User talk:Citation bot

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Bot should add more than four editors and add displayeditors=29 if there are exactly 4 editors

Status

new bug / feature request (two related features in one request)

Reported by

– Jonesey95 (talk) 23:49, 21 September 2013 (UTC)

Type of bug

Improvement

What happens

Bot limits editors to four first names and four last names.

What should happen

Bot should retrieve all editors and add "displayeditors=29" parameter if there are exactly four editors.

Replication instructions

Run the citation expander on a citation that has four editors listed but more than four editors in the original work. Here's one example: Template:Cite_doi/10.1007.2F978-0-387-78705-3 (revert the citation to four editors and then run the bot on it).

We can't proceed until

Bot operator's feedback on what is feasible

Requested action from maintainer

Remove four-editor limit from bot code and add "displayeditors=29" to citations with exactly four authors.

The bot should add "displayeditors=29" if there are exactly four editors to avoid the Lua error described for exactly 9 authors above. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:49, 21 September 2013 (UTC)

Turns Wikilink for author into broken brackets

Status

new bug

Reported by

Bgwhite (talk) 06:43, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

Type of bug

Inconvenience

What happens

Turns |author=[[Stacy Mintzer Herlihy|Herlihy, Stacy Mintzer]], [[E. Allison Hagood|Hagood, E. Allison]], [[Paul A. Offit|Offit, Paul A.]] --> |author-separator=,|author1 = Herlihy|author2 = Stacy Mintzer]]|author3=Hagood|author4=E. Allison]]|author5=Offit|author6=Paul A.]]

Relevant diffs/links

Diff. Look at the bottom. This is the 6th time today I've come across this. I don't remember seeing this before, so it must in recent changes of the code. Update: Here's another example.

We can't proceed until

Bot operator's feedback on what is feasible

For

|author=[[Stacy Mintzer Herlihy|Herlihy, Stacy Mintzer]], [[E. Allison Hagood|Hagood, E. Allison]], [[Paul A. Offit|Offit, Paul A.]]

the expected output from the bot would be

|authorlink1=Stacy Mintzer Herlihy |last1=Herlihy |first1=Stacy Mintzer |authorlink2=E. Allison Hagood |last2=Hagood |first2=E. Allison |authorlink3=Paul A. Offit |last3=Offit |first3=Paul A.

The Graphene example is not the same problem: the ref had an unbalanced ]] and the bot simply removed that without altering the rest of the ref. --Redrose64 (talk) 08:13, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

Redrose64, Graphene is the same problem as there was no unbalanced bracket in the reference.

Original ref

|author = Wang, X.; Li, X.; Zhang, L.; Yoon, Y.; Weber, P. K.; Wang, H.; Guo, J.; [[Hongjie Dai|Dai, H.]]

After Citation bot:

|author-separator = ; |author1 = Wang |first1 = X. |last2 = Li |first2 = X. |last3 = Zhang |first3 = L. |last4 = Yoon |first4 = Y. |last5 = Weber |first5 = P. K. |last6 = Wang |first6 = H. |last7 = Guo |first7 = J. |last8 = Dai |first8 = H.]] |authorlink8 = Hongjie Dai

Bgwhite (talk) 17:29, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

Ah yes: I had assumed that since your first link (Vaccine controversies) was to the problem edit, the second link (Graphene) would also be to the problem edit. Instead, it seems that it's a link to your fix for the previous edit to that page. --Redrose64 (talk) 17:36, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

Before the bot edit, most of the cite journal templates in the Graphene article used a single author parameter to store the authors. Furthermore the wikilinks were fully functional before the bot edit. The bot is inserting a ridiculous number of new parameters in these templates in an attempt to produce clean metadata that no one will use. It would be better to leave the author parameters in these templates untouched. Boghog (talk) 07:01, 27 March 2014 (UTC)

Using |author= (singular) to store multiple names doesn't seem like a good idea. Before Citation Bot got to work, Revision 600716072 contained stuff like this:

• <ref name="Saito92">{{Cite journal |author =Saito, R. ''et al.'' |title = Electronic structure of graphene tubules based on C60|doi=10.1103/PhysRevB.46.1804 |journal = Physical Review B | volume = 46 | page = 1804 |year =1992|bibcode = 1992PhRvB..46.1804S |issue =3 |first2 =Mitsutaka |first3 =G. |first4 =M. }}</ref> - with a name and "et al" in "author" and then a load of first, but not last, names later in the list.
• <ref name=SiCplusH2>{{Cite journal |author = Riedl C., Coletti C., Iwasaki T., Zakharov A.A., Starke U. |year = 2009 |title = Quasi-Free-Standing Epitaxial Graphene on SiC Obtained by Hydrogen Intercalation |journal = Physical Review Letters |volume = 103 |page = 246804 |doi = 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.246804 |pmid=20366220 |bibcode=2009PhRvL.103x6804R |issue = 24|arxiv = 0911.1953 }}</ref> - with multiple names in "author" separated by commas.
• <ref>{{Cite journal |laysummary = http://news.ufl.edu/2009/05/07/graphene/ |author = Wang, X.; Li, X.; Zhang, L.; Yoon, Y.; Weber, P. K.; Wang, H.; Guo, J.; [[Hongjie Dai|Dai, H.]] |journal = Science |volume = 324 |issue = 5928 |year = 2009 |pmid = 19423822 | doi = 10.1126/science.1170335 |title = N-Doping of Graphene Through Electrothermal Reactions with Ammonia |bibcode = 2009Sci...324..768W |pages = 768–71 }}</ref> - with multiple names in "author" separated by semi-colons.
• <ref>{{cite journal|author=[[Peter Debye|Debije P]], Scherrer P|year = 1916|title=Interferenz an regellos orientierten Teilchen im Röntgenlicht I|journal=Physikalische Zeitschrift|volume=17|page=277}}</ref> - lists of names in "author" with some of the names wikilinked.

I prefer using "last"/"first" for persons and "author" for committees, departments and organisations. Using "authorlink" is more robust and this works with both the "last"/"first" and "author" parameters.

Citation bot made a bit of a mess in the Graphene article.

Why did it do this to the patent?

• {{citation|patent|US|6667100}} ->
• {{Cite document|patent|US|6667100|ref = harv|postscript = <!-- Bot inserted parameter. Either remove it; or change its value to "." for the cite to end in a ".", as necessary. -->{{inconsistent citations}}}}

Why does the "last2" parameter get added at the end of the list of names instead of at the beginning? Why is "et al" not cleared from "author"? Why is "author" not changed to "last"/"first" to match the rest?

