category pages. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:54, 19 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks . – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:38, 19 October 2015 (UTC)
 * The help link in the error message has stopped displaying. I have posted about it at Village pump (technical). PrimeHunter (talk) 13:10, 20 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Some cynical disruptive editing often gets by the bots and the frontline team, but filters into pages with incorrect formatting so doesn’t really slip through the net for long. However, I’m assuming that a filter has been triggered with the arrival of so many multiple defined reference error pages, which means those disruptive edits will probably now go unchecked.CV9933 (talk) 16:30, 20 October 2015 (UTC)
 * It's a recent feature in the software to detect these errors, and the categorization of them was added yesterday with my creation of MediaWiki:Cite error references duplicate key. Thousands of articles which had this problem for a long time are now being added to Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting. I guess editors, maybe with bot assistance, will work through this new backlog at some time and bring the category down to a small number again. It would be possible to make a separate tracking category for this specific cite eror but I'm not sure we should do it. Category:Pages with citation errors currently only shows three different categories for cite errors. There are many more types of cite errors than that at . PrimeHunter (talk) 16:50, 20 October 2015 (UTC)
 * It is worth noting, for all who are reading this and care, that it typically takes weeks, or longer, for a new tracking category like this to "fill up" with articles. – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:32, 21 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Also note that the 24,000-odd articles in this list currently contain a nonsense error message in the reflist. For instance, in 1984 Atlantic hurricane season we see:

Noyster (talk),  08:45, 21 October 2015 (UTC)
 * It's not nonsense, it's drawing attention to a problem. There are two refs named TD1, and the first is  the second is   - these expand to
 * respectively, which are clearly different. Either change the ref names, or alter the enclosed ref to be identical. -- Red rose64 (talk) 09:28, 21 October 2015 (UTC)
 * If you mean the missing "see" link to Help:Cite errors/Cite error references duplicate key make it nonsense then it's caused by a MediaWiki change which went live after my creation of MediaWiki:Cite error references duplicate key. It moved the error message next to the reference but the wikilink was stripped from the message in the new position. Yesterday I contacted the programmer who said he will look into it today. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:19, 21 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks, yes I did mean the two empty brackets at the end of the message and hope this can be fixed soon Noyster (talk),  12:11, 21 October 2015 (UTC)
 * The programmer has submitted a patch for the stripped wikilink in T116149.[//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28technical%29&diff=686801457&oldid=686793748] I don't know when it will be live, assuming it's approved. I have removed the first "(see )" which was a test of the issue.[//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Cite_error_references_duplicate_key&diff=prev&oldid=686802585] Affected pages must be purged to see it's removed. The second "(see the )" could be removed temporarily in Broken ref/lang by testing whether  equals , and then restored later when the issue is fixed, but I haven't done that. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:26, 21 October 2015 (UTC)
 * The fix has already been deployed. The error message now displays correctly on purged pages. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:33, 21 October 2015 (UTC)
 * The programmer has submitted a patch for the stripped wikilink in T116149.[//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28technical%29&diff=686801457&oldid=686793748] I don't know when it will be live, assuming it's approved. I have removed the first "(see )" which was a test of the issue.[//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Cite_error_references_duplicate_key&diff=prev&oldid=686802585] Affected pages must be purged to see it's removed. The second "(see the )" could be removed temporarily in Broken ref/lang by testing whether  equals , and then restored later when the issue is fixed, but I haven't done that. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:26, 21 October 2015 (UTC)
 * The fix has already been deployed. The error message now displays correctly on purged pages. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:33, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

We are getting questions at the help desk about this error message. Upon fixing one I noted that the natural way to do so, at least for me, is to copy the defined ref name, then use find while editing an article. However, the message places underscores for any spaces in the ref name, so you have to remove them when finding. PrimeHunter suggested a fix for this at the help desk post of adding  Any thoughts on implementing a fix like this?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:48, 23 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Some corrections really need to be done manually. If the same reference name has been used for two different citations sometimes you can just change the ref name in one of the instances. However where the abbreviated version of the ref name has also been used, it isn't always easy to figure out which citation the abbreviated name is referring to. here is an example with "ReferenceB", if you see whatI mean. CV9933 (talk) 17:24, 23 October 2015 (UTC)
 * This should be fixed in mw:Extension:Cite, not here. I've created a Phabricator task for it at T116532. — Mr. Stradivarius  ♪ talk ♪ 13:29, 25 October 2015 (UTC)

FYI, category change for "Cite error references duplicate key"
The flood of these "duplicate key" errors is causing problems for AnomieBOT in fixing cite errors it actually can fix, so I am adjusting Template:Broken ref/cat to place this error into Category:Pages with duplicate reference names instead of Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting. Anomie⚔ 12:37, 26 October 2015 (UTC)

Anarky and Blue's Clues
Can anyone figure out why the above two articles are placed in Category:Pages with reference errors? Thanks. DrKay (talk) 19:57, 13 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Both had a reference defined twice within the list-defined references: one proper definition, and one empty. -- John of Reading (talk) 20:09, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

Xuong Nguyen-Huu
On Xuong Nguyen-Huu there are no visible reference errors anyone have a reason it is still showing as having a reference error. Haakonsson (talk) 11:53, 16 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Where is it showing as having a reference error? PrimeHunter (talk) 12:54, 16 March 2016 (UTC)
 * I have encountered this type of issue before. Sometimes you can just refresh the page and the error clears. However,the solution that I found was to enable a purge option in my wikipedia preferences gadget section. It displays a clock in my toolbar and when I click on the clock whilst on the page that is showing the error, the purge clears the issue. There may be other ways to do this but that is the one that worked for me. CV9933 (talk) 15:36, 16 March 2016 (UTC)
 * You probably had a cached copy from before you made . A WP:BYPASS normally clears those.
 * That's → "", but if you don't need the clock, enable  → "" instead. But I don't think this was a purge problem. -- Red rose64 (talk) 18:04, 16 March 2016 (UTC)
 * I have to say I don't think its a purge issue either. As I enabled that option which I can see the use of and the article is still showing in the list and the last edit was 3 March 2016. Haakonsson (talk) 19:23, 16 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Sorry, misread the original post (I took it as "there are still ref errors showing on the page"). Anyway, a WP:NULLEDIT to Xuong Nguyen-Huu has removed it from [//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Pages_with_reference_errors?from=Xo the category]. -- Red rose64 (talk) 20:11, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

Missing refs on Conquest of 1760
Just went through and fixed the refs in this article Conquest of 1760, but they cite two sources by last name only, and I don't see details on those anywhere.

(Also, can someone check my work? It's been a while.)

Knockwood (talk) 11:17, 1 April 2016 (UTC)


 * Knockwood Welcome back. This problem is the result of other editors copying from external sources and omitting the full reference. If you don't manage to trace the full ref I should restore the "Conway, 143" etc - this will remove the red error messages in the reference list - and add the template in-line. The other thing is that such queries would belong better on the article's talk page, in this case Talk:Conquest of 1760 Noyster  (talk),  12:06, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Spaces in Refnames...
In the case of

that the error message in the reflist is Cite error: Invalid tag; name "abc_def" defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).

The actual reference name is "abc def", the error message has "abc_def". Is there any way to have the error message corrected so spaces aren't turned into underscores? (See https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Delta_Omicron&oldid=689911036 as an actual example.
 * I think this was filed as a bug on Phabricator. I don't remember where I saw a discussion about it, though. – Jonesey95 (talk) 22:22, 2 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Is there any hope of it being fixed? -- Mikeblas (talk) 12:44, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 28 August 2016
I am adding a more accurate photograph of the subject of this Wikipedia page.

Randstyr (talk) 04:57, 28 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: this is the talk page for discussing improvements to the page Help:Cite errors. Please make your request at the talk page for the article concerned. —&thinsp;JJMC89&thinsp; (T·C) 07:47, 28 August 2016 (UTC)

Template issue
Is there an issue or related problem with the template here and other places where it is implemented? There seems to be a problem with alphabetical links taking you to the wrong place. For example if I click on pages beginning with Pa, it links to pages beginning with E. CV9933 (talk) 21:47, 29 August 2016 (UTC)
 * This is the talk page for multiple categories. It looks like you might be talking about, as an example. This is the list of Category Talk pages that link here. I tried all of those category pages, and clicking on "P" or "Pa" takes me to "E". They all use either CategoryTOC or Large category TOC 2.


 * It looks like this same problem is happening in, a completely unrelated category. I don't see any recent changes in the TOC templates' code. – Jonesey95 (talk) 22:42, 29 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Possibly related to this VPT thread. – Jonesey95 (talk) 22:45, 29 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes, this problem is happening today because the WMF Community Tech Team is running a maintenance script to update category sorting. Once it's done, the new sorting will sort numbers correctly (99 before 100). The script started on August 29th at 18:00 UTC, and we're expecting it to take 24 hours to run. You can check out Village pump (technical) for more info.
 * If it helps, I've figured out a temporary workaround -- if you manually edit the URL to say (for example) &pagefrom=T, then it'll show you category entries further down the alphabet. It won't start with T, but the beginning of T should be in the results. Sorry for the current confusing state. -- DannyH (WMF) (talk) 23:08, 29 August 2016 (UTC)
 * , thanks for the quick explanation. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:13, 29 August 2016 (UTC)
 * The templates are now empty. That can't possibly be by design. -- Mikeblas (talk) 14:36, 2 September 2016 (UTC)
 * Category sorting is still in progress, expected to be completed sometime during the weekend. Until then, expect strange Category pages. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:58, 2 September 2016 (UTC)

