Topic on VisualEditor/Feedback

Jak86 (talkcontribs)

I noticed that this edit broke multiple named references. For example "Lynch02" is turned into "Lynch022", but its definition isn't renamed. So it gives the error message "The named reference Lynch022 was invoked but never defined". Is this caused by VisualEditor? Is it a known bug? I didn't make that edit and wasn't able to recreate the bug.

TheDJ (talkcontribs)

It seems to me someone just edited the page and made a mistake when modifying a reference. Mistakes happen, it's a wiki.

Kerry Raymond (talkcontribs)

No, it's a VE "bug". It has been reported for years but the VE implementers like to think it is a "benefit" and don't do anything about it. It occurs when you copy content with named citations between articles. If the citation name already exists in the destination article, VE assumes the incoming citation is a different citaton which must therefore have a different citation name and silently adds "2" (or "3" or ...) to make the citation name unique rather than reuse the existing citation. This may or may not be what the user wants, particularly if they are copying a number of bits of text from one article to another (when you usually want them to continue to share a citation). You really need a pop-up at that point to ask if the user wants to re-use the citation in the article already or create a separate one. This should be done showing the user the existing citation and the incoming citatation. As it is currently (and silently) implemented, you can end up with name, name2, name3, name4, all with the same citation because of the assumption they must all be made different. For me personally, it is a "bug" that creates an annoying number of duplicated citations over time in an article.

Reply to "Named reference bug."