Category talk:Pages with script errors

@Marshallsumter: How can I find the "script errors" that causes articles to be placed in this category? I see multiple articles I've written on this list, but I have no idea about identify the reason each article is on this list. Thanks, DavidMCEddy (discuss • contribs) 21:57, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

@Marshallsumter: Thanks for fixing a problem with "Evaluating the War on Terror". Please excuse: If I had looked at the notes at the end of that article, I likely would have seen the problem you just fixed.

However, "Kansas City Nonprofit News" is also on this list, and I don't see an error message on that page. It only has one note at the end, and that note does not display a comparable error message.

I'm not asking you to fix all these yourself: Might there be a way to modify the algorithm that causes these pages to appear in "Category:Pages with script errors" that makes it easier for someone to find the problem? Thanks, DavidMCEddy (discuss • contribs) 23:23, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

The problem is with the Lua error coding. As you've surmised it indicates an error but doesn't as yet tell where exactly it is. Eventually it will, hopefully. There are some on my resources as well with the same kind of nebulosity. For now they'll have to wait for the Lua developers to get further along to precisely indicate at least their line in the page. If I stumble across some clues I'll add them here. --Marshallsumter (discuss • contribs) 23:48, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

Great. Thanks. It can be hard to find a problem if it's subtle, and I don't know what to look for.

I won't feel too guilty about having several articles on this list ;-) DavidMCEddy (discuss • contribs) 02:09, 7 March 2019 (UTC)

Hints for finding unspecified Pages with script errors

This template {{cite Q}} causes the comment: "Pages with script errors" to appear as a category. The comment can be removed by replacing the template use with Erica Chenoweth, Wikidata Q5387865. --Marshallsumter (discuss • contribs) 16:34, 30 March 2019 (UTC)

@Marshallsumter: Please excuse. I'm not following.

Are you saying that {{cite Q|Q5387865}} doesn't work?

I know that Wikidata is controversial, with some leading Wikimedians frankly hostile, insisting that the entries often do not cite sources and therefore cannot be verified, etc. That's particularly true with infoboxes, where someone can change an infobox in one place and it gets changed in a separate Wiki, e.g., in a different language. I've gotten notices that a Wikipedia article changed, but the change log showed no change: The change had apparently been in a Wikidata entry used in that article, but the software did not show what had changed.

Nevertheless, I've been using Wikidata extensively, because it allows me to enter the information once and use it multiple places via something like {{cite Q|Q5387865}}. I translated the article on Julia Cagé from French into English, and I wanted to translate it into Spanish as well. However a major obstacle for me in translating the article into Spanish was my lack of familiarity with the names of the fields in the comparable citation templates. Using Wikidata would solve that problem for me, I think. I have yet to try it, however.

In the meantime, I have the impression that some administrator or bureaucrat may be destroying the code in some places that would make something like {{cite Q|Q5387865}} function as intended.

I've written to Lydia Pintscher <Lydia.Pintscher@wikimedia.de> about this (Lydia Pintscher, OL 9106374A, Wikidata Q18016466). She's the Product Manager for Wikidata. I'm hoping we can get a discussion of this at Wikimania this summer in Stockholm.

In the meantime, I don't know what I should do to find and fix this problem. If this problem is what I think it is, my preferred fix is to modify the code for Wikiversity so {{cite Q|Q5387865}} works as the Wikidata team intends it to -- AND the legitimate concerns of those who currently oppose Wikidata are given high priority and addressed appropriately in other ways. DavidMCEddy (discuss • contribs) 17:06, 30 March 2019 (UTC)

I agree that this template should work here without triggering a "Pages with script errors" error! I'll take a look at our template. --Marshallsumter (discuss • contribs) 17:26, 30 March 2019 (UTC)

I tried a bunch of test cases at Template:Cite Q/testcases but all generate the error! I think it's a Lua implementation error. --Marshallsumter (discuss • contribs) 17:59, 30 March 2019 (UTC)

Have you reported it someplace? If no and you don't know where to report, I suggest "Lydia Pintscher <Lydia.Pintscher@wikimedia.de>". Thanks for looking at this. DavidMCEddy (discuss • contribs) 18:49, 30 March 2019 (UTC)

I've started a task at the Phabricator, T219716: Pages with script errors generated by use of Template:Cite Q. --Marshallsumter (discuss • contribs) 21:53, 30 March 2019 (UTC)

Wonderful. Thanks. DavidMCEddy (discuss • contribs) 22:02, 30 March 2019 (UTC)

Wikiversity was missing several modules which I've imported. These errors should be gone for now! --Marshallsumter (discuss • contribs) 14:01, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

Even more wonderful.

If I remember correctly, at Wikimania 2019 I got a Wikidata wizard to import some modules to Wikiversity that were required to make {{cite Q|Q5387865}} work at all. Those modules were not sufficient to avoid the errors we've been discussing.

Thanks again, DavidMCEddy (discuss • contribs) 15:15, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

@Marshallsumter: Next question: How can I find if any article to which I've contributed is included in Category:Pages with script errors without reading the list and looking for pages I might want to examine?

If each of the "Pages with script errors" were accompanied by some informative error message, it might be useful to mine the lists of contributors and watchers to each such page and generate message to those folks noting the problem and asking them to look at it. This could generate emails like changes currently do. To minimize the disruption on editors, the system might send, say, one email per day to someone not already notified about that problem but otherwise scored as most active most recently until the problem gets fixed. (Sadly, I'm ignorant of Lua and am otherwise overbooked and not prepared to volunteer for this.) DavidMCEddy (discuss • contribs) 15:42, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

I've already looked through the list and none of your resources are listed. If I missed one just check the Categories at the bottom of the page. If "Category:Pages with script errors" is not there, neither is your resource! Cheers! --Marshallsumter (discuss • contribs) 00:23, 1 April 2019 (UTC)