Refs in articles about songs and sports
I noticed that some of the refs in articles about songs and sports teams are auto generated and i can't for the hell of it make out how, thus i won't touch that. MikeTango (talk) 20:48, 22 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Which articles? -- Red rose64 (talk) 23:25, 22 August 2016 (UTC)
 * i basically started my quest with the list items sorted by date numbers, before A. After discovering that most of those containing standings tables or scores tables were beyond my comprehension, i went on to A. I think the amount of "Al-Quaeda does this or that" edits i did will put me on a no fly list or something. MikeTango (talk) 14:31, 6 September 2016 (UTC)
 * No, I mean, which articles do these auto generated refs appear in? Without actual examples I can't investigate. -- Red rose64 (talk) 15:06, 6 September 2016 (UTC)
 * Sorry, as i said, all of those starting with a number on Category:Pages with duplicate reference names, for example 2013%E2%80%9314_NHL_season (why the hell does the internal linkage to that category not work?) MikeTango (talk) 06:53, 7 September 2016 (UTC)
 * At 2013–14 NHL season, the content and references for the "Standings" section come from two templates, Template:2013–14 NHL Western Conference standings and Template:2013–14 NHL Eastern Conference standings. The clash of reference names occurred because the two templates used the same reference name but defined the reference slightly differently. I've resolved the error by changing the name in one of the templates.
 * I guess that needs to be done for a lot of templates, then.MikeTango (talk) 18:58, 7 September 2016 (UTC)
 * To link a category name, place a colon in front of the word "Category" -  displays as Category:Pages with duplicate reference names. There's a bit more about this in the last paragraph at Help:Link. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:46, 7 September 2016 (UTC)
 * Re "as i said, all of those starting with a number on Category:Pages with duplicate reference names" - your post of 06:53, 7 September 2016 was the first time that you used the words "Pages with duplicate reference names". You can also use the template, as in . -- Red rose64 (talk) 09:13, 7 September 2016 (UTC)
 * and then i realized this here is not the talk page for Category:Pages with duplicate reference names but for cite errors. Thanks. MikeTango (talk) 18:58, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

Hiding broken refs. Does it still make sense ?
For a long time we have been hiding broken references on talk pages and a few more namespaces. The primary reason for this was that people were often copying fragments into a talk page in order to discuss them, but since there was no  being copied in at the same time, these refs would all throw big ugly red errors and this was confusing, especially for new users. However, for a over a year now, we are automatically adding a references section (T68860). So most of these previously hidden errors would not actually occur anymore. Basically the only errors that are still being hidden, are pasted references that are part of a named group (without a  for that group), or if they are totally different and valid errors. Perhaps it's time to stop hiding these broken refs ? —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 22:05, 12 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Can you please give an example of a talk page where this is happening? – Jonesey95 (talk) 02:48, 13 February 2016 (UTC)
 * It's time to either get rid of this template or clearly explain its current use and value. Reading about this template simply left me confused...
 * Oh, wow: This is Help talk:Cite errors (Redirected from Template talk:Template reference list). I wasn't expecting that. I'm talking about Template:Template reference list. Sorry all I can do is point this out! —--Geekdiva (talk) 11:43, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 10 February 2017
Information on THe Honourable Col. Gordon Sidney Harrington is wrong. He was born and died in Halifax. He was an Anglican. He was married to Katherine Agnes MacDonald. He was Minister of Mines and Public Works (not Labour) although he formed a department of Labour when he was premier. Please ck the page as I tried to edit it and may have disrupted some material. I am Carole MacDonald, author of Historic Glace Bay (Nimbus publishing 2009) and author of a thesis on The Hon.Col. Gordon Sidney Harrington "The Legacy of Gordon Sidney Harrington 1909- 1925" Saint Mary's University 2014 (online) and author upcoming biography of Col. Harrington Carole MacDonald (talk) 17:54, 10 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: this is the talk page for discussing improvements to the page Help:Cite errors. Please make your request at the talk page for the article concerned. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 18:59, 10 February 2017 (UTC)

Ignores default sort
Looking at Category:Pages with duplicate reference names, it's easy to see that the category ignores the DEFAULTSORT magic word that appears on articles included in the listing. (Shouldn't be hard to find an example, but here's one directly: Don Brose). What's wrong with the articles, or the defaultSort template, or the category, or ... something? -- Mikeblas (talk) 21:42, 12 January 2017 (UTC)
 * The category is added by Broken ref/cat with  as sort key. If the caller (usually another template) doesn't specify a sort key with   then the page name is used. I don't know whether it was intentional to override a DEFAULTSORT but it makes the code simpler when there is code for an optional  . I don't see a problem in overriding a DEFAULTSORT by forcing the page name as sort key. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:15, 12 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Looking a little further,  is used to specify a special initial character for other namespaces than mainspace: [//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Pages_with_duplicate_reference_names?from=Ya]. This would complicate the coding if mainspace pages have to respect DEFAULTSORT, and it would be impossible to combine the special character with non-mainspace pages respecting DEFAULTSORT in their internal sorting under the character. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:24, 12 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Holy cow! Thanks for the awesome analysis, PrimeHunter. This helps me understand just a little more wikiStuff. -- Mikeblas (talk) 16:36, 27 March 2017 (UTC)

Pat McMahon played for Ajax FC Chicago 6 years prior to his College soccer career.
http://www.uicflames.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=1220

Ryorulmaz (talk) 19:41, 31 March 2017 (UTC)
 * The right place for this change is Pat McMahon (soccer, born 1986), not here. Click on Talk at the top of that page to request help with it. – Jonesey95 (talk) 19:57, 31 March 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 10 April 2017
https://www.lorentz.leidenuniv.nl/history/Einstein_archive How di I get this ref into the bottom of the list of famous people with dyslexic. I am new to editing Wikiq12wi89o (talk) 12:41, 10 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: this is the talk page for discussing improvements to the page Help:Cite errors. Please make your request at the talk page for the article concerned.  JTP (talk • contribs) 12:47, 10 April 2017 (UTC)

Please delete old i18n message over-rides
Hey there.

The  has been removed from the Cite extension, so you can delete:


 * MediaWiki:Cite error references invalid parameters group
 * MediaWiki:Cite error references invalid parameters group/en-ca
 * MediaWiki:Cite error references invalid parameters group/en-gb
 * MediaWiki:Cite error references invalid parameters group/es
 * MediaWiki:Cite error references invalid parameters group/fr
 * MediaWiki:Cite error references invalid parameters group/pt-br

(They'll never be called.)

I don't want to delete them from my personal account as it'd be "crossing the streams", and deleting from my staff account seems a bit icky in case someone objects for some reason. :-)

Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 01:23, 3 May 2017 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done by User:Jo-Jo Eumerus. – Train2104 (t • c) 03:13, 4 May 2017 (UTC)

Great progress in duplicate ref defs!
Looks like there's been tremendous, sudden progress in the duplicate ref defs list. Was something fixed, or maybe someone ran a bot? -- 16:36, 27 March 2017 (UTC)
 * I have been picking away at the list for the past few months, I also think a few additional people might have started working on it as well. -- Imminent 77   (talk)  16:48, 27 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Awesome. I've been working the E's, after finishing the C's. (Er, or did I do the D's?) Is there a place we should congregate and coordinate? -- Mikeblas (talk) 14:28, 3 April 2017 (UTC)
 * and, great! I've been working on the backlog as well. To add some numbers, I resurrected the old CatTrack tool at the beginning of this year, so you can see how the size changed. And I guess you could say someone ran a bot - I've been testing a new tool that makes going through the category a lot easier, called yabbr. I've been told it's a bit tricky to use, but it basically parses the page to check for duplicate references and makes only the duplicate references editable. (Sure beats digging through pages of unrelated markup to find the references you want.) Enterprisey (talk!) 02:23, 6 June 2017 (UTC)
 * I plan on trying out your tool sometime in the very near future to see how it works. I also wanted to ping as I know they have done some work in this category in the past and may be interested in your tool. -- Imminent 77   (talk)  16:00, 6 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the ping, it's awesome to know that other editors also worked on it. I felt real lonely after writing Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Citation_cleanup Face-smile.svg .  I did part of C at Category:Pages with duplicate reference names (and of course trying to clean new entries below C when they show up from time to time).  It can be boring, so I was recently on a pause from that.  I'll try to look at the tool soon.  Thanks, — Paleo  Neonate  - 04:20, 7 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Is there a place we should congregate and coordinate? The citation cleanup Wikiproject perhaps? Although there also probably are more general backlog related places... — Paleo  Neonate  - 04:25, 7 June 2017 (UTC)

creating empty references
There's an "empty reference" error showing up at Cedar Glen Apartments. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why. If I use the template without citations inside it, it works fine. If I use the without the, they generate fine. ARGH! Some years ago, if an editor used a citation format in an template without having that reference also appear outside the , it caused problems. But that was resolved a long time ago. Is the problem back? - Tim1965 (talk) 15:32, 3 July 2017 (UTC)
 * The problem was caused by the equals sign inside the footnote text; the template parser assumes that everything to the left of the equals is a parameter name. I've fixed it by adding "1=" at the start of the footnote text. -- John of Reading (talk) 15:41, 3 July 2017 (UTC)
 * I see it now. Thanks!! - Tim1965 (talk) 17:12, 3 July 2017 (UTC)

No name attribute?
"Tag defined in and just after the reference "iwoq1719" there is  . They should either be deleted entirely, or given a name and then used in the article text somewhere. The reference names only need to be quoted if they contain spaces or certain punctuation characters; the simple names can manage without quotes. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:01, 10 July 2017 (UTC)
 * aaah! I see. I made a sloppy edit! What would I do without yooou!? &#9666; ‎<b style="color:purple;font-size:13px;display:inline-block;border:1px solid purple">épine</b> <b style="color:purple;font-size:11px">talk&#9836;</b> 21:13, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)
Hi everyone, in 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group A (as well as other groups' articles), specifically 'Discipline' section, I see this:. It refers to a link which is cited not by that article itself, but by 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification ('Format' section). I tried using that reference for 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Second Round, but it did not work ("invoked but never defined"), so I had to make a normal one there. Would you please explain this case and instruct me to use the 'regulations' reference? Thank you very much. Centaur271188 (talk) 07:41, 10 October 2017 (UTC)

