Module talk:Cite tweet Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Module_talk:Cite_tweet

Template:Cite tweet is permanently protected from editing because it is a heavily used or highly visible template. Substantial changes should first be proposed and discussed here on this page. If the proposal is uncontroversial or has been discussed and is supported by consensus, editors may use {{edit template-protected}} to notify an administrator or template editor to make the requested edit. Usually, any contributor may edit the template's documentation to add usage notes or categories. Any contributor may edit the template's sandbox. Functionality of the template can be checked using test cases.

This template is a Citation Style 1 specific-source template based on {{Cite web}}. For centralised Citation Style 1 discussions, see Help talk:Citation Style 1.

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Cite tweet template.

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On 7 August 2023, it was proposed that this page be moved to Template:Cite X post. The result of the discussion was not moved.

The |user= parameter is not necessary because we can find any tweet just from it's number. suppose whole url is https://x.com/Wikipedia/status/1843233092145701274, now this tweet can be accessed without knowing the username like this: https://x.com/anyuser/status/1843233092145701274. but this template always says |user is required and without that it returns error. see here^{[31 number reference]}.––kemel49^{(connect)(contri)} 13:28, 10 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a way to determine a tweet's author from its number without following the link? Rjjⁱⁱⁱ (talk) 13:50, 10 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Username is not necessary at all, if we omit the user parameter, it could reach to destined tweet by following the number parameter. and we can fill out author parameter only if we wish and it's not necessary that's what i mean.––kemel49^{(connect)(contri)} 14:05, 10 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Consensus is for including the author in a citation if possible (Wikipedia:Bare URLs & Why Bare URLs are a problem]). Rjjⁱⁱⁱ (talk) 22:00, 10 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This edit was done because |user= parameter was populated by an unexpected input. in such case, instead of using user parameter (which is necessary) url could be retrieved by using anyuser. This is how the mentioned edit was done.––kemel49^{(connect)(contri)} 13:26, 5 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Rjjiii, if we type https://x.com/anytexthere/status and then tweet number then the link will lead us to desired post, hence username is not necessary at all. One can still fill that parameter but making it mandatory only gaining expense on tracking category.––kemel49^{(connect)(contri)} 14:02, 29 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Are you asking about creating the URL without the |user= parameter, getting rid of the error/category, or both? Would you feel comfortable implementing your idea in the sandbox? Rjjⁱⁱⁱ (talk) 22:40, 29 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know coding but i tried a little bit at the sandbox. see if i succeed or not.––kemel49^{(connect)(contri)} 05:01, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Requiring |user= seems appropriate for completeness of bibliographic detail in the rendered citation. I guess I don't see any harm in using /anyuser/ in the constructed url but I don't see any great advantage either.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 21:31, 13 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Is it time to fork the template, as "Cite Bluesky"?

Post URLs take the form:

https://bsky.app/profile/pigsonthewing.org.uk/post/3lcxslny57k2s

where "pigsonthewing.org.uk" is the user-name and "3lcxslny57k2s" is the UID of the post. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 17:53, 10 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Pigsonthewing: I might be a bit late here, but I totally agree. GnocchiFan (talk) 12:20, 8 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I think that instead of saying "via Twitter", this template should say "via X (formerly Twitter)". GnocchiFan (talk) 12:20, 8 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It is line 156 in the sandbox if you want to tweak it and seek consensus to change. Rjjⁱⁱⁱ (talk) 16:23, 8 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

If that is to be done, oughtn't the |via= value be chosen according to the date of the source? Before some date certain, it should be Twitter because X did not exist; X thereafter.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 16:46, 8 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The {{Cite tweet}} template should be forked to something like {{Cite X posting}} template, as Twitter no longer exists and we wouldn't want to change older Twitter citations throughout Wikipedia by forcing a new name on them. — Foxtrot1296 (talk) 21:17, 16 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hello -- perhaps I am doing something incorrect, but I noticed that this template does not integrate with autocitation (both when using x.com and twitter.com domains). Top5a (talk) 21:45, 18 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Top5a What do you mean by "autocitation"? There are several automatic ways to make citations for Wikipedia. I don't think any of them support {{cite tweet}}. Rjjⁱⁱⁱ (talk) 01:06, 19 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Just the default Edit > Cite > Add a citation > Automatic on any page (no additional or customized scripts or anything). Top5a (talk) 04:40, 19 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Top5a, in the Visual Editor, right? That uses Citoid. You could try asking there or at WP:VPT. You can add Citoid info to the TemplateData, but I don't know if what Citoid is scraping will match the parameters for {{cite tweet}}. Rjjⁱⁱⁱ (talk) 06:25, 19 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yea, in the visual editor. Oh, interesting. It's of course not a big deal, as tweets aren't typically used for citations or anything, but I was a bit surprised that it did not generate one automatically, hence me just using this template manually. I searched the archive talk page on Citoid just now, and no one seems to have mentioned X/Twitter, so I am just going to assume that it isn't intended to be used there. I don't know much at all about the backend plumbing here or on MediaWiki, as I have only dabbled slightly with scripts and things like SPARQL. Thank you, anyway! Top5a (talk) 07:37, 19 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, there is an untriaged thing here, I suppose https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T310892 Anyway, nbd. Cheers! Top5a (talk) 07:40, 19 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The live version of Module:Cite tweet uses Module:Cite web to access Module:Citation/CS1 to render {{cite tweet}} templates. This roundabout is necessary because Module:Citation/CS1 does not support direct module-to-module access. With the next Module:Citation/CS1-suite update, direct module-to-module access will be supported; see Help talk:Citation Style 1 § module suite update 12–13 April 2025.

