Help talk:Cite errors: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:11, 3 May 2025

Latest revision as of 07:11, 2 September 2025

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== tryingCite toerror: addThe named reference btva was invoked but never defined. ==

Hi, I was editing [[Gabrielle Carteris]] to add birth date and when I did, I got the Cite error: The named reference <code>btva</code> was invoked but never defined error. What's this error? [[User:Kartagis|Kartagis]] ([[User talk:Kartagis|talk]]) 16:22, 15 August 2025 (UTC)

I only see only error message, which has renamed my ref#2 as ref#0. I read the help for beginners to no avail. If you can't fix this

:You broke the page's formatting by removing the code <code>--></code>, which signals the end of an HTML comment. As a result, most of the page was processed as a comment, including the definition of that reference. See [[MOS:COMMENT]] for more information. —[[User:Mx. Granger|Mx. Granger]]&nbsp;([[User talk:Mx. Granger|talk]] '''·''' [[Special:Contributions/Mx. Granger|contribs]]) 02:14, 16 August 2025 (UTC)

::I was very careful to remove that part and that part only but it seems I wasn't that careful. Thanks. [[User:Kartagis|Kartagis]] ([[User talk:Kartagis|talk]]) 06:10, 16 August 2025 (UTC)

== Protected edit request on 30 August 2025 ==

Here's the reference to a journal article in the UCB library scanned by Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/promamerinter00hepbrich/page/n3/mode/2up

{{edit fully-protected|MediaWiki:Cite error ref too many keys|answered=no}}

"Prominent Americans interested in Japan and prominent Japanese in America" 90-91. Japan and America, January 1903.

Please update the system message so that it resembles the [{{fullurl:Special:AllMessages|prefix=Cite+error+ref+too+many+keys}} updated default message] more by using the new parameters $1 and $2. The new message should be updated to look something like this:

<pre>

I'm just trying to give credit to the donor of a prominent Boston landmark.

{{broken ref

Thanks, EJR [[User:ElizaJRich|ElizaJRich]] ([[User talk:ElizaJRich|talk]]) 17:08, 1 May 2025 (UTC)

|msg=Unknown parameter "$1" in <code><ref></code> tag; supported parameters are $2

:{{replyto|ElizaJRich}} Assuming that you mean [[Japanese Lantern (Boston)]], you need to put the reference after the text that it supports, and not in the References section. See [[Help:Referencing for beginners]]. By the way, this is not a good place to ask for help - it is the [[Help:Talk pages|talk page]] for discussing improvements to the page [[:Help:Cite errors]]. Better places would be [[Wikipedia:Teahouse]] or [[Wikipedia:Help desk]]. --[[User:Redrose64|<span style="color:#a80000; background:#ffeeee; text-decoration:inherit">Red</span>rose64]] &#x1f339; ([[User talk:Redrose64|talk]]) 20:51, 1 May 2025 (UTC)

|lang=en

::Thanks for your help. I read the instructions for beginners again and used only the superscripts, but now they don't show in the References list. I will try the Help Desk. Thanks for your efforts to improve the documentation, which is complex for an occasional user who is just trying to rectify the record. [[User:ElizaJRich|ElizaJRich]] ([[User talk:ElizaJRich|talk]]) 13:17, 3 May 2025 (UTC)

|help=Cite error ref too many keys

:::{{replyto|ElizaJRich}} I think that {{user|Another Believer}} fixed it with {{diff|Japanese Lantern (Boston)|prev|1288560599|this edit}}. --[[User:Redrose64|<span style="color:#a80000; background:#ffeeee; text-decoration:inherit">Red</span>rose64]] &#x1f339; ([[User talk:Redrose64|talk]]) 13:47, 3 May 2025 (UTC)

|nocat={{{nocat|}}}

::::Thanks to you both. I also re-edited to remove the citations from the Reference list (and just left them as superscripts). At first it looked wrong but eventually the list reappeared, perhaps due to her efforts. As a librarian, I'm used to entering the citations in the bibliography in a MS or say, in WordPress, so your system is not obvious. The Help for Citing Sources is elaborate and the one clue it gave directed me to a section I couldn't find.

}}

::::Herein lay my problem, in case you know to the person in charge of maintaining that documentation.

</pre>

:::: I read on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources under ''Inline Citations''

::::"It will also be necessary to generate the list of footnotes (where the citation text is actually displayed); for this, see the previous section."

::::IDocumentation hopefor thisthe helpsmessage anothercan weekendbe editorfound at translatewiki.net [[translatewiki:MediaWiki:Cite Thankserror again!ref too many keys/qqq|here]]. '''[[User:ElizaJRichEyesnore|ElizaJRichEyesnore]]''' (^{[[User talk:ElizaJRichEyesnore|''talk''&#128172;]])} 1420:1139, 330 MayAugust 2025 (UTC)

:I don't know how localization here works exactly, but there are five subpages for different languages: [[Special:PrefixIndex/MediaWiki:Cite error ref too many keys]], including en-ca and en-gb for two varieties of English. —⁠[[User:Andrybak|andrybak]] ([[User talk:Andrybak|talk]]) 21:18, 30 August 2025 (UTC)

::They will have to be updated manually. This is the English-language Wikipedia by the way, so having foreign-language localizations of Cite error messages is pointless. '''[[User:Eyesnore|Eyesnore]]''' ^{[[User talk:Eyesnore|''talk''&#128172;]]} 21:42, 30 August 2025 (UTC)

:::I am just trying to understand how "unknown parameter ?? in ref tag; supported parameters are ??" could be an equivalent to The ref tag has too many names &mdash;&nbsp;Martin <small>([[User:MSGJ|MSGJ]]&nbsp;·&nbsp;[[User talk:MSGJ|talk]])</small> 07:11, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

== Protected edit request on 30 August 2025 (2) ==

{{Edit fully-protected|MediaWiki:Cite error references no backlink label|answered=yes}}

Message was dropped from the Cite extension ([[gerrit:1088295]]) and should be deleted; exhausting custom backlink labels will now fall back to the numeric backlink labels instead of showing an error. Also delete all pages in [[Special:PrefixIndex/MediaWiki:Cite error references no backlink label/]]. '''[[User:Eyesnore|Eyesnore]]''' ^{[[User talk:Eyesnore|''talk''&#128172;]]} 21:16, 30 August 2025 (UTC)

:{{done}}<!-- Template:EP --> [[User:Sohom Datta|<b class="skin-invert" style="color:#795cb2; display: inline-block; transform: rotate(0.3deg)">Sohom</b>]] ([[User talk:Sohom Datta|<span class="skin-invert" style="color: #36c;">talk</span>]]) 03:52, 2 September 2025 (UTC)