Screwy SFN error
Can someone tell me why I'm getting a harv error here but not here? The formatting is literally copied and pasted from one to the next, and it works in one but not the other. Parsecboy (talk) 13:02, 23 October 2017 (UTC)
 * You've run into phab:T22707 - footnotes often don't work when called from within list-defined footnotes. A quick fix is to swap the two "efn" definitions over, so that the one with the sfn is defined first - that's how fragile the software is. A longer-lasting fix would be to define the efn notes up in the text of the article where they are first used. -- John of Reading (talk) 13:28, 23 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks, John, I moved the notes up into the article and that works fine now. Much appreciated. Parsecboy (talk) 14:20, 23 October 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 27 October 2017
Change to Haill Bennett (talk) 15:15, 27 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format. Eggishorn (talk) (contrib) 20:43, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 2 December 2017
<My source was not defined well. Where it says "Bauman M", It should be changed to this: <My source is my own medical history, The Cleveland Clinic & The University Hospitals of Cleveland. MBau4 (I/me) was treated for Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome at the Cleveland Clinic in 2000 and at The University Hospitals from 2001 through 2004 without CHS being identified or defined as the cause at that time. All of CHS's symptoms were present including, cyclic episodes of nausea, uncontrollable vomiting & cramps fueled by massive cannabinoid consumption that were alleviated by bathing in a huge bath tub on the 4th floor and by the cessation of the consumption over a period usually taking 3 to 4 days or so. The doctors had no precedent for the condition and hypothesized that it could be nerves, or the early stages of a diabetic digestive condition called "gastroparesis". They never diagnosed it as CHS.> M Bau4 (talk) 15:09, 2 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: this is the talk page for discussing improvements to the page Help:Cite errors. Please make your request at the talk page for the article concerned. Winged Blades Godric  15:43, 2 December 2017 (UTC)

Protected edit request on 3 January 2018
Good day, (but I sincerely hope there is no page with 742+ notes.. )
 * MediaWiki:Cite link label group-lower-alpha misses  (change   to   )
 * MediaWiki:Cite link label group-upper-alpha misses  (change   to   )

With kind regards &mdash; Mar(c). 18:59, 3 January 2018 ( U T  C )
 * Yes check.svg Done -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 23:23, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks &mdash; Mar(c). 10:20, 4 January 2018 ( U  T  C )

Different language in English subpage
In the English subpage Help:Cite errors/Cite error references missing key, starting at the section "Example", it's in another language. I don't know if part of it is supposed to be in another language, but it's kind of odd. Nate 2169 (talk) 20:51, 6 February 2018 (UTC)
 * See Lorem ipsum, that's standard text for filling in textual elements.Naraht (talk) 20:54, 6 February 2018 (UTC)

Protected edit request on 22 June 2016
An oddity - the triplet "abn" is missing from the list. -- John of Reading (talk) 17:25, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Done. DrKay (talk) 18:50, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Strange. See below and . -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 18:42, 19 June 2018 (UTC)
 * DrKay added it to MediaWiki:Cite references link many format backlink labels.[//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Cite_references_link_many_format_backlink_labels&diff=prev&oldid=726524023] PrimeHunter (talk) 21:45, 19 June 2018 (UTC)

Norton Priory
The above article is in Category:Pages with reference errors but I can't see the error. Any ideas? DrKay (talk) 10:31, 26 October 2018 (UTC)
 * That was tricky because no error was written. I fixed it by removing ref tags around a ref-producing template.[//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Norton_Priory&diff=865820575&oldid=846935940] PrimeHunter (talk) 11:26, 26 October 2018 (UTC)

Inflation template problems
Lots of duplicate definition errors are coming from inflation-fn. I've raised the issue at Template talk:Inflation/fn. Does anyone know how to diagnose the issue? -- Mikeblas (talk) 14:46, 29 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Hey Mike see my reply at Template talk:Inflation/fn. CV9933 (talk) 09:43, 30 September 2018 (UTC)
 * I added the Phabricator task note. --Muhandes (talk) 11:04, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 29 November 2018
The cite error should be corrected with "The Population" Sakinahman (talk) 11:55, 29 November 2018 (UTC)
 * , please post your request on the talk page for the article in question, not at Help talk:Cite errors. For example, if the article with the error is Boston, post your request at Talk:Boston. – Jonesey95 (talk) 13:55, 29 November 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 16 December 2018
Redline is no longer an Ester based oil. It is a PAO based oil. Per the SDS attached and the referenced Chemical Abstract Service numbers from Redline the product has been degraded by Conoco Phillips to a PAO oil after it purchased Redline Oil and converted it to a PAO from an Ester based oil. https://cdn.fbsbx.com/v/t59.2708-21/48580260_284988295696325_8673418349528481792_n.pdf/Redline-Motor-oils-MSDS.pdf?_nc_cat=105&_nc_eui2=AeE07O1wf78IficbsF-pkYSRkqjiLXjinK4HaY5-uaYHhJ--wudL2RDKEvYueyiwHDCLFeTlHM9AogWO50g3nyheUPK4YV7_SJZmKFcpyb3QxA&_nc_ht=cdn.fbsbx.com&oh=5420cdeaf0e490ebe838711d27cb4b14&oe=5C18AA21&dl=1&fbclid=IwAR1PRax595L6ElLhYUEdeJ18w8nEv61HD1Xlgq40Six3yNH0rQbmPav1OFk 2604:2D80:C81E:991E:5F7:AD9A:AF67:D6C9 (talk) 07:14, 16 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: this is the talk page for discussing improvements to the page Help:Cite errors. If possible, please make your request at the talk page for the article concerned. If you cannot edit the article's talk page, you can instead make your request at Requests for page protection.   Alucard 16  ❯❯❯ chat?    07:18, 16 December 2018 (UTC)

Help:Cite errors/Cite error group refs without references
The page Help:Cite errors/Cite error group refs without references does not explain where the goes to fix the problem.

The page says ''' There are <ref group=$1> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a template (see the help page). '''

My concern arose from the Multivitamin article, but there are at least 30 articles with this cite error today. Updating the article would be the best way to answer my concern.--Dthomsen8 (talk) 21:25, 14 March 2019 (UTC)
 * It goes wherever you like, provided that it's no earlier than the last note - that is, the <ref ></ref> for the named group. If there's only one note, the reflist might go at the bottom of the same section. If there are several notes, the reflist is often put just before or just after the main list of references; and in the case of the article that you mention, I see no reason not to . -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 23:29, 14 March 2019 (UTC)

Curly quotes
I suggest text be added to this Help Page to warn editors away from using curly quotes and to use straight quotes when defining "name". Curlies will produce the error: "invoked but not never defined". DonFB (talk) 19:31, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
 * See Village pump (technical) for background. Curly quotes are allowed characters but not interpreted as quotation marks. They only produce "invoked but never defined" (please quote error messages correctly) if they are used in  without a matching definition. The help link in MediaWiki:Cite error references no text goes to Help:Cite errors/Cite error references no text which would be a better place to request straight quotes for this issue. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:14, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
 * The Talk tab at the linked "better place" page you recommend takes me to this page, as did clicking on the Talk tab at the Help Page linked from the Cite Error message generated by the original error in the article. The Talk tab at "MediaWiki:Cite error references no text" link also goes to this page.
 * Above, you said curly quotes produce the "never defined" error . Do you mean if the original ref name uses curly quotes, then all other curly usages for that ref name would be a match and thus would not generate an error (because all the characters match, though not parsed as quote marks—assuming no spaces or other stray characters)? As you may have noticed in my correction to the article, the problem arose because of a mix of straight and curly quotes in different locations for the same ref name. Hoping for a uniform misuse of curly quotes for a given ref name throughout an article in order to prevent an error is of course not a desirable approach. Help:Footnotes has helpful instructions not to use curly quotes in the ref name format. Wp:Citing_sources does not have such an instruction, but should, so consider this a direct request to add it. As I mentioned at Village Pump today, an explicit directive about curly quotes instead of the generic "never defined" would certainly be helpful and time-saving in an actual error message. DonFB (talk) 23:24, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
 * This is a centralized talk page with redirects from other talk pages. I meant you should name the page to change and not say "this Help Page". Yes, if the original ref name uses curly quotes, then all other curly usages for that ref name would be a match and not generate an error, as demonstrated here. I agree we should not hope for a uniform misuse of curly quotes. At Village pump (technical) I said: "All curly quotes should still be changed to straight quotes to avoid confusion and future errors." But we shouldn't use incorrect claims to justify good advice. If the original ref name has curly quotes and the attempted reuse has straight quotes then MediaWiki:Cite error references no text is only called for the straight quotes and we cannot give an accurate error message. If the attempted reuse has curly quotes but does not match a definition then MediaWiki:Cite error references no text can warn against curly quotes but it will not know whether there is "match" with straight quotes. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:18, 23 April 2019 (UTC)
 * To clarify: I assume when you say, you mean that attempted reuse with curlies could, but does not in current practice, generate a curly warning, since that was the case I came across—a generic but not specific error message caused by attempted reuse with curlies. In other words, is the code (and perhaps the software engineers) amenable to implementing a modification that can give a specific warning about attempted reuse with curlies? Getting back to my original purpose in posting on this page: it is the Talk page of the Help Page to which I was directed by a link in the original error message. That's why I requested the additional instruction on "this Help Page"; it is the first Help page that will be reached by an editor who clicks the link in the Error message I saw. Therefore, why not put an instruction about curlies directly on "this Help Page"? (In addition, as I've said, the instruction should be added to the Repeated Citations section of Citing Sources.) DonFB (talk) 01:36, 23 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Your clarification is correct. MediaWiki:Cite error references no text is currently a customized message at the English Wikipedia. A local administrator like me can edit it with immediate effect here. The default message for MediWiki wikis can be seen at MediaWiki:Cite error references no text/qqx. A change of this default to affect all wikis without a customized version would have to be requested elsewhere, e.g. at, but I doubt the MediaWiki developers would complicate it with a conditional message for a potential cause. On this talk page, "this Help Page" refers to Help:Cite errors. Centralized talk pages sometimes cause confusion when posters don't say which redirect they came from ([//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:WhatLinksHere/Help_talk:Cite_errors&hidetrans=1&hidelinks=1&limit=100 many possibilities] here). It would certainly be possible to mention the issue both on Help:Cite errors and Help:Cite errors/Cite error references no text. The latter seems more relevant when the help link for the error goes there. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:23, 23 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Curly quotes can be deceptive where the ref name is intended to include a space. Consider the following:  which emits
 * Statement 1. Statement 2. Statement 3. Statement 4.
 * Notice how the space terminates the ref name. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 19:40, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

, ok, here's my plan of action, unless there is objection. I will add a one- or two-sentence instruction to the Help page directly associated with this Talk page. It will instruct editors to look for curly quotes in a non-working repeat citation and replace curlies with straight quotes; and will urge editors not to use curly quotes in ref name formation. I might include additional information that no quotes are needed unless the ref name has a space. At the Citing Sources Talk page, I will request addition of a similar instruction in its Repeated Citations section. As you indicate, many different error messages can occur, but if they all point to the Help page associated with this Talk page, that's where a (currently absent) curly instruction should be added. DonFB (talk) 20:53, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

Add: The "Help:Cite errors/Cite error references no text", which is the Help page associated with the "never defined" Error, also does not contain any instruction about curly quotes, so I plan to add info there as well. DonFB (talk) 21:40, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

An apparently undocumented case of an error category with no error message
Can someone here please help me document the error that is present in this version of my sandbox?