In advance of the update, I have tweaked Module:Cite tweet/sandbox so that it directly accesses Module:Citation/CS1/sandbox, eliminating the need to call Module:Cite web. I don't see anything in Template:Cite tweet/testcases that would indicate that I broke anything but other eyes to look at ~/testcases would not come amiss.

There being nothing obviously wrong, without objection, I shall update Module:Cite tweet from its sandbox shortly after I update the cs1|2 module suite.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 13:49, 7 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There having been no comments, updated.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 18:43, 12 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Looks good! 🐝 Rjjⁱⁱⁱ (talk) 20:20, 12 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Trappist the monk It looks like your new version is trying to phase out the {{#invoke:cite tweet|‍|parameters}} notation in favor of {{#invoke:cite tweet|main|parameters}}. I worked up an alternative in the sandbox that processes the function name as if it were the first parameter, so || or |main| would get ignored since Module:Citation/CS1 doesn't use numbered parameters, and any named parameter such as |user=Foo| would get parsed as args_t['user'] = "Foo". This means that you could call the module as just {{#invoke:cite tweet/sandbox|parameters}}, making the resulting wikicode much cleaner when converting from {{cite tweet}}. Thoughts? --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 16:20, 13 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Ahecht, unrelated concern, but what do you think of KEmel49's points above? Apparently the URL can now be formed without the |user= parameter which will still give a working link even if there is a typo in the user's name. Rjjⁱⁱⁱ (talk) 18:16, 13 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Rjjiii Unlike news articles or webpages where the author is not always listed, with tweets that information is always available, so I don't see any valid reason to exclude proper attribution of the source of the citation. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 14:01, 16 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, that was the intention, but now I don't think it matters. There are ~16 articles that directly invoke Module:Cite tweet. There are ~7 articles where {{{1}}} is main as the invoke function call. There are ~9 articles where {{{1}}} is empty or whitespace as the invoke function call. Somehow I thought that there were more direct invokes.

So I did nothing about that. I should probably tweak the comments to recognize either entry point as valid and perhaps tweak the module documentation so that it is consistent. I guess I don't see much advantage to the extra complexity introduced in the sandbox. Simplicity is often best.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 21:19, 13 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Trappist the monk Sounds good. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 14:00, 16 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Since the Twitter name has changed to X, is it not possible to change the parameter on line 116?

		via = args_t.link == 'no' and 'Twitter' or '[[Twitter]]',

to be like,

		via = args_t.link == 'no' and 'X' or '[[Twitter|X]]',

Dimz48 (talk) 09:56, 19 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

At Template talk:Cite tweet § X vs. Twitter I suggested that the value could (should) be time/date dependent. Before a time certain, |via=Twitter should be used; after that time certain, |via=X should be used. Identify the time-date-stamp of the first X post and I'll make the value assigned to |via= time/date dependant.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 13:49, 19 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Pretty simple: Add Category:Citation templates? -Ahuman00 (talk) 06:25, 27 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Ahuman00:  Not done: just like {{cite instagram}} and many others, this template is already part of Category:Citation Style 1 specific-source templates, which is a subset of both Category:Citation Style 1 templates and Category:Specific-source templates, both of which are subsets of Category:Citation templates. Est. 2021 (talk · contribs) 09:03, 27 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Est. 2021: Understood - thank you! -Ahuman00 (talk) 16:29, 27 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Greetings and felicitations. From "Iron Dome," in

@Israel Defense Forces (18 November 2012). Defense Forces/status/270170595260510208 "Some numbers from the last 4 days: 544 rockets fired from #Gaza hit #Israel + 302 Iron Dome interceptions = 846 rockets fired at us" (Tweet). Retrieved 19 April 2012 – via Twitter. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)

{{Cite tweet |number=270170595260510208 |title=Some numbers from the last 4 days: 544 rockets fired from #Gaza hit #Israel + 302 Iron Dome interceptions = 846 rockets fired at us |url=https://x.com/IDF/status/270170595260510208 |user=Israel Defense Forces |publisher=[[IDF Spokesperson's Unit]] |date=18 November 2012 |access-date=19 April 2012 }}

what am I missing that is causing the error? It was also happening before I added the actual URL. —DocWatson42 (talk) 08:07, 20 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

|user= and |number= are used to construct the tweet's url. The |url= that you supplied is ignored. Because |user=Israel Defense Forces includes whitespace, Module:Cite tweet constructed a 'url' that looks like this:

https://x.com/Israel Defense Forces/status/270170595260510208

Module:Cite tweet then hands that 'url' and the other {{cite web}} parameters to Module:Citation/CS1. That module notices the whitespace in the 'url' and emits the error message. Even so, Module:Citation/CS1 then creates this external link from the cite tweet url and |title=:

[https://x.com/Israel Defense Forces/status/270170595260510208 Some numbers from the last 4 days: 544 rockets fired from #Gaza hit #Israel + 302 Iron Dome interceptions = 846 rockets fired at us]

Perhaps rewrite the template:

{{Cite tweet |author=Israel Defense Forces |user=IDF |number=270170595260510208 |title=Some numbers from the last 4 days: 544 rockets fired from #Gaza hit #Israel + 302 Iron Dome interceptions=846 rockets fired at us |access-date=19 April 2012}}

Israel Defense Forces [@IDF] (November 18, 2012). "Some numbers from the last 4 days: 544 rockets fired from #Gaza hit #Israel + 302 Iron Dome interceptions=846 rockets fired at us" (Tweet). Retrieved 19 April 2012 – via Twitter.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 13:31, 20 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]