• <ref name=K>{{Cite journal | author = Chen, J. H. ''et al.'' |title = Charged Impurity Scattering in Graphene |doi=10.1038/nphys935 |journal = Nature Physics | volume = 4 | pages = 377–381 |year = 2008 |bibcode = 2008NatPh...4..377C | issue=5 | first2 = C. | first3 = S. | first4 = M. S. | first5 = E. D. | first6 = M.|arxiv = 0708.2408 }}</ref> ->
• <ref name=K>{{Cite journal | author = Chen, J. H. ''et al.'' |title = Charged Impurity Scattering in Graphene |doi=10.1038/nphys935 |journal = Nature Physics | volume = 4 | pages = 377–381 |year = 2008 |bibcode = 2008NatPh...4..377C | issue=5 | first2 = C. |last3 = Adam | first3 = S. |last4 = Fuhrer | first4 = M. S. |last5 = Williams | first5 = E. D. |last6 = Ishigami | first6 = M.|arxiv = 0708.2408 |last2 = Jang }}</ref>

Why did the bot duplicate the name found in "last2"/"first2" into "last3"/"first3"?

• <ref>{{cite journal |journal=Rev. Mod. Phys. |year=2002 |volume=74 |page=601 |doi=10.1103/RevModPhys.74.601 |bibcode=2002RvMP...74..601O |title=Electronic excitations: Density-functional versus many-body Green's-function approaches |last1=Onida |first1=Giovanni |last2=Rubio |first2=Angel |issue=2}}</ref> ->
• <ref>{{cite journal |journal=Rev. Mod. Phys. |year=2002 |volume=74 |page=601 |doi=10.1103/RevModPhys.74.601 |bibcode=2002RvMP...74..601O |title=Electronic excitations: Density-functional versus many-body Green's-function approaches |last1=Onida |first1=Giovanni |last2=Rubio |first2=Angel |last3=Rubio |first3=Angel |issue=2}}</ref>

Why are only "last2" to "last6" created and not "first2" to "first6"? Why is the "author" parameter with six names in it left untouched? This causes duplication in display.

• <ref name=nmscrolling>{{Cite journal |author = S. Braga, V. R. Coluci, S. B. Legoas, R. Giro, D. S. Galvão, R. H. Baughman |year = 2004 |title = Structure and Dynamics of Carbon Nanoscrolls |journal = Nano Letters |volume = 4 |page = 881 |doi=10.1021/nl0497272 |bibcode = 2004NanoL...4..881B |issue = 5 }}</ref> ->
• <ref name=nmscrolling>{{Cite journal |author = S. Braga, V. R. Coluci, S. B. Legoas, R. Giro, D. S. Galvão, R. H. Baughman |year = 2004 |title = Structure and Dynamics of Carbon Nanoscrolls |journal = Nano Letters |volume = 4 |page = 881 |doi=10.1021/nl0497272 |bibcode = 2004NanoL...4..881B |issue = 5 |last2 = Coluci |last3 = Legoas |last4 = Giro |last5 = Galvão |last6 = Baughman }}</ref>

Why was the working Wiley URL changed to a DOI attribute and then immediately marked as "dead"?

• <ref>{{cite web|url=http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.200904383/abstract |title=Graphene-On-Silicon Schottky Junction Solar Cells |date= APR，9，2010}}</ref> ->
• <ref>{{cite web|doi=10.1002/adma.200904383/abstract |title=Graphene-On-Silicon Schottky Junction Solar Cells |date= APR，9，2010|doi_brokendate=2014-03-24 }}</ref>

I have manually fixed those and very many other errors. Although the parameter names are now the same for all references, there is very little consistency in the format of some of the data in the parameters. I have fixed all the dates, but "first names" are a mixture of either first name or initials, the latter found both with or without periods. -- 79.67.241.76 (talk) 00:43, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

Another article today, Delimiter. It messed up three refs. Bgwhite (talk) 06:35, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

"Using |author= (singular) to store multiple names doesn't seem like a good idea." – Why not? Using a single parameter to store multiple authors produces more compact templates that don't overwhelm the surrounding wikitext. The only down side is that is doesn't produce clean author metadata. However how many consumers of Wikipedia citation metadata are there? I suspect not very many. I agree that it is perhaps more logical to store multiple authors in |authors= (plural). Nevertheless, per consensus and long established usage and consistent with the current {{cite journal}} documentation, full author lists can be stored in a single field called either "authors" or "author" without need for additional numbered author parameters. Boghog (talk) 07:07, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

With a free form input using "authors", there will be no consistency of display. Before Citation Bot got to work, the Graphene article contained the following names in references:

Extended content

Comma between names (last-first): |author=Hassel O, Mack H | - no period after initial | author = Bordag M., Fialkovsky I. V., Gitman D. M., Vassilevich D. V. | - period after initial Comma in name (last-first) |author = Lifshitz, I.M. | - period after each initial, but no space between initials | author = Carlsson, J. M. | - period after each inital and space between initials |author =Mouras, S. ''et al.'' | - plus "et al." in italics |author = Fraundorf, P. and Wackenhut, M. | - one initial, with "and" between names |author = DiVincenzo, D. P. and Mele, E. J. | - two initials, with "and" between names comma in and between names (last-first) |author =Wang, Z. F., Shi, Q. W., Li, Q., Wang, X., Hou, J. G., Zheng, H., et al. | Semi-colon between names (last-first): |author = Denis, P. A.; Iribarne F. | | author = Kasuya, D.; Yudasaka, M.; Takahashi, K.; Kokai, F.; Iijima, S. | |author = Yamada, Y.; Murota, K; Fujita, R; Kim, J; et al. | - plus "et al.", but not in italics Comma between names (first-last): |author = J.A. Alexander-Webber, A.M.R. Baker, T.J.B.M. Janssen, A. Tzalenchuk, S. Lara-Avila, S. Kubatkin, R. Yakimova, B. A. Piot, D. K. Maude, and R.J. Nicholas | - space, or not, between initials, with "and" before final entry |author = O. B. Shenderova, V. V. Zhirnov, D. W. Brenner | - initials before last name |author=Dima Bolmatov, Chung-Yu Mou | - full first name before last name |author = Xiaosong Wu, Yike Hu, Ming Ruan, Nerasoa K Madiomanana, John Hankinson, Mike Sprinkle, Claire Berger, Walt A. de Heer | - list of names, comma separated | author = Junfeng Liu, A. R. Wright, Chao Zhang, and Zhongshui Ma | - either initials or full first name, with "and" before final entry |author = Jinming Cai, Pascal Ruffieux, Rached Jaafar, Marco Bieri, Thomas Braun, Stephan Blankenburg, Matthias Muoth, Ari P. Seitsonen, Moussa Saleh, Xinliang Feng, Klaus Müllen & Roman Fasel | - full first name, with "&" before final entry | author = Sungjin Park, Dmitriy A. Dikin, SonBinh T. Nguyen, and Rodney S. Ruoff | - full first name, with "and" before final entry |author = S. Eigler | - initial and last name | author = A Castro Neto, ''et al.'' | - one name plus "et al." in italics | author=Hadar Steinberg, Gilad Barak, Amir Yacoby, et al | - list of names plus "et al." not in italics errors: |author =Saito, R. ''et al.'' | ... |first2 =Mitsutaka |first3 =G. |first4 =M. | - with "et al." followed by extra "first" parameters, but no matching "last" parameters | author = Bernatowicz | ... | author2 = T. J. | ... | last3 = Gibbons | first3 = Patrick C. | last4 = Lodders | first4 = Katharina | last5 = Fegley | first5 = Bruce | last6 = Amari | first6 = Sachiko | last7 = Lewis | first7 = Roy S. | - first entry spread over "author1" and "author2" |last=Igor A. Luk’yanchuk and Yakov Kopelevich | ... |first1=Igor|last2=Kopelevich |first2=Yakov | - two full names in "last" then "first1", "last2" and "first2" repeating parts of those names separate last and first parameters with coauthors: |last = Stolyarova |first = Elena |coauthors = et al. | - deprecated parameter containing "et al." |last=Lamas |first=C.A. |coauthors=D. C. Cabra, and N. Grandi | - deprecated parameter containing list of authors individual parameters, almost the "right" way: |first1=A. B. |last1=Kuzmenko |first2=E. |last2=Van Heumen |first3=F. |last3=Carbone |first4=D. |last4=Van Der Marel | - first names (mostly) as initials |last1=Min |first1=Hongki |last2=Sahu |first2=Bhagawan |last3=Banerjee |first3=Sanjay |last4=MacDonald |first4=A. | - first names (mostly) in full

There were also references that would not display because the reference name had been duplicated, four or five different date formats including dates like "SEP，03，2013" with Chinese characters in them and many other issues. Half the "et al." were in italics and half were not.

By changing to separate parameters for names, all names display in "last, first" order with the same separators throughout. The only variation is whether the first name is stated in full or is initials, and whether there are periods after initials or not. A bot can fix those entries to be consistent. If "et al." is specified it is currently in |authorn+1= where n is the highest numbered "lastn"/"firstn" parameter. The number of authors to display can also be set using the |display-authors= parameter. -- 79.67.241.76 (talk) 11:19, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

The format of the author names could just as easily been standardized using a single author parameter which would have avoided all the parameter bloat. There is no "house style" for citations, hence there is no single "right way" to format citations. A single author parameter was the predominate style before your edits. Per WP:CITEVAR, if you want to change this style, you should have obtained consensus for this change on the article talk page before your edits. Boghog (talk) 12:35, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

If you want to list more than one author in a parameter, then use |authors=. If you want to use a single author, use |author=. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 11:28, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

"Molecular and cellular biology" instead of "Molecular and Cellular Biology"

Status

feature request

Reported by

Saimondo (talk) 16:21, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

Type of bug

Inconvenience: Humans must occasionally make immediate edits to clean up after the bot

What happens

Bot writes for example "Molecular and cellular biology" instead of "Molecular and Cellular Biology" by autofilling with PMID 9858585

Relevant diffs/links

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template%3ACite_pmid%2F9858585&diff=619550325&oldid=604044373

Replication instructions

autocomplete with PMID 9858585

We can't proceed until

Agreement on the best solution

Data on NCBI seems to be ok: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC83919/ where the Journal is written as "Mol Cell Biol." on the webpage and as "MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY" in the full text pdf.

What to do in those cases? Include "Molecular and Cellular Biology" in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Citation_bot/capitalisation_exclusions in sush cases?

The same with

-"The Journal of biological chemistry" e.g. PMID 9858585

-"The Journal of cell biology" e.g. PMID 9763423

an other cases seen in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:RecentChangesLinked/Category:Cite_doi_templates ? Thanks--Saimondo (talk) 16:21, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

Actually PubMed lists the journal as "Molecular and cellular biology" in the webpage meta data. A very minor case of GIGO. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 02:31, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

Perhaps its worth quoting the University of Chicago Manual of Style (14th ed.) on this matter:

"In regular title capitalization, also known as headline style, the first and last words and all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinating conjunctions (if, because, as, that, etc.) are capitalized. Articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, for, nor), and prepositions, regardless of length are lowercased unless they are the first or last word of the title or subtitle. The to in infinitives is also lowercased."

On the other hand, it is common in library cataloging following MARC format to capitalize only the initial word, proper nouns, and, if the title begins with an article, that article and the following noun.

Wikipedia citations should follow citation style, rather than library cataloging style. In this case, the appropriate form would be "Molecular and Cellular Biology". The Wikipedia Manual of Style provides much the same advice on the capitalization of titles. SteveMcCluskey (talk) 18:40, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

I am not very familiar with PHP (the language that Citation Bot is coded in), but it would appear that there is a mb_convert_case function:

 $str = mb_convert_case($str, MB_CASE_TITLE, "UTF-8");

that can transform a string into title case (i.e., capitalize the first and last words of the title and all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinating conjunctions). This function would probably work well for most journal names. Boghog (talk) 19:15, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

This should be easy to implement, but I anticipate that some time down the line it will upset someone. Before I implement it, could we establish consensus and file a bot approval request if necessary? Thanks. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 08:49, 25 August 2014 (UTC)

How about your implement it for adding journal titles, but don't implement it for changing existing entries. Eventually, the list of titles that violate the rules will be built up, and then you can make it is a fix for existing journal titles. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 01:48, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

You are of course right, it´s no error it´s the catalog style NCBI is using. I don´t have the complete overview what capitalization format is obtained by the doi or issn vs pmid queries. But if you use the cite-> templates-> cite journal option here in the edit window and use autofill with the doi:10.1128/MCB.00698-14 you get "Molecular and Cellular Biology" if you use the same publications PMID 25022755 with autofill you get "Molecular and cellular biology". If capitalization means also harmonization I think few wikipedians would be against it.