The error category is present, but there is no red error message. As far as I can see, the only explanation on this Help page is for a URL with an = character in it, which I do not have. If I add the NoteFoot template, the error category goes away, but it is not clear to me what the generalized explanation for this error is.

If you can explain that one, maybe you can help with the real problem, which is in User:Lord Bolingbroke/John Bunny. The section called "Legacy and scholarly analysis" appears to be causing the error, but I fail to see how it is different from the other sections. Also, a NoteFoot template exists in the article; even if I move it to the very end of the page, the error category is still applied.

Also pinging, who asked me to take a look at this problem. – Jonesey95 (talk) 20:17, 5 May 2019 (UTC)
 * The red error message is there, but hidden by default. Go to Special:MyPage/skin.css or Special:MyPage/common.css and add this line:  More details at Template:Broken ref/doc. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 20:41, 5 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I thought I had managed to turn on all error messages related to references, but I had missed this one. I found the actual problem and worked around it in the draft article. – Jonesey95 (talk) 21:53, 5 May 2019 (UTC)

Template:Infobox iridium
There's a cite error message at the above template, but I can't see where the error is. Any ideas? DrKay (talk) 19:17, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
 * The other definition of the reference "IrIX" is coming from Template:Infobox element/symbol-to-oxidation-state. One has an issue number, the other doesn't - I don't know which version is correct. -- John of Reading (talk) 19:35, 22 May 2019 (UTC)


 * Template:Infobox iridium has


 * Template:Infobox_element/symbol-to-oxidation-state has


 * Not sure if it should have the issue, pmid and bibcode, but match those and it should be fine.Naraht (talk) 19:39, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Super! Thanks. DrKay (talk) 19:40, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
 * It was by  that has altered the contents of the ref whose name is IrIX. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 19:50, 22 May 2019 (UTC)

Other elements
Looks like the equivalent infoboxes for unbibium and unbihexium may have the same issue. Also some of the sandboxes... See https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Pages_with_duplicate_reference_names&pagefrom=%CF%84Infobox Naraht (talk) 20:21, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
 * I think that I have fixed these two, and a couple of other reference errors that I found while poking through that complex set of templates. : Please be more careful when editing templates. The single edit linked above caused reference errors in at least a half-dozen other templates and some or all of the articles that transclude them. – Jonesey95 (talk) 20:55, 22 May 2019 (UTC)


 * will be more careful. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 21:16, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
 * To be fair, this maze of templates is nobody's idea of easy to keep consistent.Naraht (talk) 15:59, 23 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Agreed. A maze of twisty little passages. I spent an hour or more tracking down duplicate references in these templates, and I got very confused multiple times. I don't blame for making this honest error, but pretty much everything in Template space requires a bit more care, and often testing and discussion, and careful manual edits with lots of previewing. It's generally not a place for bots and scripts that cause very little trouble in article space. – Jonesey95 (talk) 17:35, 23 May 2019 (UTC)

Suggestion: Warn before saving edit with duplicate reference name.
I know, one is supposed to preview an edited page before saving it, but one might not notice duplicate names of references, so I suggest a warning, just like when attempting to save an empty page. ---Chanc20190325 (talk) 18:56, 12 June 2019 (UTC)
 * We can't do anything about it here, see WP:BUGS and file a feature request at . -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 21:15, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

Fixing reftags causes other problems
I just tried to fix the reference tag for Continuity Irish Republican Army, and in the process of doing so, inadvertently raised the four navigation boxes in the article between the first and second reference links. I can't find a way to fix this problem without creating the latter one. What am I doing wrong? -User:DanTD (talk) 17:00, 31 July 2019 (UTC)
 * The article needed a second reflist to display the "note" -- John of Reading (talk) 17:14, 31 July 2019 (UTC)

Bare = sign
Although a bare = sign appears to be acceptable within }}, it is not acceptable within a refn template. fails with the standard error message for empty tags: "Cite error: There are tags on this page without content in them (see the help page)." which redirects to the help page "Cite errors/Cite error ref no input". This is easily fixed by enclosing the equals sign within pairs of curly braces, =, or beginning the phrase with "1=". This fix should be mentioned on this help page. — Joe Kress (talk) 01:16, 11 August 2019 (UTC)
 * It is not the behaviour of specifically - it is normal behaviour for templates that if a parameter contains an equals sign, it is treated as a named parameter. So a means 'assign the value   to the parameter named  '. You don't need the extra braces - simply number the parameter, as in  . This is covered by the first bullet at Help:Template. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 11:22, 11 August 2019 (UTC)
 * That information is useless to anyone who does not know it and receives the error message "'''Cite error: There are
 * and it is stored at MediaWiki:Cite error ref no input. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 19:16, 11 August 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 6 November 2019
Change birthdate to August 8, 1812 Add town of birth Spencer, Tioga County, New York. Change Died to April 2, 1902 - age 89. Change Known for Nation's first female judge. Change in Spouse(s) Artemas Slack (M. 1841-1843) his death and John Morris (M. 1846-1877) his death.

(shown in the reference book: Esther Hobart Morris The Unembellished Story or the Nation's First Female Judge, by Kathryn Swim Cummings published by High Plains Press October 25, 2019.) I am the author of the above book: Kathryn Swim Cummings. This book to be added as reference 21. Esther Hobart Morris, The Unembellished Story of the Nation's First Female Judge, by Kathryn Swim Cummings Kathryn Swim Cummings (talk) 16:53, 6 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: this is the talk page for discussing improvements to the page Help:Cite errors. Please make your request at the talk page for the article concerned. &mdash; KuyaBriBri Talk 18:47, 6 November 2019 (UTC)
 * The editor was able to figure out how to edit Esther Hobart Morris, the page in question. – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:03, 7 November 2019 (UTC)

Error when using a reference in a note
At List of Mr. Robot episodes I'm getting the error Cite error: A list-defined reference has no name (see the help page).. In this section we have a references placed inside of a note. I tried giving the references names (even though it was not needed as those references were used only there) but that still didn't fix it. Any other ideas? --Gonnym (talk) 11:21, 6 January 2020 (UTC)
 * You've run into the long-standing software bug, T22707. This is mentioned on the help page, Help:Cite errors/Cite error references no key, but even there it's not obvious. The workaround is to move the efn endnote definitions out of the Notelist and back up into the article text where they are first used. -- John of Reading (talk) 11:52, 6 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the answer! --Gonnym (talk) 13:01, 6 January 2020 (UTC)

Error
While editing Crystal Monsters, I got the error “The tag has too many names (see the help page).” Please help.Danny157 (talk) 23:11, 20 January 2020 (UTC)
 * I don't. Which section? Does it show when saving, when previewing, or another time? -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 23:30, 20 January 2020 (UTC)
 * The error has been fixed. Thanks anyway. Danny157 (talk) 21:21, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 1 March 2020
to be included at cite error 86.178.72.140 (talk) 17:32, 1 March 2020 (UTC)
 * It's not clear what edit you want made. You can suggest edits here on this talk page on the form "Please change X to Y" – Thjarkur (talk) 20:36, 1 March 2020 (UTC)

Adding data relating to flights of Soyuz MS:
When adding references to flights of soyuz ms spacecraft to the list I kept getting an error message that it was cited but never defined. Abul Bakhtiar 103.60.175.28 (talk) 14:00, 9 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Can you provide a link to the specific article you were trying to edit? --Secundus Zephyrus (talk) 18:06, 9 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Judging by the user's contribs prior to their post here, it was List of International Space Station crew, more specifically, . There are four red Cite errors, one of which was pre-existing. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 17:24, 10 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Looks like there were never references there to begin with, so I added new ones. --Secundus Zephyrus (talk) 18:21, 11 March 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 10 April 2020
The tax recommendations of the Holtham report were largely adopted by the Silk Commission, the principal exception being the conditional devolution of corporation tax. Silk's recommendations were than largely implemented in 2014. Holtham's recommendations for replacing the Barnett formula with a needs-based formula have not been implemented. The reserve recommendation for a "Barnett floor" was however accepted in 2015 and implemented by the then Secretary of State for Wales, Alun Cairns.The floor is set at 115 per cent of English expenditure per head, a number drawn from the Holtham report.(https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-government-committed-to-historic-welsh-funding-floor) Ghuberth (talk) 20:08, 10 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: this is the talk page for discussing improvements to the page Help:Cite errors. Please make your request at the talk page for the article concerned. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 20:55, 10 April 2020 (UTC)

We need clearer instructions
I'm trying to solve a "full duplication" problem. So, I've looked at this page a few times. I've then gone back to the article I'm working on. I've found a sentence in the article which uses a source that has been used before.

Then I've followed the instruction, being "the situation may be fixed by removing the body content from all but one of the ref tags, i.e. converting them to  format.

I've then converted a reference in the edit source page from the reference I had to

And that has messed up the reference well and good.

