Help talk:CS1 errors

Note: Most conversation about Citation Style 1 (CS1) templates happens at Help talk:Citation Style 1. This page is for discussion about the content of Help:CS1 errors.

Strange preview message at Lifes Rich Pageant

In preview, Lifes Rich Pageant displays one normal Script warning for cite AV media notes, then displays "Script warning: {{cite AV media notes}}: this reference has maintenance messages Harv error: link from CITEREF_temp_preview_id_251770 doesn't point to any citation.; messages may be hidden (help)."

Possibly related, the article is listed at Category:Pages with duplicate reference names, but that category does not display at the bottom of the page, and a null edit does not clear the page from the category.

Also possibly related: Parsoid. – Jonesey95 (talk) 21:07, 6 July 2026 (UTC)

Following up: Editing with the legacy parser shows a red error message for the duplicated citation (which appears to have the same content in both citation templates), and it shows the category. I have added this info to T423924. – Jonesey95 (talk) 21:11, 6 July 2026 (UTC)

Here's a simplified example that shows the big red confusing error message in preview. – Jonesey95 (talk) 21:30, 6 July 2026 (UTC)

@Jonesey95: Pretty sure this is closely related to Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Categorized, but unflagged multiply defined reference. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 21:41, 6 July 2026 (UTC)

Indeed. I linked to this discussion from that one. The duplicate references category is probably not the purview of this talk page, but the strange harv error message probably is. – Jonesey95 (talk) 21:50, 6 July 2026 (UTC)

At line 34 in your vector-2022.js, you load the Ucucha HarvErrors.js script. That script is the source of the harv error message. Module:Citation/CS1 sees two {{cite AV media notes}} templates which each cause the module to emit a CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) message and at more-or-less the same time to add the preview warning.

When creating the preview warning for templates that do not have contributor / author / editor and date from which to create a CITEREF anchor, the module creates a CITEREF anchor from a concatenation of the static text _temp_preview_id_ and a pseudo random six-digit number. Because named references are combined by whichever parser, only one CITEREF_temp_preview_id_XXXXXX anchor exits in the rendered html. In preview, these same-named references will not be identical because the maintenance message causes the creation of unique anchor IDs. When Ucucha HarvErrors.js cannot find a target for a preview warning message, it emits the message.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 22:31, 6 July 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for that diagnosis. So it appears that there are no errors in the underlying code. Completing the update to Parsoid should fix the category issues. – Jonesey95 (talk) 01:02, 7 July 2026 (UTC)

Two months in date?

In SoHo Weekly News I have: Duberman, Martin (May – June 2015). "Doug Ireland's Passion and Praxis". The Gay & Lesbian Review. Retrieved 2026-08-10. {{cite magazine}}: Check date values in: |date= (help), which generates a " Check date values in: |date=" error. It's obviously not happy with the May-June thing, but that's the date given in the source, so what to do? RoySmith (talk) 10:50, 10 August 2026 (UTC)

May–June 2015 per MOS:DATERANGE.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 12:01, 10 August 2026 (UTC)

That did it, thanks. The CS1 error message really could be improved :-) RoySmith (talk) 12:07, 10 August 2026 (UTC)

I have added this as an example in the (long) table that gives examples of invalid and acceptable date formats. It still depends on people clicking the "help" link, of course; Wikipedia helps those who help themselves. If you have specific ideas about improving the error message while keeping it concise, this talk page is a good place to make suggestions. – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:45, 13 August 2026 (UTC)

ISBN / Date incompatibility

This is becoming a very common error message as old books are re-released as e-books and issued isbns - but not always given new publication dates. See this one, for instance. Might be time to turn this one off, or maybe give it limited visibility?  Mr.choppers | ✎  02:07, 25 August 2026 (UTC)

Check |url= value documentation out of sync with reality?

I noticed a CS1 'check |url= value' error on Oak Openings Preserve Metropark. The problematic URL is https://special_district-metroparks-toledo-oh-budget-book.cleargov.com/3526/introduction/agency-overview. Note the underscore (_) in "special_district". That is what is triggering the error. Remove it and the error goes away, but that obviously breaks the link. According to the documentation "Third- and subsequent-level domain names are not checked.", and special_district-metroparks-toledo-oh-budget-book is the third level of the domain. I tried replacing the _ with %5F but that did not help. What am I missing? - Wikkiwonkk (talk) 16:06, 28 August 2026 (UTC)

See Help talk:Citation Style 1/Archive 103#False positive check url error Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 17:06, 28 August 2026 (UTC)

Date problem for multiple citations

I need to cite more than 26 different Plants of the World Online pages in one article. For up to 26 this is simple, add a letter to the end of the date, for example:

{{Cite POWO |last1=POWO |date=2026a |id=30010704-2 |title=''Eriogonum umbellatum'' Torr. |access-date=26 September 2026}}

The problem is that when I get to 27, I've run out of letters. If I do the standard citation thing I would start over with 2026aa and this throws an error "{{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)". Advice/suggestions? 🌿MtBotany (talk) 23:42, 26 September 2026 (UTC)

@MtBotany: If you need to cite more than a few different pages from the same publication, it's probably time to consider shortened footnotes. See Mary Mallon, Alison Frantz or Misti, which all were TFA recently. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 07:23, 27 September 2026 (UTC)

Using shortened footnotes is what is getting me into trouble here. At least as far as the usual way of distinguishing between citation with identical dates and authors by appending letters to the date. See User:MtBotany/sandkasten to see what I'm working on. I've got 42 different pages on Plants of the World Online to cite due to the particular species having 41 recognized scientific varieties. I would prefer to use {{sfn}}, but I might end up having to use inline citations.

It seems like it would be a cludge to cite the database as a whole and then put in the scientific name into the foot note like {{sfn|POWO|2026|loc=''Eriogonum umbellatum'' var. ''versicolor''}}. 🌿MtBotany (talk) 18:03, 27 September 2026 (UTC)

1995

Noted a timestamp error at Wayback Machine, replicated below. Perhaps we can change the cutoff from 1996 to 1995 since there are verified archived pages from 1995?

<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbcnc.org.uk/index.html|title=((Wayback Machine snapshot of the page 'BBC web server page'))|work=Wayback Machine|publisher=[[Internet Archive]] |date=March 1, 1995| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19950301190227/http://www.bbcnc.org.uk/index.html|archivedate=March 1, 1995}}{{cbignore}}<!-- NOTE: reference and work is to the Wayback snapshot --></ref>

References

 Mr.choppers | ✎  02:09, 21 October 2026 (UTC)