Furthermore, as far as I understand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#Titles_of_works the capitalization format like above should be ok (I have the impression that most journals use capitalization for their own names on their homepages/pdfs). Should we ask on the Manual of style talk page to see if there´s a consensus for capitalization? In case someone is interested, here is a recent reply of an email I (re-)sent to NCBI some time ago:

"...Standard cataloging requires that the first word in the full journal title begins with an upper case letter and remaining words (except for proper nouns) begin with lower case. Journal title abbreviations begin with all upper-case letters. I checked the XML data for several journals and found that each of the title listed in this manner. You can see several examples at the bottom of this document:

Fact Sheet: Construction of the National Library of Medicine Title Abbreviations http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/constructitle.html Sincerely, Ellen M. L. ...

-Original Message-

Dear NCBI Team, in the xml data of a specific article https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9858585?dopt=Abstract&report=xml&format=text the journal name is written "Molecular and cellular biology" and the abbreviation is "Mol Cell Biol.". I think the correct journal name should be "Molecular and Cellular Biology" as written on the journal homepage http://mcb.asm.org/content/19/1/612.long ." Saimondo (talk) 17:29, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

Issue & Number

Status

new bug

Reported by

It Is Me Here ^{t / c} 11:31, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

Type of bug

Inconvenience: Humans must occasionally make immediate edits to clean up after the bot

What happens

If an instance of {{cite journal}} has no |issue=φ, the Bot adds it, even if the {{cite journal}} already has |number=φ, throwing up a red error in read mode.

What should happen

It should do nothing (bypass {{cite journal}}s with |number=φ).

Relevant diffs/links

[1]

We can't proceed until

Agreement on the best solution

Here's another one, done by citation bot 579. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:34, 10 October 2014 (UTC)

Bot v579 added only last names, not first names

Status

new bug

Reported by

– Jonesey95 (talk) 05:15, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

Type of bug

Inconvenience

What happens

Bot adds only last names to a citation

What should happen

Bot should add first initials as well

Relevant diffs/links

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Altai-Sayan_region&diff=prev&oldid=624114302

Replication instructions

Run the bot on the previous version of the article linked above

We can't proceed until

Bot operator's feedback on what is feasible

This is because it already had authors= present AManWithNoPlan (talk) 04:00, 5 September 2014 (UTC)

author= converted to authors= and author=

Status

new bug

Reported by

– Jonesey95 (talk) 20:56, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Type of bug

Inconvenience: Humans must occasionally make immediate edits to clean up after the bot

What happens

author= converted to authors= and author= (redundant parameters)

What should happen

Bot should choose either |author= or |authors=

Relevant diffs/links

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Palm_oil&diff=629440195&oldid=628916065

We can't proceed until

"Operator"

See the diff. The bot converted author=Vega-López, Sonia et al. to authors=Vega-López, Sonia | author=Vega-López, Sonia|displayauthors=1|author2=and others.

There is a similar problem here, where |author= was left in place while |last1= etc. were added. The bot should choose one or the other. – Jonesey95 (talk) 20:56, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

This edit is similar, but it also added "author2=et al." instead of the author's actual name. Setting |displayauthors= to 1 generates "et al." automatically. If someone manually removes |displayauthors=, the author names will be wrong. – Jonesey95 (talk) 05:59, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

This bug is still present. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:39, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

As shown here the bot hasn't been edited since 1 September. Still needs a relief operator. LeadSongDog come howl! 04:45, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Bot Cat579 added unsupported |eprint=, which was supposedly fixed in r572

Status

new bug

Reported by

– Jonesey95 (talk) 06:08, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

Type of bug

Inconvenience

What happens

Bot adds |eprint=, which is not a valid parameter in {{cite journal}}

What should happen

Bot should not add |eprint=

Relevant diffs/links

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HR_8799_c&diff=630333538&oldid=608523277

We can't proceed until

Bot operator's feedback on what is feasible

It looks like the bug that was fixed in r572 was the removal of a valid URL for citations sourced in the arXiv database. The bot is still adding |eprint=, however, which I believe is valid in {{cite arxiv}} but not in {{cite journal}}. – Jonesey95 (talk) 06:08, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

Bot unnecessarily adding last2, last3, last4, ... parameters

Status

unresolved ongoing bug

Reported by

Boghog (talk) 19:48, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

Type of bug

Deleterious

What happens

When the full author list is stored in |author=, the bot adds |last2=, |last3=, |last4=, ... without the corresponding |first2=, |first3=, |first4=, ...

What should happen

If |author= contains the full author list, then the bot should not add |last2=, |last3=, |last4=, ... parameters

Relevant diffs/links

diff, diff, diff, diff, diff, diff, ...

We can't proceed until

Bot operator's feedback on what is feasible

Requested action from maintainer

If |author= contains a complete author list, do not unnecessarily add |last2=, |last3=, |last4=, ...

This is essentially the same bug that was previously reported here but it still occurring. Boghog (talk) 19:48, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

 Not a bug. Or perhaps, only to the extent that you consider the "lastn" (etc.) parameters to be errors.

 There have been several discussions on stuffing "full author lists" into the [c]author[s] parameters (e.g.: Module_talk:Citation/CS1/Archive_9#Coauthors_2). That is certainly a dubious practice, and perhaps it is time to deprecate it. But this is not the place for that. ~ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 20:19, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

Absolutely a bug. It is redundant and unnecessary to add lastn parameters to these citations. Even if one wanted such parameters, the bot has done this incorrectly by not also adding the corresponding firstn parameters and removing the author parameter. Furthermore this "correct" behavior would be in clear violation of WP:CITEVAR. The use of a single author parameter to store full Vancouver formatted author lists is widely used and has long been accepted. The bot should not make changes to citations that were not asked for. What is dubious practice is firstn, lastn nonsense that clutters up Wikitext to generate meta data that no one uses or should use. Wikipedia is not a reliable source and this extends to citations. Boghog (talk) 21:05, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

There is no redundancy in separating a list of authors into individual authors, or splitting an author's last name (which is the basis for alphabetizing) from the rest. And if you think that the "lastn" and "firstn" parameters are "nonsense that clutters up Wikitext" you probably aren't happy using citation templates in the first place, so perhaps you should just use straight text, manually formatted. Except, of course, where use of templates has already been established. ~ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 22:13, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