So, could someone perhaps re-write the instruction? Because as it is, I'm following the instruction and it's not working. Erasmus Sydney (talk) 01:42, 18 April 2020 (UTC)
 * It will probably be easier to show you. Link to the page in question, and someone who watches this page will take a look at it. – Jonesey95 (talk) 06:07, 18 April 2020 (UTC)

Okay - the page with the citation duplications is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Hastie_(politician) I think it's improved a bit, but I still don't have the hang of the ref name="foo" thing. Thanks for your help. Erasmus Sydney (talk) 10:54, 18 April 2020 (UTC)
 * It looks like you figured it out. You don't have to use ref=name, which is purely optional. If you do use it, you need to ensure that you do not have two full references with the same name but different contents. If you run into that situation and can't find the difference, just change the ref's "name" value (e.g. from "foo" to "foo2") to see if that fixes the problem. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:19, 18 April 2020 (UTC)

Proposal
Most of the pages on this page are archives or templpates. There should be a way to skip checking of pages like this... maybe a string at the beginning of the page like ?

Quebec99 (talk) 13:17, 23 May 2020 (UTC)
 * This doesn't seem necessary. Since all the Wikipedia namespace pages are sorted under "Ψ", it is easy to concentrate on the important errors. -- John of Reading (talk) 14:44, 23 May 2020 (UTC)
 * In case you are in doubt, you are allowed to edit archives to eliminate error categories. Notes like "Please do not edit the contents of this page" are there to stop attempts to continue discussions. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:59, 23 May 2020 (UTC)
 * I have fixed your example page with an edit [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Jack_Warlitner&diff=958419178&oldid=578766377] to a transcluded archived AfD which also has a note to not modify it. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:10, 23 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Cool. Thanks all. When it says "DON'T"... especially "PLEASE DON'T", I usually steer clear. Quebec99 (talk) 21:03, 23 May 2020 (UTC)

Not updates My Post Yet
Hello. i submitted an article on wikipedia a week ago but its still in drafts its not published yet.kindly make it public Dr Faisal Dar (talk) 05:45, 28 July 2020 (UTC)

Citation error on Cory Marks
Hi this is an urgent message. There is a citation error on the article entitled Cory Marks. Cory Marks is a Canadian country music singer. A Wikipedia user did use the mobile version of Wikipedia and created the article from its mobile editing and accidentally place a citation error. Could you check the Cory Marks and I can't find the citation error and it says "Cite error: A list-defined reference with group name "" is not used in the content". I am looking for the error and I can't find it, can you help me because I can't find it because mobile editing. I hope the editing will solve the problem. Thanks and have a great day. 2001:569:74D2:A800:894B:9CA3:D1DC:62E6 (talk) 01:15, 16 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Note: Asked and via the help desk. Eagleash (talk) 02:04, 16 August 2020 (UTC)

Please help with this.
Wiki says there's something wrong with this citation and that the name Herskovits is not defined. Kwesi Yema (talk) 19:27, 20 August 2020 (UTC)


 * Looks like you fixed it yourself, at Toll road. Mathglot (talk) 20:23, 20 August 2020 (UTC)

Yeah. Thanks for the reply anyway. Kwesi Yema (talk) 16:08, 21 August 2020 (UTC)

Use of Latin?
The use of Latin (I think) in the example is just needlessly confusing to new users imo. It’s distracting and detracts from the point. Fat Irish Guy (talk) 12:06, 9 September 2020 (UTC)
 * I don't see any Latin or lorem ipsum text on this page, Help:Cite errors. Can you link to the page you are describing? – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:37, 9 September 2020 (UTC)

Back to the Future not showing "Cite error"
says that the page will show "Cite error", but Back to the Future does not contain that text, or any other red error messages that I can see. Is the category description incorrect? – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:13, 9 October 2020 (UTC)
 * I figured out that ref name="HomeMediaIGN" was defined in the LDR section but not used in the article. The error message that should have been displayed at the end of the reflist was not displayed, however. Is this is a bug that should be reported somewhere? – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:21, 9 October 2020 (UTC)
 * There's something really odd going on; this ref name:  occurs twice in, where it throws an error; but although it also occurs twice in the previous one, it doesn't throw an error there. It was fixed by the next edit. I never did like LDR. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 18:09, 9 October 2020 (UTC)
 * I saw that too. The "HighSnobiety" duplicate ref error appeared only after I commented out the unused "HomeMediaIGN" reference. I wonder if those references could be copied to a sandbox in a much smaller version of the article in order to try to reproduce the problem. I also checked the NewPP limit report (use View Source in your browser), and the page did not appear to be hitting any processing limits. – Jonesey95 (talk) 18:17, 9 October 2020 (UTC)
 * And here's a simplified case. This version of my sandbox (almost) has three references in the LDR: one is unused, and two have the same name but different contents. The page shows zero errors. If you fix either of the errors, an error message shows up. It was only after looking at this simplified case that I realized that the unused "HomeMediaIGN" reference is missing a closing ref tag. That explains why the duplicate "HighSnobiety" reference was not causing an error message, because it got sucked into the unused "HomeMediaIGN" reference. The unused reference should still generate an error, though. – Jonesey95 (talk) 18:25, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

Help please :)
I'm editing my partner's page Steven Bernstein (Filmmaker) and this message appears at the top: "Cite error: A (see the help page)". Can someone tell me how to fix it or please fix it for me ;) ? Thanks so much, (Ladybird888 (talk) 19:08, 17 October 2020 (UTC))
 * ✅ I fixed this problem on the page, thank you for bringing it to our attention. Feel free to reach out here or on my talk page if you have any other questions. --Secundus Zephyrus (talk) 19:47, 17 October 2020 (UTC)
 * OK, so we now have a WP:COI issue at Steven Bernstein (filmmaker). -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 06:56, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

TemplateStyles for brokenref
I see you wanted to implement TemplateStyles here and indeed besides the user overrides, it looks ready.

Should I try to convince you that those are fine, or are we going to have to hunt down an interface admin to add .mw-parser-output to update all of those (or have yet another discussion about interface admins editing personal user scripts, more likely)? Or perhaps the last option which is leave a user talk notice on some 80 person's pages. --Izno (talk) 17:03, 28 October 2020 (UTC)
 * , If i remember correctly, someone complained and thus I reverted. Not sure what the best solution is. —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 11:52, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

How to fix missing ref after transclusion
From Help talk:Cite errors/Cite error references no text — Noticing "Cite error: The named reference NIHGuidelines2020 was invoked but never defined", after this edit of the sensitive Coronavirus disease 2019 page, I attempted to fix it with this edit. The error is gone, but now the reference is duplicate. Is there a better way to handle this? Wakari07 (talk) 23:03, 26 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Found the answer in Help:Labeled section transclusion: "Cite errors. You must have the full definition of a named reference on any page that this "multiply-cited-reference shortcut" is needed." It's simple once you know it ;-) Wakari07 (talk) 00:44, 29 November 2020 (UTC)

Protected edit request on 29 November 2020
On page MediaWiki:Cite error/en-ca, please replace  with   to allow passing value for parameter nocat of Template:Broken ref.

Please also add parameter nocat for all other cite error page for language code en-ca:

—⁠andrybak (talk) 20:53, 29 November 2020 (UTC)
 * More pages missing nocat – subpages of MediaWiki:Cite error no link label group:
 * —⁠andrybak (talk) 21:05, 29 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Subpages for language code pt-br have a typo. They use incorrect  instead of correct   – note the additional letter "t" in the parameter name:
 * —⁠andrybak (talk) 21:35, 29 November 2020 (UTC)
 * if we're going to start passing parameters to this page, would it better to move it to the more appropriate namespace (i.e. Template)? &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:32, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Never mind, all ✅. Just doesn't seem right somehow using MediaWiki pages as templates. &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:45, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
 * —⁠andrybak (talk) 21:35, 29 November 2020 (UTC)
 * if we're going to start passing parameters to this page, would it better to move it to the more appropriate namespace (i.e. Template)? &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:32, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Never mind, all ✅. Just doesn't seem right somehow using MediaWiki pages as templates. &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:45, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
 * —⁠andrybak (talk) 21:35, 29 November 2020 (UTC)
 * if we're going to start passing parameters to this page, would it better to move it to the more appropriate namespace (i.e. Template)? &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:32, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Never mind, all ✅. Just doesn't seem right somehow using MediaWiki pages as templates. &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:45, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
 * —⁠andrybak (talk) 21:35, 29 November 2020 (UTC)
 * if we're going to start passing parameters to this page, would it better to move it to the more appropriate namespace (i.e. Template)? &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:32, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Never mind, all ✅. Just doesn't seem right somehow using MediaWiki pages as templates. &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:45, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
 * —⁠andrybak (talk) 21:35, 29 November 2020 (UTC)
 * if we're going to start passing parameters to this page, would it better to move it to the more appropriate namespace (i.e. Template)? &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:32, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Never mind, all ✅. Just doesn't seem right somehow using MediaWiki pages as templates. &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:45, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
 * —⁠andrybak (talk) 21:35, 29 November 2020 (UTC)
 * if we're going to start passing parameters to this page, would it better to move it to the more appropriate namespace (i.e. Template)? &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:32, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Never mind, all ✅. Just doesn't seem right somehow using MediaWiki pages as templates. &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:45, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
 * —⁠andrybak (talk) 21:35, 29 November 2020 (UTC)
 * if we're going to start passing parameters to this page, would it better to move it to the more appropriate namespace (i.e. Template)? &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:32, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Never mind, all ✅. Just doesn't seem right somehow using MediaWiki pages as templates. &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:45, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Never mind, all ✅. Just doesn't seem right somehow using MediaWiki pages as templates. &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:45, 30 November 2020 (UTC)

Category Question Suggestion
Is it possible to prevent Help:Cite errors/Cite error group refs without references from being listed on this page? I feel that it does not belong here, as it is not a "missing" reference list, it is deliberately not there. Putting it on this page implies there is a problem with that page, but of course, there is not. Is it possible to link it elsewhere on this page (for example, as a wikilink on the word "repaired" in the sentence "The pages Template:Broken ref, Help:Cite errors, and subpages contain deliberate errors and do not need to be repaired."). However, as I am definitely not a programmer, I have no idea if this is even possible. Is this something that can be done? HouseBlaster (talk) 19:08, 12 December 2020 (UTC)
 * I just realized that this page shares a talk page with the article I was actually asking a question about. I am wondering if it is possible to do this to the page Category:Pages with missing references list. HouseBlaster (talk) 19:11, 12 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Which article is that? No article should have its talk page redirect here, although [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:WhatLinksHere/Help_talk:Cite_errors&hidelinks=1&hidetrans=1&limit=75 more than fifty templates, modules etc.] do. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 09:02, 13 December 2020 (UTC)
 * I cannot believe I forgot to link the page: Category:Pages with missing references list. Edit: The link is not showing up for some reason. Stange. It is here: Category:Pages with missing references list. When I do wikitext, it does not show up for some reason. HouseBlaster (talk) 16:41, 13 December 2020 (UTC)
 * You have to write  with colon in front to link the category page instead of adding the page to the category. I fixed your post. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:53, 13 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks! HouseBlaster (talk) 18:04, 13 December 2020 (UTC)
 * So the problem is that Help:Cite errors/Cite error group refs without references is being categorised in . -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 09:50, 14 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Yes! As stated above, the reference list is not "missing" as it is not supposed to be present in the first place. Is it possible to fix this? HouseBlaster (talk) 15:01, 14 December 2020 (UTC)

Cite error: The ref tag has too many names (see the help page).
'Cite error: The &lt;ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).' is a notice displayed on the wiki page for Indooroopilly that I have recently come across, and unfortunately I'm not advanced enough with wiki edits to know how to fix it!

