Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2016 March 21

= March 21 =

Misformatted references in Wikipedia article
Could somebody explain what happened here?  O X Y G E N E 7-13  ( T A L K P A G E)  17:40, 21 March 2016 (UTC)


 * To clarify, OXYGENE seems to be asking about the apparent misformatting of the references, causing them all to say "Missing or empty |title= (help); External link in |website= (help)". StuRat (talk) 17:45, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

Yep! I have no knowledge about HTML, I'm restricted by a whitelist, so the only thing I can do is asking (the right) questions. (pretty obvious what I ment when you click on here...)  O X Y G E N E 7-13  ( T A L K P A G E)  17:56, 21 March 2016 (UTC)


 * Right, but your title would lead one to believe your Q is about the actual car, and "car guys" clicking on the link would then be disappointed to find the Q has nothing to do with the car, while "reference formatting experts" wouldn't be likely to click on your link, if they know nothing about cars. You might change your title to make it match the actual Q, not just the name of the article where it happens to occur. StuRat (talk) 18:09, 21 March 2016 (UTC)


 * Done that.  O X Y G E N E 7-13  ( T A L K P A G E)  18:19, 21 March 2016 (UTC)


 * You're still relying on people who know about references clicking on a title that seems to be about something else entirely. StuRat (talk) 18:27, 21 March 2016 (UTC)


 * But once you click the link it becomes pretty obvious, or not? If people do not understand this, they're not going to be much of a help.. (no offence)  O X Y G E N E 7-13  ( T A L K P A G E)  18:32, 21 March 2016 (UTC)


 * Yes, but as I've said, people who are experts on formatting references aren't likely to click on a link in a Q that appears to have nothing to do with that. StuRat (talk) 18:37, 21 March 2016 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure what you think you changed, but I still see the title of the question as "Mitsubishi MiEV Evolution", rather than something like "Misformatted references in Wikipedia article". CodeTalker (talk) 19:10, 21 March 2016 (UTC)
 * The first error (Missing or Empty Title) happens when there is no |title= in the reference and the second error (External link in |website=) happens when a raw link is posted in the |website= of the reference.
 * So, for example, the very first reference says where as it probably should say . I've made the change on the page so you can see what I did if this is too much text. This should also probably be a question for the Help Desk going forward. Does this make sense? uhhlive (talk) 19:30, 21 March 2016 (UTC)


 * @StuRat: I changed the title of this question into a link directly to the right header of the article; Mitsubishi_MiEV_Evolution#References.

@Uhhlive: I still see a lot of red text like; Missing or empty |title= (help); External link in |website= (help). I have no idea what it means but I guess, it ain't right... <b style="font-family:Eras Bold ITC"> O X Y G E N E 7-13 </b><b style="font-family:Eras Bold ITC"> ( T A L K P A G E) </b> 19:42, 21 March 2016 (UTC)
 * I only fixed the first reference. The rest of the reference need changing. I explained what the issue was, did it not make sense? You can click the help link on that page or click >>HERE<< to read about what the issue is. uhhlive (talk) 19:58, 21 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Problem is, I'm bounded by a whitelist, so I can't go to the sites where the links go to, I can't verify anything so I won't do it myself. I rather have someone do it who knows what he is doing, I only wanted it brought under attention. <b style="font-family:Eras Bold ITC"> O X Y G E N E 7-13 </b><b style="font-family:Eras Bold ITC"> ( T A L K P A G E) </b> 20:05, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

Fixed. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 01:01, 22 March 2016 (UTC)

Many thanx 2 all of U. <b style="font-family:Eras Bold ITC"> O X Y G E N E 7-13 </b><b style="font-family:Eras Bold ITC"> ( T A L K P A G E) </b> 12:10, 22 March 2016 (UTC)