Please look carefully at the diffs above. What citation bot has done is add lastn parameters and left the existing author parameter in place. As a consequence, author last names are now listed twice, once in the author parameter and again in lastn parameters. That is redundancy. You probably aren't happy using citation templates in the first place – nothing could be further from the truth. I quite often convert non-templated citations to {{cite journal}} templated citations (see this diff, there are thousands of similar examples in my edit history). Furthermore I maintain this template filling tool that generates {{cite journal}} formatted citations. Spliting author data between firstn, lastn parameters is an excessive level of data granularity that becomes unwieldy if there are a large number of authors. The Vancouver system provides a compact comma delimited list that unambiguously defines authors' first and last names. Boghog (talk) 05:40, 26 October 2014 (UTC)

Any use of any of the citation templates in the wikitext — i.e., within <ref>...</ref> tags — introduces clutter, so it is inconsistent for you object to "clutter" only in regard of author parameters. (As a side note: I find all bibliographic details clutter the text, which is why I put them into a separate section.) If your complaint is that, after adding "lastn" parameters, the bot failed to remove the corresponding "author" parameters, then I would concur that is a bug. But that is just what you are asking for: to retain the questionable "author" parameters. As to splitting the author names: that is not a bug, that is the intended result. ~ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 21:41, 26 October 2014 (UTC)

Good, we now both agree that there is a bug, but your solution is a clear violation of WP:CITEVAR. Storing full author lists in a single author parameter has not been deprecated and you have not explained why this use is questionable. Quite to the contrary, the use of "firstn, lastn" parameters becomes ridiculous if there are a large number of authors. Furthermore it is completely unnecessary if the author list follows the Vancouver system. The reason to use templates is so that the data can easily be parsed to provide a consistent rendering of the citations, wiki links, maintained by bots, etc. The Vancouver system author format can easily be parsed without the need for verbose firstn, lastn parameters. It just that the maintainers of Module:Citation/CS1 have resisted doing so. ({{vcite2 journal}} provides a possible way forward if functionality were added to this template to parse the author parameter to internally generate firstn, lastn parameters). I also occasionally use list defined references, but some editors object to these because it splits the text from the supporting sources. Regardless of whether these lists are a good idea or not, most articles don't use these. Finally, templates should be concise containing no more overhead than is necessary to do its job. I see the value of separate parameters for title, journal name, date, etc. but splitting author data into firstn, lastn parameters is an excessive and unnecessary degree of data granularity. So I disagree that I am being inconsistent. Boghog (talk) 03:35, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

Neither is deprecated. The right behaviour is to standardize on the predominant type, or failing that, leave the existing form. The bot is doing neither, but that is not the egregious part. The bot is populating the same author in both ways, creating the appearance of two authors of the same name! LeadSongDog come howl! 03:48, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

This is ridiculous, the bot needs to be halted until this issue is fixed. The bot shouldn't add lastn, firstn, author, authors and similar unless none of the above is specified already, that's it, I don't get why it's even a matter of discussion. Ihaveacatonmydesk (talk) 17:16, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

No, we don't agree. Or rather: I will agree there is a bug if you agree that it is in retention of misused "author" parameters. But obviously you don't. If you want to argue about apppropriate "data granularity" or "clutter", fine, but those aren't bugs, so this is the wrong place. ~ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 19:25, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

But yes, we do agree :-). We just need to replace |author= with |vauthors= and convince the maintainers of Module:Citation/CS1 to parse the later to internally create firstn, lastn parameters. Agreed? A brilliant idea that should make everyone happy. With this solution, we can reduce the clutter while still generating clean metadata and fully supporting |authorlinkn=, |display-authors=, etc. We can also introduce error checking to make sure the content of |vauthors= is compliant with the Vancouver system. Boghog (talk) 20:43, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

Sorry, still no. The core issue is "data granularity" (as you call it), and particularly whether multiple authors ("author lists") should be allowed in a single parameter. (And possibly including whether authors' names should be split into first/last.) Whether the parameter involved is |author=, |authors=, |coauthor=, |coauthors=, |vauthors=, or any other parameter, is immaterial. ~ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 21:32, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

It appears that you have taken the position that is self evident that that authors names must be split into different parameters with out providing a shred of evidence that this is true. The only rational reason for maintaining such a position is that is essential for parsing and error checking the data, and as I have explained above, neither is true. The Vancouver system provides an unambiguous method for parsing author data. When the data is formatted in this style, explicit firstn, lastn parameters become superfluous. These parameters can be generated internally on-the-fly. Boghog (talk) 22:00, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

No, but the issue of whether to split or not is deep enough it should be split off from the specifics of this bot's behavior. ~ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 20:51, 30 October 2014 (UTC)

You still have not explained why splitting is essentiall, but I would agree this is not the place to have this discussion. Boghog (talk) 07:51, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

@Boghog: "Just parse it automatically" is a bad idea. See http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/ for why. —David Eppstein (talk) 21:50, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

I totally agree. That is precisely the reason for proposing |vauthors= so that this type of parsing is only done when this specific parameter is specified. Boghog (talk) 22:06, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

Another essential part of the proposal is error checking. The string would only be parsed if it conforms to the Vancouver system. If it does not conform, an error is thrown. Boghog (talk) 22:37, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

It's not a matter of agreeing or not agreeing: the page is fine here [2], then the bot intervenes and the templates are throwing errors [3]. So it is a bug. Ihaveacatonmydesk (talk) 20:32, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

edit: I took that as an example but the examples boghog linked are better suited. My example just proves that this bot has a history of messing with authors parameters and the devs just won't (or can't) fix its behavior. Ihaveacatonmydesk (talk) 20:36, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

Thanks Ihaveacatonmydesk. I didn't realize that some of the bot edits resulted in throwing errors. The problem is worse than I thought. This needs to be fixed immediately. Boghog (talk) 20:55, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

That was an old version of the bot, that particular issue might have been fixed. Still, I consider the issues it creates now as dire as those I linked. A bot should never need this amount of babysitting. Ihaveacatonmydesk (talk) 21:04, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

I would agree that this bot has been troublesome, which is why I tend to block it from pages I work on. I would also favor blocking it. ~ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 20:55, 30 October 2014 (UTC)

I believe that the bug described here is a duplicate of one described above. I have found that e-mailing the bot's maintainer is more effective than posting here at eliciting a response to requests perceived as urgent. In the meantime, the undo link is always available to you, and there are instructions for blocking the bot from specific articles displayed on the bot's user page. – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:01, 28 October 2014 (UTC)

It's not the bot that's been troublesome, so much as that needed behaviour of the bot keeps being shifted by changes to the template code. That said, the bot hasn't made an edit since 25 October, so there's no panic needed. LeadSongDog come howl! 21:14, 30 October 2014 (UTC)