Does anyone know how to amend this?

Thanks! :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.102.13.132 (talk) 05:32, 19 May 2021 (UTC)
 * I've fixed Indooroopilly, Queensland by undoing this promotional edit. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:30, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

Unusual reference error
The article Timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Ireland (July–December 2020) is tagged as containing reference errors. The errors are in the template of COVID-19 cases at the top right of the article, which can be viewed by itself here: Template:COVID-19 pandemic data/Republic of Ireland medical cases chart. On the template page, however, there are no reference errors. I don't know how to fix this and was wondering if anyone here does. Velayinosu (talk) 01:29, 4 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Fixed with this edit to the template. Messy! -- John of Reading (talk) 07:00, 4 June 2021 (UTC)

double pipe in causes non-obvious error
This is in reference to Help:Cite errors/Cite error ref no input. You'll get that error message ("There are tags on this page without content in them") if you accidentally put a double pipe in an template:. The reason isn't necessarily obvious when you get the error. You may want to mention this.

I couldn't demo it here because it only seems to happen in article space, not talk space. In talk or User space, the just disappears. Dan Bloch (talk) 04:30, 30 August 2021 (UTC)
 * The issue is not specific to this template. All templates that use unnamed parameters are susceptible to this - the parameters are position-dependent (so are sometimes called positional parameters) and each pipe marks a position. So in  the first positional parameter is the null string, and the word "Oops" is now in the second positional parameter. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 06:54, 30 August 2021 (UTC)

Lin Huiyin
I am trying to change an entry to Lin Huiyin, but am struggling with the refs. She did not attend St Mary's College in Twickenham but St Mary's Convent School in Hampstead. Source: — Preceding unsigned comment added by Stuartrlyons (talk • contribs) 14:34, 4 October 2021 (UTC)

Formatting a question about formatting
I'm trying to add a book citation to a page that has already used this format. I'm getting big red error messages.

I just deleted most of this post because instead of showing you the code I typed, it's helpfully converting it to visible text.

So, preliminary question: how do I avoid that so I can ask my question with clarity? Lyn50 (talk) 06:42, 30 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Try surrounding your code with "nowiki" tags. These turn off the special meaning of the various brackets and delimiter characters, so that they can be read: <nowiki >your sample code goes here</nowiki> -- John of Reading (talk) 07:02, 30 October 2021 (UTC)


 * Thanks.


 * In the list at the foot of the edit page headed
 * ;Specific
 * {{Reflist|refs=
 * {{Reflist|refs=


 * I put this:


 * {{cite book |last=Johnstone|first=Damian|author-link= |date=2001|title=The Wild One: The life and times of Johnny O'Keefe|url= |location=Crows Nest NSW|publisher=Allen & Unwin|page=175-6|isbn=1865084794}}


 * Then in the text of the article I put this after after the words needing a citation.




 * I tried to format it the way all the other successfully added references are formatted, but I get all these bold red error messages:


 * "Cite error: The named reference Johnstone was invoked but never defined (see the help page)."
 * "Cite error: A list-defined reference with the name "Johnstone" has been invoked, but is not defined in the -- John of Reading (talk) 08:42, 30 October 2021 (UTC)
 * {{U|Lyn50}}, one good way to ask a question involving formatting or error messages is to make a change to an article, then immediately revert your change. You can then post a question with a link to the article (like this: Johnny O'Keefe), and helpful editors like us can look at your edits and try to figure out where things went wrong. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:33, 31 October 2021 (UTC)

Confusing error message
I am a novice to Wikipedia. I tried to add a supporting newspaper article reference to a wikipedia article and was rewarded with Cite error: A (see the help page). . Any suggestions?

Here is the article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._Lester_Ralph — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wonalancet (talk • contribs) 21:51, 16 November 2021 (UTC)


 * I've fixed the refs. You can see the problems in the diff of my change (easier than explaining).  Regards, Dan Bloch (talk) 22:03, 16 November 2021 (UTC)

Re: The named reference $1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
This error also occurs if one uses a ref entry whose name contains digits. I don't see this noted anywhere. This happened when I was editing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike_Sun to add the reference to the Doeblin prize. I used the name wdp2020 initially and after many tries just made it wd, which worked. 171.64.102.22 (talk) 21:41, 16 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Digits are fine. You had a mismatch between the ref name and the short reference, which another editor fixed for you. – Jonesey95 (talk) 22:41, 16 November 2021 (UTC)

Citation error occurred
Please fix the Bagal (caste) page in reference no 15 and 16...

Thank you MaxA-Matrix (talk) 00:46, 19 November 2021 (UTC)


 * I've fixed them, but be aware that that isn't the purpose of this page. You should be able to fix errors yourself from the instructions in the error description page.  This talk page is to discuss problems with the instructions if they don't help.  Regards, Dan Bloch (talk) 01:00, 19 November 2021 (UTC)

How to resolve cite errors
I am seeing the following error.

Cite error: The named reference ":1" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). Cite error: The named reference ":1" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). Cite error: The named reference ":1" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).

The error links to the help page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cite_errors/Cite_error_references_duplicate_key. However, the help page only resolves the issue using the Wikipedia markup format. I am new to Wiki and have not been able to learn the markup fast enough. I have been adding supporting sources and references without changing the markup, which I think works a lot better and makes contributing easier. However, it appears the resolution is only available after digging into the markup code to identify the inconsistencies.

I would sincerely appreciate any help, suggestions, or guidance. Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Thegreenrex (talk • contribs) 01:34, 20 November 2021 (UTC)


 * Fixed. Yeah, the help page isn't great.  Cheers, Dan Bloch (talk) 02:24, 20 November 2021 (UTC)

A miss on jxdn page
It miss a juridic problem on jxdn page 2607:FA49:1241:2F00:F172:99A4:A3F0:6E40 (talk) 05:05, 6 January 2022 (UTC)
 * I've fixed the error message. Please review the messages at User talk:2607:FA49:1241:2F00:F172:99A4:A3F0:6E40. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:27, 6 January 2022 (UTC)
 * I've fixed the error message. Please review the messages at User talk:2607:FA49:1241:2F00:F172:99A4:A3F0:6E40. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:27, 6 January 2022 (UTC)

Cite error:A ref tag is missing the closing /ref.
tag is missing the closing

I do not understand what this means!Mcgillycuddy01 (talk) 19:42, 6 January 2022 (UTC)McGillycuddy
 * See Help:Cite errors/Cite error included ref. – Jonesey95 (talk) 20:27, 6 January 2022 (UTC)

Fix minor errors in the "Plot" Summary for Dave (1993 film)
For what it's worth 2 Corrections need to be made for the 1993 political satire film Dave starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver.

1) Dave Kovic's Employment Agency and home was in a non descript small town in the Pacific Northwest (either the state of Washington or Oregon).

2) It was Dave's "BROTHER-IN-LAW" (from Dave's deceased wife) Not "FRIEND" Murray that helps him secure the funding for the homeless shelters. BTW minor note: Murray often employs most of Dave's employees from Dave's temp service. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:346:1000:7BD0:0:0:0:7197 (talk) 18:00, 13 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Misplaced, copied to Talk:Dave (film). – Jonesey95 (talk) 18:57, 13 February 2022 (UTC)

Will this error be fixed by a bot?
"Cite error: A list-defined reference named "BBC_2005" is not used in the content (see the help page)."

I mean a bot could go round and delete them?

Chidgk1 (talk) 19:31, 11 February 2022 (UTC)
 * A bot could delete them, but really it takes a human editor to work out what has happened. For example, if a large chunk of text has been deleted without explanation, leaving references unused, then a better fix is probably to put the text back again. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:59, 12 February 2022 (UTC)


 * Thanks for quick answer. We have 22 at Effects of climate change after correct deletions. I don't suppose there is a "Guild of Wikignomes" equivalent to the GOCE. I tried running "Expand citations" but that did not fix them. I guess I will just have to wait until the article is stable before going through and deleting them manually, as no doubt there will be more of these errors soon as tidying proceeds. Chidgk1 (talk) 14:21, 12 February 2022 (UTC)


 * I deleted those 22 manually - which was tedious - and now there are 19 more. What if I just delete all the "list defined references"? Would a bot put the ones which are still used back in do you know? Chidgk1 (talk) 12:14, 15 February 2022 (UTC)
 * I asked the bot operator that question once; see User_talk:AnomieBOT/Archive_5 - apparently the bot would have fixed the errors, but would not have put them back inside the reflist. -- John of Reading (talk) 12:34, 15 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Great - I cannot see the point of keeping them in a reflist anyway as the article does not have a fixed cite style now anyway (2 were merged) - will do it Chidgk1 (talk) 13:36, 15 February 2022 (UTC)

Phantom category
(Forgot that this was centralised. Context: See Broken ref and its doc page)

Ive been trying to figure out why this and the main/sandbox pages are getting put under the Category:Pages_with_incorrect_ref_formatting category. According to my "high-level investigation"(removing text and hitting show preview until the category dissapeared), its to do with the broken ref/cite error list section.

