Help:CS1 errors
CS1 errors are the error messages produced by Wikipedia's Citation Style 1 module (described on Wikipedia). RetroTechCollection does not use that module, so those messages do not appear here.
The citation templates on this wiki, {{Cite web}}, {{Cite book}}, {{Cite manual}}, {{Cite journal}} and {{Cite magazine}}, are simple local templates that print a line of text. They do not check their input and show no errors. A parameter a template does not recognise is dropped without warning: for example, {{Cite manual}} has no pages parameter, so a page number given that way does not appear. Check the rendered citation after saving. The parameters each template accepts are listed in RetroTechCollection:Citing sources#Citation templates.
Citation errors you may see
[edit source]The errors that do appear on this wiki come from MediaWiki's reference system, the <ref> and <references /> tags. They show as red text beginning "Cite error".
| Message | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Invalid <ref> tag; name "x" defined multiple times with different content | Two refs share a name but have different text. | Define the ref in full once and reuse it as <ref name="x" /> everywhere else.
|
| Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named x | A reused ref (<ref name="x" />) has no full definition anywhere on the page, often because the definition was deleted or sits inside a template that dropped it. |
Add the full definition once, in the article text. |
| Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content | An empty <ref></ref>. |
Add the citation text or remove the tag. |
| Invalid <ref> tag; name cannot be a simple integer | A ref named with a bare number, such as <ref name="1">. |
Use a descriptive name, such as ss-plus.
|
| <ref> tags exist for a group named "n", but no corresponding <references group="n"/> tag was found | Refs use group="n" but the page has no list for that group. |
Add <references group="n" />, or remove the group.
|
If a page has refs but no <references /> tag, MediaWiki adds the list at the foot of the page without an error. Add a == References == section with <references /> anyway, so the list appears in the right place.
An unclosed <ref> gives no error message but swallows the text after it. If part of a page has disappeared, look for a missing </ref>.
Refs inside infoboxes
[edit source]{{Infobox computer}} discards parameters it does not know. A ref defined only inside an unrecognised infobox parameter vanishes, and every later reuse of that name then shows the "no text was provided" error. Define refs in the article text, or check the infobox's parameter list in Help:Infoboxes.