Even if the addition of lastn was not a bug (and it clearly is), firstn should be added. (And it's still happening.) — Arthur Rubin (talk) 10:49, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

Hello! Anyone there??? Boghog (talk) 20:43, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

Workaround based on {{vcite2 journal}}

As a follow-up to the above discussion, a new {{vcite2 journal}} template with an optional |vauthors= parameter has been recently created. This close variant of {{cite journal}} supports assignment of multiple authors in Vancouver format (a comma separated list containing no semi colons or periods) to a single |vauthors= parameter that generates clean author metadata. In all other respects, {{vcite2 journal}} is identical to {{cite journal}}. Hence I would request that instead of adding last2, last3, last4, ... parameters to citations with Vancouver style author format that the bot instead replace {{cite journal | author}} with {{vcite2 journal | vauthors}}. Boghog (talk) 16:02, 6 January 2015 (UTC)

Comments cause trouble

Status

new bug

Reported by

– Jonesey95 (talk) 02:54, 9 November 2014 (UTC)

Type of bug

Inconvenience: Humans must occasionally make immediate edits to clean up after the bot

What happens

Bot changed |publisher= to |DUPLICATE_publisher= in the absence of a duplicate publisher parameter

What should happen

Bot should not do that.

Relevant diffs/links

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fathima_Beevi&diff=629715024&oldid=610463414

We can't proceed until

Bot operator's feedback on what is feasible

As far as I can tell, there were no duplicated parameters when the bot did its edit. – Jonesey95 (talk) 02:54, 9 November 2014 (UTC)

How did you get this? The bot is not currently working.--Auric talk 13:49, 9 November 2014 (UTC)

The edit is date-stamped 15 October 2014. I just discovered it yesterday while going through Category:Pages with citations using unsupported parameters. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:48, 9 November 2014 (UTC)

Here's another similar one, adding DUPLICATE to |archiveurl= and |archivedate=. – Jonesey95 (talk) 19:53, 10 November 2014 (UTC)

This looks like it related to comments in the references in all cases. This appears to be a common thread in bot bugs on this page. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 04:45, 1 February 2015 (UTC)

Adding bogus |year= https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wealden_Line&diff=629805699&oldid=629545497

This doesn't expand: typical.{{ref doi|10.1111/j.1096-3642.1950.tb01699.x}} listed [http://www.iucnredlist.org/ List<!-- Bot -->]

DUPLICATE_ added: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=509th_Composite_Group&diff=636859536&oldid=636220208

DUPLICATE_ added: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shapley%E2%80%93Folkman_lemma&diff=655089982&oldid=651991293

Bot added |first1= when |first= was already present

Status

new bug

Reported by

– Jonesey95 (talk) 01:05, 10 November 2014 (UTC)

Type of bug

Inconvenience

What happens

Bot added |first1= when |first= was already present

What should happen

Bot should avoid creating redundant parameters

Relevant diffs/links

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template%3ACite_pmid%2F17504652&diff=633165136&oldid=587566456

We can't proceed until

Bot operator's feedback on what is feasible

issue vs. volume confusion for journals with no volumes

Status

new bug

Reported by

All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 01:38, 11 November 2014 (UTC).

Type of bug

Inconvenience

What happens

for the journal ZookKeys changes the issue number to a volume number.

What should happen

Should understand that this number is an issue number with this particular journal

Relevant diffs/links

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aegista_diversifamilia&diff=630393100&oldid=629974617 - see discussion here

Replication instructions

A similar ZooKeys doi template

We can't proceed until

Bot operator's feedback on what is feasible

Requested action from maintainer

Build in specific knowledge of this journal's numbering scheme. Possibly a list of one, unless and until other similar items are found.

Bot found |first9=LH et al. and added |author10=and others and |displayauthors=9

Status

new bug

Reported by

– Jonesey95 (talk) 05:36, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

Type of bug

Inconvenience

What happens

Bot found |first9=LH et al. and added |author10= and |displayauthors=9 without modifying |first9=, leaving the citation displaying "et al. et al." after the ninth author's first name.

What should happen

Bot should remove "et al." from |first9=.

Relevant diffs/links

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plasmodium_species_infecting_primates&diff=next&oldid=633522375

We can't proceed until

Bot operator's feedback on what is feasible

Bot used "author4=and others" in place of real author #4 on a 7-author reference.

Status

new bug

Reported by

Srleffler (talk) 12:55, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

Type of bug

Inconvenience

What happens

The article cited has seven authors. Human-entered reference listed two and "last3=et al.". The bot expanded the list to seven with "displayauthors=3", but made "author4=and others" in place of the real author4's name. Author 4 was omitted completely from the list.

Relevant diffs/links

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dispersion_polymerization&diff=637280081&oldid=637163057

We can't proceed until

Bot operator's feedback on what is feasible

duplicated last name

Status

Reported by

TomS TDotO (talk) 19:48, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

What happens

In three different citations which seem to be well-formed, the bot added on parameter last2 (last 3, etc.) for some of the authors. I am leaving the change as is for the moment, for it should only cause inconvenience (temporary confusion) to the reader. So you can see for yourself what happened - see "Yamada", for example. But, of course, someone else may revert the changes (as I will after a while)

Relevant diffs/links

Evolution of mammalian auditory ossicles

We can't proceed until

Agreement on the best solution

Requested action from maintainer

None. Just thought that you should know.

Bot 579 added doi-broken-date when doi-inactive-date was already present

Status

new bug

Reported by

– Jonesey95 (talk) 21:57, 11 January 2015 (UTC)

Type of bug

Inconvenience: Humans must occasionally make immediate edits to clean up after the bot

What happens

Bot 579 added doi-broken-date when doi-inactive-date was already present, creating a redundant parameter error.

What should happen

Bot should either detect doi-inactive-date and ignore it or convert it to doi-broken-date.

Relevant diffs/links

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Creatine_supplements&diff=642045347&oldid=641463809

We can't proceed until

Bot operator's feedback on what is feasible

Adding doi_broken when doi is functional

Status

new bug

Reported by

DrKiernan (talk) 21:25, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

Type of bug

Improvement

What happens

adds "doi_brokendate" when doi is not broken

Relevant diffs/links

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cutthroat_trout&diff=642205196&oldid=637824534

Replication instructions

Have a doi that is not in CrossRef database, but still resolves to a url using dx.doi.org

We can't proceed until

A specific edit to the bot's code is requested below.