However no matter what i change, the category stays. And the actual list page itself is fully nocat'd, and doesnt have the category. And the errors dont produce if i take the exact same page content onto my own sandbox testing place. What the hell is going on here? Am i just stupid? Thanks. Aidan9382 (talk) 12:24, 11 April 2022 (UTC)
 * In Template:Broken ref/doc there is the line:  - remove this, and the category disappears. I have traced it to MediaWiki:Cite error no link label group/fr. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 22:51, 11 April 2022 (UTC)
 * fixes the doc page. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 23:07, 11 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Appreciated, didnt realise how specific it went, my mistake. Thanks. Aidan9382 (talk) 23:36, 11 April 2022 (UTC)
 * As for the template and its sandbox, those are de-categorised with and . -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 08:06, 12 April 2022 (UTC)

Arangetram (Film)
The remainder of the Wikipedia is hid due to “Cite error: The named reference kamadenu was invoked but never defined” 73.208.194.59 (talk) 13:43, 23 April 2022 (UTC)
 * You broke it yourself, in . -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 14:19, 23 April 2022 (UTC)

Technical rules for names
Page: Help:Cite errors/Cite error ref no key — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.241.162.167 (talk) 03:06, 4 May 2022 (UTC)

The first item on the indented list states that "quotation marks are optional" in some cases, but they need not be used only when spaces are not used. Therefore the introducing sentence before the list: "If spaces are used ..." is in discrepancy with what first item says, making all the explanation illogical.

The introducing statement should be changed to

"The following technical restrictions, relative to the characters used, hold:"

---here the list---, and the first sentence in the first item should end with "and the symbols !$%&*,-.:;<@[]^_`{|}~ without spaces."

Please also, insert into the list, preferably somewhere near the beginning of the subsection "Names", an information about acceptable length of name:

"Name can be at most 1011 characters long, independently of the type of characters (1 byte or 2 byte), not counting quotation marks if used. A longer name does not cause error message, but then functionality is not guaranteed."

The above corrections could also be made on other pages that contain these rules, e.g. Help:Footnotes.109.241.162.167 (talk) 01:49, 4 May 2022 (UTC)

Correcting an error on Monahseetah
This article cites Jerome A. Greene, "Washita" Chap. 8p.169 quoting Captain Fredrick Benteen of the Seventh Cavalry and Army Scout Ben Clark as saying George Armstrong Custer "sexually assaulted" Monahseetah. What Fredrick Benteen and Ben Clark actually said, and accurately quoting Jerome Greene, is that Custer "co-habited" with Monahseetah. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gregory urbach (talk • contribs) 09:42, 4 May 2022 (UTC)


 * Im not really sure what you're asking for help with here. I've gone ahead and fixed the citation errors on the page if that's what you intended to ask for help with, but otherwise I'm not sure. Aidan9382 (talk) 13:32, 4 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Thank you, that's all I was seeking. I don't work with the technology enough to understand the process. Gregory urbach (talk) 18:11, 4 May 2022 (UTC)

Help: Cite errors
"There are tags on this page without content in them (see the help page)." This error message comes up after I added a reference source, but I'm not sure how to correct it or what's the next move. The help page is not providing any clear guidance. Thanks. Rounatenk (talk) 23:02, 25 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Your edit is and the error message is displayed exactly where the error is. I think you can see it and fix it yourself. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:34, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

I keep getting a message that a fef tag is missing. What am I doing Wrong?
Page 1st nomination 1960-1969.

I'm trying to verify the countries where Nobel Prize Literature nominees were from. The page mistakenly gives Alejo Carpentier's birthplace as Lausanne, Switzerland, when Wikipedia gives it as Havana, Cuba. When I try changing it, I keep getting a message that a ref tag is missing. What am I doing Wrong? 45kerdall (talk) 01:40, 26 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Save your code somewhere so we can see what's wrong with it. We aren't psychic. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:14, 26 July 2022 (UTC)
 * List_of_nominees_for_the_Nobel_Prize_in_Literature 45kerdall (talk) 05:22, 26 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Your section heading was far too long, see WP:TALKHEADING, so I . Also, your question is off-topic for this page, which is for discussing improvements to our page Help:Cite errors - it is not a helpdesk, we provide several of those such as WP:Help desk and WP:Teahouse. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 08:43, 26 July 2022 (UTC)
 * You did indeed remove a ref tag if you are the IP who edited that page. See Help:Page history. All your changes were wrong and I have reverted them. Wikipedia articles are not allowed references per Verifiability. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alejo-Carpentier-y-Valmont says: "Though born in Lausanne to a French father and a Russian mother, Carpentier claimed throughout his life that he was Cuban-born. He was taken to Havana as an infant." See also Alejo Carpentier. The correct birth place Lausanne was mentioned three times in the biography. The only error was in the infobox where an IP added it two weeks ago. I have reverted it. There is a reason we don't allow Wikipedia articles as references. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:08, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

Displaying Template:Template reference list
Hi! I just called this template for the first time, from Template:100 Most Common Family Names in Mainland China, which I recently updated and sourced. Template_talk:Template reference list redirects to this page, which is why I'm here.

I understand from the documentation that the template call is supposed to be wrapped in noincludes to suppress the display of the cited source in articles that transclude it, but in this use case I do want the source to display. I briefly added the source as element in the template content before I learned of Template:Template reference list. My story is that most of the pages that call Template:100 Most Common Family Names in Mainland China also call Template:Surname immediately thereafter, the purpose of which is to help editors repair dablinks. That template output sits in between the content of the "100 names" template and its reference list.

I'm wondering if there's any way for someone to edit Template reference list to force the display of the reference list (if the call is not noincludeed) immediately after the content of the template that transcludes it, for editors using the template reference list in a way not intended per guidance.

No worries if not. Thanks for your consideration. Folly Mox (talk) 04:00, 26 July 2022 (UTC)
 * the MediaWiki software will automatically place such references (with or without "noinclude"-ing of the Template reference list template) at the bottom of the page. One way around this is to use the Section references template right after the 100 Most Common Family Names in Mainland China navbar template. I've made an example near the bottom of the article about the Liu surname. Also note that this does work even when the Template reference list template is correctly "noinclude"d, which I did when I added the Documentation template to the 100 Most Common Family Names in Mainland China navbar.  P.I. Ellsworth &thinsp;, ed.  put'r there 23:35, 27 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Think it should be noted, editor, that the guideline at Categories, lists, and navigation templates says that sources may be included in the template documentation (a section that is visible only after viewing the template itself, but not upon its transclusion). So we should not include sources in the transcluded navbar. I will have to go back and remove the source from the article.  P.I. Ellsworth &thinsp;, ed.  put'r there 20:57, 30 July 2022 (UTC)

I had one error on page
I had one error on page. But dont know what is the problem 2405:201:5508:D039:2883:A505:3976:C5AA (talk) 14:04, 8 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Which article had the error? —Mx. Granger (talk · contribs) 11:34, 9 September 2022 (UTC)

Vapiano
Hello, someone out here to take a look at the articl? Reference [67] states Cite error: The named reference Vapiano S.R.O was invoked but never defined. Thank you for your time. Lotje (talk) 04:41, 9 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Fixed —Mx. Granger (talk · contribs) 11:34, 9 September 2022 (UTC)

I want to add a reference.
I want to add a reference i.e. want to add an article published on 27th June, 2005 in Outlook weekly in Beer Village page. Kindly clarify. Anil kumar jain (talk) 11:53, 26 September 2022 (UTC)
 * this is the talk page for discussing improvements to the page Help:Cite errors. Please make your suggestion at the talk page for the article concerned. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 09:43, 27 September 2022 (UTC)

Help fix the problem
I need help about the references for Konstantinos Stephanopoulos. I made a mistake. I don't know what to do. Can you help me fix and restore to normal. 100.2.114.167 (talk) 00:33, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I believe I've fixed it, though I took two edits to do it. Reference 1 now uses the working URL that you added, and I've added the English translation of the headline. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:20, 6 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I believe I've fixed it, though I took two edits to do it. Reference 1 now uses the working URL that you added, and I've added the English translation of the headline. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:20, 6 October 2022 (UTC)

Draft:Andre Soares (Brazilian-American writer, actor)
Hey there!

I am trying to combine references used multiple times in my draft, can anyone help? I understand the general concept but the article is unclear.

Draft:Andre Soares (Brazilian-American writer, actor)

Thank you for your assistance! A1ProtocolX (talk) 02:08, 16 September 2022 (UTC)
 * . You might start here: Help:Referencing for beginners. See the bottom of the section currently titled "RefToolbar"
 * The wikitext way is just to give your reference a short name:
 *  <ref name=YOUR-CHOICE> 
 * Then link further uses like this:
 * Please ask further questions at:
 * Teahouse
 * This talk page is for this specific topic, and its subpages:
 * Help:Cite errors
 * --Timeshifter (talk) 02:45, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
 * --Timeshifter (talk) 02:45, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

An error on a page
A cite error on page https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_Protection_Act,_1986, for help page https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cite_errors/Cite_error_included_ref 2402:3A80:D2A:AB96:9D80:3C42:7C0D:7417 (talk) 12:58, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
 * ✅. Tag was closed incorrectly (should've been ). Aidan9382 (talk) 13:06, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Template references causing problems
Why are the timeline templates causing the big red text errors in the references here:
 * COVID-19 pandemic deaths

But not when some of those same templates are transcluded here:
 * COVID-19 pandemic by country and territory.

The main talk pages are the template talk pages and this one: --Timeshifter (talk) 03:01, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Talk:COVID-19 pandemic deaths.
 * The error message explains the problem: . Here are the four references named "WHO-reports", copied from the four templates:


 * Note that the second one is different from the others. – Jonesey95 (talk) 05:49, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
 * The reason the error doesn't appear in COVID-19 pandemic by country and territory is because it only transcludes 2 of the 4 pages that COVID-19 pandemic deaths transcludes, and neither of the 2 were the problematic one. The issue was with 2020 monthly cumulative COVID-19 death totals by country, which had a different reference formatting to the other 3. I've gone ahead and made it match to avoid the error. Aidan9382 (talk) 06:37, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks and  for all the help! Several people have been editing that template the last year. So one of us did not keep the reference the same. --Timeshifter (talk) 20:36, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Incorrect.citation
I quoted the reference: David Collins, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales The system tells me this is an error because it has too many words How many words are allowed? How can I quote the reference? Hoydan (talk) 00:29, 13 October 2022 (UTC)
 * You can see this source cited here. There are other ways to do it, but that way works. If you can't make it work, provide a link to the article where we can see the error. – Jonesey95 (talk) 05:02, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

References appear only on the template references page?
This message appears in the 'template references list', but I am doubtful whether it is a correct statement. These references will appear in the article, but this list appears only on this page.

