Template talk:Cite comic

Add access-date as an alias of accessdate
This template has accessdate for URLs in accordance with best practice for web citations, but CS1 recently deprecated that spelling in favour of access-date, and bots migrated all uses to the new spelling. For whatever reason, this template, despite not being CS1, seems to have got caught up in that sweep, so we've ended up with multiple uses of this template with the unknown access-date parameter at Chick tract. This could easily be fixed by making access-date an alias of accessdate. Hairy Dude (talk) 21:22, 25 July 2021 (UTC)
 * ✅ – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:31, 26 July 2021 (UTC)

Archived versions not linkable
Can you add the archive-url and archive-date fields? Kaltenmeyer (talk) 18:07, 3 January 2022 (UTC)


 * I think I have this working in the sandbox version.
 * Current template:
 * will generate:
 * Sandbox template:
 * will generate:
 * will generate:
 * Let me know what you think, Rjjiii (talk) 04:11, 8 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Also, and, I think this would also address the issues you mentioned a few years back. To make the abbreviations less cryptic, I linked to the relevant wiki articles. This provides a tooltip on desktop, a link for more information on mobile, can be accessed via keyboard navigation, and is better handled by screen readers. The previous version (using NVDA, Firefox, & Windows 10) read "Adams, Scott (w, a)" as "Adams Scott W. A." which can sound like his initials; with links it reads as "Adams Scott link W link A" Rjjiii (talk) 19:44, 8 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Let me know what you think, Rjjiii (talk) 04:11, 8 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Also, and, I think this would also address the issues you mentioned a few years back. To make the abbreviations less cryptic, I linked to the relevant wiki articles. This provides a tooltip on desktop, a link for more information on mobile, can be accessed via keyboard navigation, and is better handled by screen readers. The previous version (using NVDA, Firefox, & Windows 10) read "Adams, Scott (w, a)" as "Adams Scott W. A." which can sound like his initials; with links it reads as "Adams Scott link W link A" Rjjiii (talk) 19:44, 8 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Also, and, I think this would also address the issues you mentioned a few years back. To make the abbreviations less cryptic, I linked to the relevant wiki articles. This provides a tooltip on desktop, a link for more information on mobile, can be accessed via keyboard navigation, and is better handled by screen readers. The previous version (using NVDA, Firefox, & Windows 10) read "Adams, Scott (w, a)" as "Adams Scott W. A." which can sound like his initials; with links it reads as "Adams Scott link W link A" Rjjiii (talk) 19:44, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 9 July 2023
In summary, the changes make this template capable of taking on comic strip reference citations per discussions above, fix several long-standing errors, improve accessibility, and bring this template slightly closer to CS1 template behaviors.

There are many changes, so I'll try to list the reasons for each:


 * Most of the changes are to create a template that can support both cite comic and comic strip reference usage per the discussion above.
 * Strip is added as a parameter. This was a required parameter for comic strip reference but unavailable here. Using the strip parameter will work as a switch to flip the template over to comic strip formatting. It serves the same purpose as title.
 * Syndicate is added as an alias of publisher. This is from comic strip reference. If publisher and syndicate are provided, the template uses the presence or absence of strip to choose the more specific.
 * Better support for "cartoonist"
 * Supplement and paper/newspaper added for comic strip formatting.
 * Better white space handling
 * Many uses of non-breaking spaces replaced with breakable spaces. These were used between most of the creator types, so when many creators were listed this could cause the template to create weird and inappropriate line breaks.
 * Small tweaks to prevent either no space between parameters or space between parameters and punctuation.
 * Error handling
 * No title previously generated:  . It now generates: Untitled and a preview warning.
 * No date previously generated: It now gerates: n.d. and a preview warning.
 * Abbreviations all have a wikilink related to their role. This makes them less cryptic for users who may not expect something like "inker" or "penciller" as a credit. Unlike pure tooltips, these are accessible on mobile and screen readers. This also improves accessibility as screen readers would read the old version as "Kirby Jack P" no different than "Kirby, Jack P." as an initial. The sandbox version is read as "Kirby Jack link P".
 * Volume, issue, and page
 * The sandbox version uses the standard CS1/CS2 prefixes vol., no., p., and pp.
 * The previous version hid "volume=1" because the formatting was confusing without prefixes. It now renders correctly as vol. 1
 * The pages parameter was added for page ranges.
 * The at parameter was added for edge cases.
 * The issue parameter deletes the first "#" to prevent "no. #1". (Some editors resolved the lack of prefixes by putting them into the template parameter manually.) If there is a need to change "no." to "#" this is also fine, it just shouldn't appear twice ( # &hairsp;#1).
 * Better handling of archive URL
 * Archive date is now a parameter, but not required.
 * Url-status is now a parameter, defaulting to dead.
 * Quote added in line with other templates per editor request here.