Requested action from maintainer

Add code to check if doi works using dx.doi.org before marking as bad, even if crossref does not have doi in it.

Each of those DOIs works fine. I don't know why the bot would have marked these DOIs as broken. Looks like a bug, maybe a timeout value that is too short? – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:12, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

Clearly a timeout problem or a throttle problem on the other end. Running the bot again made them go away on another page. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 15:12, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

That sounds re-assuring, thanks. DrKiernan (talk) 19:20, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Re-running does not repair the broken_doi errors (with me). Blocked to avoid potential damage, hoping this will be fixed/resolved soon. Materialscientist (talk) 00:20, 15 January 2015 (UTC)

Unblocked - seems like the problem is gone. Materialscientist (talk) 04:37, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

The problem persists [4]. Materialscientist (talk) 00:44, 25 January 2015 (UTC)

That doi is not in the crossref database. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 02:57, 25 January 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. Suggestion: before marking a doi as inactive, the bot could verify it at dx.doi.org/[doi number] rather than the crossref database. Materialscientist (talk) 07:14, 25 January 2015 (UTC)

This is still happening. Here Ealdgyth - Talk 12:08, 28 April 2015 (UTC)

I verified that crossref and doi.org were both up and then tried again. Still messed up. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 14:06, 28 April 2015 (UTC)

It's STILL doing it. diff. Can we fix this or stop doing a task or something... it's pretty annoying. Ealdgyth - Talk 15:51, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

the problem is that while the DOI does resolve to a webpage, there is no metadata. http://www.crossref.org/guestquery/ Shows no info when you query. This DOI is half-broken. See http://search.crossref.org/?q=10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.300762 AManWithNoPlan (talk) 16:17, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

Substitute instead of transcluding new {{cite pmid}} templates

Status

new feature request

Reported by

Boghog (talk) 19:19, 7 February 2015 (UTC)

Type of bug

Improvement: The bot should substitute {{cite pmid}}, {{cite doi}}, and {{cite isbn}} templates instead of transcluding citation data from template space.

We can't proceed until

Bot operator's feedback on what is feasible

Per this consensus, a request should be made that the function of Citation Bot be changed so that {{cite pmid}}, {{cite doi}}, and {{cite isbn}} are substituted instead of transcluded. There is also this consensus that existing {{cite pmid}}, etc. templates should be substituted in all WP:MED articles. I am planning to submit a WP:BRFA for a new bot to carry out this task. However before doing that, it would be important that Citation Bot stop creating new transcluded templates and instead substitute them. Boghog (talk) 19:19, 7 February 2015 (UTC)

Don't forget to fix {{cite hdl}} and {{cite jstor}} and any {{cite pmc}} that might exist. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 01:22, 8 February 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for the reminder. {{cite hdl}} – 41 transclusions, {{cite jstor}} – 819 transclusions. The {{cite pmc}} template doesn't exist. Boghog (talk) 06:59, 8 February 2015 (UTC)

Cite pmc became cite pmid per Wikipedia:Templates_for_discussion/Log/2012_May_21#Template:Cite_pmc. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 18:40, 23 February 2015 (UTC)

• @Boghog and AManWithNoPlan: What ever happened to this? It's clear that consensus was achieved in the linked discussion - From the closing: "Existing and future DOI details should be included in articles, however, the bot function should remain, with a BRFA raised to change its function to use cite journal within articles without separate subpages." So it's clear that Citation bot should not be creating new cite doi/pmid/etc subpages, yet here he is, doing it. We're not waiting for consensus on that, we're waiting for the operator, so I changed the "waiting for" parameter on the template. cymru.lass (talk • contribs) 18:01, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

I am still waiting for the bot operator (@Smith609:) to make this change. Without this change, there will be a lot of unnecessary follow-up edits. There is also this related RFC. If that RFC closes the way the first one did, then there will be an even stronger consensus to substitute instead of translcluding these cite templates. Boghog (talk) 19:36, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

Butchered author names

Status

new bug

Reported by

— Smuckola(talk) 22:33, 19 March 2015 (UTC)

What happens

butchered author names

Relevant diffs/links

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mach_(kernel)&diff=next&oldid=652183542

We can't proceed until

Agreement on the best solution

By the way, how can you justify leaving an unmaintained bot in service?

Deprecated parameter |author-separator= added

Status

new bug

Reported by

– Jonesey95 (talk) 23:16, 19 March 2015 (UTC)

Type of bug

Inconvenience

What happens

Deprecated parameter |author-separator= added

Relevant diffs/links

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mach_(kernel)&diff=next&oldid=652183542

We can't proceed until

Bot operator's feedback on what is feasible

|display-authors=9 no longer necessary for exactly nine authors

Status

new bug

Reported by

– Jonesey95 (talk) 01:32, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

Type of bug

Improvement

What happens

The bot adds |display-authors=9 when there are exactly nine authors.

What should happen

The bot should not add |display-authors=9 when there are exactly nine authors.

We can't proceed until

Bot operator's feedback on what is feasible

Requested action from maintainer

Remove code that adds |display-authors=9 when there are exactly nine authors. See Category:CS1 maint: display-authors

Bot creates CS1 errors when attempting to parse authors= parameter containing many names

Status

new bug

Reported by

Stamptrader (talk) 21:07, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

Type of bug

Deleterious

What happens

Bot keeps only the first names and loses all of the last names but one

What should happen

lastn= must be populated as well, not only firstn=

Relevant diffs/links

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Numerical_weather_prediction&diff=657129174&oldid=653604525

We can't proceed until

Agreement on the best solution

Requested action from maintainer

either fix so it no longer creates errors or disable this function

Creating spurious fields for last name of editors

Status

new bug

Reported by

AxelBoldt (talk) 22:16, 26 April 2015 (UTC)

Type of bug

Deleterious: Human-input data is deleted or articles are otherwise significantly affected. Many bot edits require undoing.

What happens

If the bot finds an author-field containing several names, it creates last-fields for all but the first of these authors without modifying the author-field, resulting in author duplication in the reference.

Relevant diffs/links

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Red_blood_cell&diff=641670942&oldid=628344854

We can't proceed until

Agreement on the best solution

Removes accessdate for no-URL citations inside of nowiki tags

Status

new bug

Reported by

Izno (talk) 20:55, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

Type of bug

Inconvenience

What happens

The bot removed an accessdate from a citation without a URL (correctly) where the citation was used an example (and in this case happened to be wrapped in <nowiki>...</nowiki>.

What should happen

I'm not sure, but I think my suggestion is that the bot should not touch citations inside <nowiki>...</nowiki>.