Please see these pages.

There are three references. They appear not only on the template page (1), but on the main article (2).
 * 1) Template:Latest_stable_software_release/Naver_Whale
 * 2) Naver_Whale

Regpath (talk) 02:55, 15 October 2022 (UTC)
 * It doesn't mean that the refs will not appear at all, but that they will appear in the article's proper references list, not at the position where the template is used. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 06:17, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

Help
Hi! I'm stuck. I don't know what's wrong with the references. As you can see on article List of songs recorded by Tomorrow X Together, the first song have two errors. Firstly, I put on 9 songs and it works. Same goes to the second error, I put the same on "Ito" and "Magic" and it works. Please help. Perghhh (talk) 12:48, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
 * This isn't a helpdesk; WP:Teahouse and WP:Help desk are intended for questions like this. Anyway, that aside, did by  fix it? -- Red rose64 &#x1F98C; (talk) 16:49, 25 December 2022 (UTC)

Editing
Is it possible that Wikipedia could hire a computer programmer to make the editing process user friendly for average people ? Mark Zaborske (talk) 19:28, 27 December 2022 (UTC)
 * First, you're on the wrong page for that - this is the talk page for discussing improvements to the page Help:Cite errors. Second, the Wikimedia Foundation already has a sizeable group of programmers, both paid and unpaid; see MediaWiki for more information. If you really want to volunteer for some programming tasks, there is a link at the bottom of every page, including this one. -- Red rose64 &#x1F98C; (talk) 22:16, 27 December 2022 (UTC)

Cite error: The named reference fortu2000 was invoked but never defined
what can i do Apadana1401 (talk) 07:50, 1 January 2023 (UTC)


 * At the top of this page it says: "This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Cite errors page", so this is the wrong place for your question.  Assuming that your question relates to Draft:Brand: Mahram the word "help" in the error message directs to Help:Cite errors/Cite error references no text which explains your problem.  In your infobox you have called up a citation  but you have not defined the named reference "fortu2000". - David Biddulph (talk) 09:34, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

Unclear advice
Not user friendly in the slightest. Under the section- Reference links show in the body of the article, but do not show in the reference list.The solutions are not clear. They should not say missing template but tell you where exactly and how to fix it. I have this problem but none the wiser on how to fix it. It should give a link to a video or some other examples on how to fix it. Wiki is not really for regular users but those who are used to programming it appears. Supermack01 (talk) 12:26, 20 January 2023 (UTC)


 * Sorry you find the instructions to be unclear. The simplest way I can explain this to you is that this category is a maintenance category which is designed for people generally more technically proficient to assist people who have this specific error on their page. I have just cleared the back-log of over 200 page that had this error. The error message usually includes the solution. It will tell you for example that you have references that use the template and that this requires that the template  must appear somewhere on your page. I hope that helps? BoonDock (talk) 04:58, 1 February 2023 (UTC)

How do you duplicate a citation for different content?
How do you duplicate a citation for different content? I have tried the content 1 and content 2 but then the citation only says "content 1" and "content 2". Can you give me an example so I can copy and paste it?

Thanks so much Landplane123 (talk) 21:08, 25 January 2023 (UTC)landplane123


 * I don't think you are in the correct place for help on this, but feel free to click on my username and it will take you to my user page. You can leave a message there explaining your problem and I will do my best to assist you. BoonDock (talk) 05:00, 1 February 2023 (UTC)

Listing inappropriate pages
There should be an easy way to omit pages that should not be fixed, like Wikipedia:Bots/Noticeboard/Archive 15 Maybe an identifier in the page, and a change to this application to ignore pages with the specific identifier that could be added to Archive pages. Quebec99 (talk) 16:30, 6 February 2023 (UTC)

"System" pages
I've worked to clear the CAT:REF page. On the summary it stays as a "backlog" because of the 70 odd pages in the category which are either help pages, or are pages in the noticeboard, pump, requests for feedback etc. Is there some way we could exclude those pages which are not articles from the category? BoonDock (talk) 21:59, 14 March 2023 (UTC)
 * I've adjusted the category header so that the "backlog" message will disappear when the category drops below 80; you can tweak it yourself at any time. Many of the help pages belong in the category because that is the topic they provide help on, and I don't think it's worth expending effort on the sandboxes, archives and so on. The category sort makes it easy to see the important pages that need to be fixed - and congratulations on getting the category so clear. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:58, 15 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks. That does make a difference. Much appreciated. BoonDock (talk) 16:14, 15 March 2023 (UTC)

Can't understand
I'm trying to cite the same publication that's written multiple, different articles about the same topic. How can I cite the same publication with the different articles it's published? Redwoodtree23 (talk) 00:02, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
 * You should use a separate citation for each article. Please feel free to give more details or a link and I can try to give more specific advice if you'd like. —Mx. Granger (talk · contribs) 13:53, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

What does this mean...
Cite error: There are  tags or   templates on this page, but the references will not show without a   template or   template (see the help page). Sahaz1505 (talk) 07:47, 30 April 2023 (UTC)


 * @BoyTheKingCanDance can you help? i have cited in my Jamie Chalker article but it won't upload.. Sahaz1505 (talk) 08:25, 30 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Hi dear Sahaz1505, I'll fix it for you. What article is it on? Best wishes, BoyTheKingCanDance (talk) 09:11, 30 April 2023 (UTC)
 * As Sahaz1505 notes, it's Jamie Chalker. I think that the problems were fixed in . -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 11:01, 30 April 2023 (UTC)
 * @Redrose64. Thanks so much for helping out. Great work. Funny; I must be going blind. I didn't see which article he meant, even though he named it. Thanks again. Regards, BoyTheKingCanDance (talk) 12:00, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

Cite error: $1
I'm always baffled about the Cite error: $1. It's easy enough to fix when I've introduced it (though I never remember what caused it). But I was trying to clear two of them in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and I've no idea what's causing it. Perhaps there should be more detail in this error message. Nfitz (talk) 00:33, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
 * That's curious. Are you seeing the bare message "Cite error: $1"? At the foot of the article I'm seeing the messages...
 * Cite error: A list-defined reference named "InsomniacsSpiderMan" is not used in the content (see the help page).
 * Cite error: A list-defined reference named "Mayday" is not used in the content (see the help page).
 * ...with lots of helpful detail. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:00, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Ah, that's interesting, User:John of Reading. When I change to that new default skin (Vector 2022? - by using an Incognito window), I too see the messages. I wonder why they don't work in Vector 2010. Here's a link forcing Vector 2010 where you should see the errors. Digging deeper, it's broken in all other other skins - including Zebra. Nfitz (talk) 07:14, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
 * I'm seeing the full message in all those skins. But when I switch from "English" to "Canadian English" at Special:Preferences I see the unhelpful "$1" message. What language do you have selected there? -- John of Reading (talk) 08:03, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
 * You nailed it. Nothing to do with the skins. I'm using Canadian English - which breaks it in every skin, including Vector 2022. I tried a few other languages, and all seem fine - even Louisiana French (?!?). I'm out of my depth here on where the error lies. Nfitz (talk) 09:02, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
 * I think that what is happening here is that MediaWiki:Cite error and MediaWiki:Cite error references missing key have been carefully set up to handle certain situations (in both cases by using the template), but MediaWiki:Cite error/en-CA and MediaWiki:Cite error references missing key/en-CA have not been kept in synch. Curiously, the problem doesn't occur if you set "en-GB - British English", even though MediaWiki:Cite error/en-GB and MediaWiki:Cite error references missing key/en-GB are exactly the same as the en-CA versions.
 * This sort of thing happens quite a lot: generally speaking, setting either of the two English variants (en-CA and en-GB) is a bad move, there has been plenty on the matter at WP:VPT. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 12:08, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Interesting! I've always had it set for either GB or CA (at least for decade or more), and hadn't noticed. Though I've seen this particular CITE problem for years. I've no desire to set it to USA settings ... I'm surprised it doesn't pick up the language from Windows - but I guess that's not part of the design. Incognito is a quick kludge though. Thanks! I'll go fix those extra references now, so that will invalidate this example - but it's preserved in the historic version. Nfitz (talk) 18:21, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
 * The option "en - English" is not USA English (if it were, it would probably be described as "American English" in the selection list). It's an internationalised form that we have recommended for many years now, not least of which is the fact that en-CA and en-GB are so badly maintained. It also should be understandable to anybody for whom some variety of English is used in day to day communication. Generally, you should use "en - English" unless you want something radically different, such as French, German or Japanese. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 19:20, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
 * It looks awfully USAised to be an international form, with all the non-standard spellings. Also - in an international context, American can be anywhere in the Americas. Like Central America. South America, Latin America, and even the former British North America. I'd think English English would be closer to an international standard than anything else; less so GB English which includes Scots. I wonder what they use in the EU and UN. This is a topic I don't usually discuss at Wikipædia. Nfitz (talk) 20:28, 6 June 2023 (UTC)

Help:Cite errors/Cite error group refs without references in a Cat which I'd like to have empty...
Hi everyone, I've been working to clear out the Cat Category:Pages with missing references list, but I wondered about this page. Due to the errors on the page itself which are there intentionally, it then lists the page within this Cat. Is there a way of keeping said errors on the page, but taking it out - or hiding it - from the Cat? It's not important, it would just be really nice to have it empty. Mattdaviesfsic (talk) 20:21, 2 July 2023 (UTC)

"Wikipedia:NOREFLIST" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:NOREFLIST&redirect=no Wikipedia:NOREFLIST] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached. Jay 💬 04:01, 5 August 2023 (UTC)