Thanks for taking a look, Rjjiii (talk) 22:45, 9 July 2023 (UTC)


 * .  P.I. Ellsworth &thinsp;, ed.  put'er there 17:27, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

Seeking input before a merge with comic strip reference
Hello, , , , , , , , and ! I've pinged some editors that I've seen put in good work on the comics articles. I hope you'll take this unsolicited signal as a compliment. I've recently updated both comic strip reference and cite comic, I wanted to gather some insight from folks who might be both affected and knowledgeable.

You can post here if there are any issues I'm overlooking. And below are some features that I have considered but have not implemented. Let me know if you think any of these should be included:
 * a switch that would use "#" instead of "no." when no "volume" is specified
 * "author" as an alias for a sole creator (right now it's "cartoonist" which works great but may be counter-intuitive)
 * a "ps" or "postscript" parameter to suppress the final period
 * a warning if using both "strip" and "title" (only title will show up if both are used)
 * a warning if using some combination of "page", "at", and "pages"
 * a warning if "inker" or "penciller" are used in addition to "artist" (artist suppresses inker and penciller fields)

Thanks, Rjjiii (talk) 04:18, 20 July 2023 (UTC)
 * The # symbol should not be used, per MOS:NUMERO. – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:29, 20 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I agree and this was largely the answer I got from a Manual of Style author. I just want to be transparent. I don't know how you manage to stay on top of so much of the technical stuff. Regards, Rjjiii (talk) 19:29, 25 July 2023 (UTC)
 * This looks very impressive. The only issue that came to mind is that, if a comic has a sole creator, crediting as "cartoonist" doesn't indicate they were also the writer (and for "author" if they were the artist too). Is it possible to credit the creator as just "creator"? --FlairTale (talk) 03:14, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Yes, that's possible. There are just two technical limits on adding parameter aliases (extra names). First, an alias shouldn't be used for multiple things. Second, fewer aliases are better because it reduces loading time. Rjjiii (talk) 04:26, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Should not output "#". That's a shorthand that sometimes makes sense in running prose (e.g. "A mint-condition SuperDude #1 sold for $10,000 at Christies in 2023", or whatever), but the purpose of our citation templates is to present consistent bibliographic information. We just had a discussion about this at MoS: Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  01:07, 3 August 2023 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 25 July 2023
Change live template to sandbox version. The sandbox version will:


 * 1) Remove quote marks within the story parameter to avoid ""quadruple"" quotes and
 * 2) Fix an old bug with punctuation.

The top section on the testcases page shows the difference. Rjjiii (talk) 19:55, 25 July 2023 (UTC)
 * ✅ * Pppery * it has begun... 21:33, 25 July 2023 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 2 September 2023
Change the current live template to the sandbox version. This has 2 effects. First, it fixes an old formatting bug when using the "cartoonist" parameter in some situations. Second, it still outputs a preview warning when no date is used but does not output "n.d." for the date, as this could be ambiguous. Many older handwritten comics citations do not include the date. You can see examples of the effect at the top of the testcases page: Template:Cite comic/testcases Rjjiii (talk) 18:25, 2 September 2023 (UTC)
 * ✅ - Favre1fan93 (talk) 17:11, 3 September 2023 (UTC)

Potential updates
Several potential updates are implemented in the sandbox including:


 * 1) The credit parameters are rewritten so that no credits are hidden in the citation. In the previous version, adding an artist would suppress the penciller, inker, and colorist parameters. In the sandbox update, these parameter will display if they are filled out.
 * 2) Preview warning for missing date now only appears if the issue is also missing. Previously the preview warning would display if the date was not present, and earlier would emit { { { date } } } in the citation. Citations are commonly made as only title and issue, so this should lower the barrier of complexity for editors using the template. The help link is modified to point at the "#Date" section of the documentation.
 * 3) Preview warning for missing title or strip will now only display the story is also missing. The help link is modified to point at the "#Title" section of the documentation.
 * 4) Maintenance categories are introduced for usage with both no date and no issue. And also for usage with title, strip, or story.
 * 5) creator introduced as an alias for cartoonist
 * 6) year introduced as an alias for date
 * 7) others introduced as uncategorized credit parameters

Please ask for clarification if anything is confusing. Let me know there are objections or additional areas for improvement, Rjjiii  (talk) 07:41, 30 December 2023 (UTC) Update: Still giving a preview warning for missing date. Perhaps in a future update, a message will remain on the saved page for missing date and issue. 04:10, 6 January 2024 (UTC)