Relevant diffs/links

//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Help_talk:Citation_Style_1&curid=34112310&diff=659936244&oldid=659925010

We can't proceed until

Agreement on the best solution

Edit of talk page

Status

new bug

Reported by

Jc3s5h (talk) 23:18, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

What happens

Edits a talk page, which often discuss citation errors and contain intentional errors.

What should happen

There should be no edits to talk space.

Relevant diffs/links

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Help_talk%3ACitation_Style_1&type=revision&diff=659936244&oldid=659925010

Replication instructions

Put a citation in a talk page and wait.

We can't proceed until

Bot operator's feedback on what is feasible

Cannot run bot on an edit window

Status

new bug

Reported by

— Maile (talk) 15:03, 10 May 2015 (UTC)

Type of bug

Improvement

What happens

Clicking "Citations" in edit window returns 400 Bad Request

What should happen

It should function when Citations is clicked

Relevant diffs/links

https://tools.wmflabs.org/citations/text.php

Replication instructions

Click on Citations in any edit window

We can't proceed until

Agreement on the best solution

I can confirm, encountered this today.--RoadTrain (talk) 10:30, 20 May 2015 (UTC)

For now you can just do the edits, save the page, then run the bot from the sidebar, but that leaves the page saved in a bad state for a while. Probably best to use a sandbox.  :-( AManWithNoPlan (talk) 13:38, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

Hyphens to dashes problem

Status

new bug

Reported by

StarryGrandma (talk) 18:20, 10 May 2015 (UTC)

Type of bug

Deleterious: Human-input data is deleted or articles are otherwise significantly affected. Many bot edits require undoing.

What happens

At Stolen Childhood CitationBOT replaced <ref name=BIP-1995/> with <ref name=BIP–1995/> and so forth.

The bot doesn't change all the reference names, producing broken references. Since a hyphen is one of the allowed characters in a reference name but a dash requires quotes around the name, even changing all the hyphens can lead to problems. Best if the bot stays out of reference names altogether.

Relevant diffs/links

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stolen_Childhood&diff=prev&oldid=645231901]

We can't proceed until

Bot operator's feedback on what is feasible

Still adding redundant author parameters

This bug has already been reported in #Butchered author names, #duplicated last name, #Creating spurious fields for last name of editors, yet it is still happening.[5][6] Please disable the bot until it is fixed. It should be easy to check for commas or semicolons in the author parameter. KateWishing (talk) 13:08, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

Also reported here: #Bot_unnecessarily_adding_last2.2C_last3.2C_last4.2C_..._parameters. Support for a new |vauthors= parameter will soon be added to {{cite journal}} (see discussion). If an author list contains only commas as punctuation, it is likely to be formatted in the Vancouver system. In these cases, it would be appropriate for the bot to rename |author= to |vauthors= instead of adding redundant author parameters. One of the arguments for not supporting multiple authors in a single author parameter in {{cite journal}} was that it was not documented. |vauthors= will soon be documented hence there are no more excuses for not fixing this bug. The problem of course is that this bot is no longer supported. Boghog (talk) 03:04, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

I added a caution alerting editors to the unfixed bugs in this edit. Boghog (talk) 03:17, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

Remove display-authors=etal when inserting all the remaining authors

Re: this edit to Supernova. Thanks!   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅contribs ⋅dgaf)  12:04, 16 May 2015 (UTC)

What the bot should probably do is to set display-authors to the number of authors which were in the article prior to "filling in the rest", in keeping with WP:CITEVAR. --Izno (talk) 23:11, 16 May 2015 (UTC)

Duplicating jstor

Status

new bug

Reported by

Frietjes (talk) 14:11, 23 May 2015 (UTC)

Type of bug

Deleterious

What happens

Bot replaces a jstor url with a jstor parameter, but does not check to see if there is already a jstor parameter in the citation. hence, if there is already a blank jstor parameter, the jstor link is effectively deleted.

What should happen

Bot should first remove the empty jstor parameter, and/or any completely duplicate jstor parameters (i.e., jstor parameters with the exact same value).

Relevant diffs/links

[7]

Replication instructions

create a citation with both a jstor url and a jstor parameter in the citation template

We can't proceed until

Operator<

Bot down

Status

new bug

Reported by

  —Chris Capoccia ^T⁄_C 11:39, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

Type of bug

Dead bot?

What happens

nothing

What should happen

process the page

Replication instructions

try processing any page (i was in the middle of editing Latex allergy and now it looks like i have to manually fill in all the citations instead of any bot completing them)

We can't proceed until

Bot operator's feedback on what is feasible

Even expanding PMID and DOI is dead. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 14:51, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

claims to not be able to find page. Expand doi claimes bot is logged out AManWithNoPlan (talk) 14:56, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

Bot is logged off? Cuzkatzimhut (talk) 19:09, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

OK, good – so it's not just me... --IJBall (contribs • talk) 00:33, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

• Thanks for the report; I'll try to find time to investigate the cause. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 06:58, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

The bot appears to be working now; I jumped the queue to test if a citation worked and it looks good. No errors or anything --Rfilmyer (talk) 16:39, 16 June 2015 (UTC)

The sidebar Expand citations link and the edit window Citations button are both still down. Edit window has been down for many months though as described above in a separate bub report. AManWithNoPlan (talk) 16:49, 16 June 2015 (UTC)

Bot destroying stuff

Status

new bug

Reported by

NeilN ^{talk to me} 03:42, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

Type of bug

Deleterious

Relevant diffs/links

[8]

We can't proceed until

Agreement on the best solution

In this edit the bot deleted the entire article text. Zero^talk 03:44, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

I manually ran the bot on some of these articles and the bot basically said article not found and then did nothing. Obviously, it did something! AManWithNoPlan (talk) 14:19, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

Bot blocked

I have just blocked the bot for misbehaving. Block can be lifted when cause is determined and bot is fixed. --NeilN ^{talk to me} 03:49, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

We have fixed all of the articles that the bot blanked. Now we are waiting for Smith609 to fix the bot. – Jonesey95 (talk) 03:58, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

Please specify misbehavior; are there any page features that make the bot misbehave? I have used the Citation_bot for years without problems (except that citations often take a while to be inserted). It's the only bot that I use regularly and probably one of the most useful bots in Wikipedia. Peteruetz (talk) 20:04, 23 June 2015 (UTC)

Peteruetz, please look at the contribution history before the bot was blocked. [9] --NeilN ^{talk to me} 21:25, 23 June 2015 (UTC)