Talk:Biomass (energy)

message: Sorry  I've had to undo you conversions from  to  tempaltes. This isn't how sfn templates are meant to be used, see the templates documentation and the resulting errors type you were causing :Category:Harv and Sfn no-target errors. Specifically the sole purpose of a sfn template is to link with a full cite elsewhere in the article, using the |last= and |date= fields in the cite (or the |ref= field if necessary). -- LCU ActivelyDisinterested ∆transmissions∆ °co-ords° 14:20, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, I know, it was work in progress. I was trying to find a way of getting this fixed up in an automated manner, rather than manually one by one. Can it be done in an automated manner? We want to delete the quotes but keep the refs that are inside of the footnotes. EMsmile (talk) 14:34, 9 January 2023 (UTC)

text: Moving the earlier discussion to here: EMsmile (talk) 14:34, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
replies: text:  Hi User:VQuakr: I've just reverted this edit of yours because (whilst I agree those quotes and comments were far too lengthy) I do worry that by taking out all the quotes and comments in one go you have also deleted the refs that were embedded in those "comments". I agree with you that we don't need the quotes and notes but we do need those in-line citations, don't you think? By deleting everything, this would create a lot of unsourced content. EMsmile (talk) 09:21, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
replies: text:  I mean, when WP:TNTing an article some stuff is going to get broken before it gets fixed. VQuakr (talk) 09:46, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
replies: text:  Yes but re-finding all the deleted in-line citations will be very cumbersome later, won't it? I'll me try to delete some of the quotes now and see how it looks then. EMsmile (talk) 11:59, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
replies: text:  I've now converted the notes into refs and corrected the formatting for the first few (the ref list is now temporarily messed up as a result). It's doable but it's very time consuming. So I wonder if I am on the right track here or if I am barking up the wrong tree. A whole-sale deletion would be faster, sure, but I want to keep any of the useful content with regards to in-line citation. What's the best way forward from here? Continue like I have done? Or is that a waste of time? EMsmile (talk) 12:42, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
replies: text:  Hi ‎User:ActivelyDisinterested, I see you have reverted me. Can you please provide guidance on the fastest way of converting the refs that are inside of those notes into refs? That's what I was trying to do... i.e. to delete the quotes and text but to keep the refs that are inside of those footnotes. EMsmile (talk) 14:17, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: I added a section below before I saw this comment. Short answe this isn't a correct use of the sfn template. -- LCU ActivelyDisinterested ∆transmissions∆ °co-ords° 14:21, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: If you turn on the error messages for short form refs (details are in ten category :Category:Harv and Sfn no-target errors, ask if you have any questions), then you will see your version was a sea of red error messages. -- LCU ActivelyDisinterested ∆transmissions∆ °co-ords° 14:24, 9 January 2023 (UTC)

text: Thanks a lot, User:ActivelyDisinterested. I've tried to follow your first example but got myself into a knot. So it seems each one would have to be converted manually one by one. This is quite time consuming (especially for me because I keep getting confused). I might just leave it for now as we're probably going to cull and condense a lot of the content anyhow. This would then remove a lot of the notes anyway. We could can just convert the ones that actually remain manually. It must have taken the person who set this up originally ages to set this all up! EMsmile (talk) 17:41, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
replies: text:  A lot of the time it's easier to setup complicated referencing than it is to maintain it. I agree it's likely a better idea to cull content and then convert any notes that remain. -- LCU ActivelyDisinterested ∆transmissions∆ °co-ords° 17:51, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
replies: text:  Hi ActivelyDisinterested, now that I have done a lot of culling from this article, is there an easy way (ideally with a bot?) to remove all of the unused ref names, sources and notes from the article? It would be rather time consuming to do it all manually. EMsmile (talk) 12:58, 16 January 2023 (UTC)
replies: text:  I've removed all the unused notes, which clears all the error messages. There's no automation for any of this, with all the complexities of referencing that are allowed by Wikipedia it just wouldn't be possible. Are the rest of the notes still be to be convert to just the references? -- LCU ActivelyDisinterested ∆transmissions∆ °co-ords° 13:51, 16 January 2023 (UTC)
replies: text:  Thanks for that! I am still in the process of deleting & culling more and also converting more of the notes to refs (I'll use the long ref style). At the end, there will likely be no notes remaining. How about those publications that are listed under "Bibliography" which are no longer in use now: is there an easy way to identify which ones are now superfluous or does that have to be done manually as well? EMsmile (talk) 14:52, 16 January 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: There's a script that can help you identify them (see :Category:Harv and Sfn template errors, in particular "User:Trappist the monk/HarvErrors.js"). I've gone ahead and moved all the cites not currently used by referencing to a "Further reading " section. Feel free to trim or delete as you see necessary. -- LCU ActivelyDisinterested ∆transmissions∆ °co-ords° 15:49, 16 January 2023 (UTC)
replies: text:  Thanks a lot for your help! I've now removed the "further reading" list and placed it on the talk page in case it needs discussion later. I've also installed that HarvErrors script and will see how it works. EMsmile (talk) 10:18, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Anytime. If you have any questions just let me know. -- LCU ActivelyDisinterested ∆transmissions∆ °co-ords° 13:15, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Conversion of efn templates into sfn templates 

message: There seems to be some confusion regarding the correct way to delete or move content containing SFN and EFN-based footnotes. Here is how to do it correctly (use Source editing):
Footnotes based on the SFN (Shortened FootNotes) template consist of 2 pieces of text. The first piece is the SFN template itself, the second is its citation counterpart.
The SFN template is inserted into the main text, for instance

This code tells the computer to go look for a citation further down below where the author is IEA and the date is 2021a. (The "a" is added to the year since there are two or more EIA citations from that particular year.) The computer then races towards the bottom of the article and finds this:
  
The computer sees that the author is EIA and the date is 2021a, and is satisfied. It then generates the correct footnote.
If you want to delete SFN-based footnotes, you have to delete both pieces of text. Otherwise you will generate error messages. (Exception: If other footnotes uses that same citation, you should not delete it. If you actually delete it, the computer will generate an error message when you preview the result. Go back and reinstate the citation.)
If you want to copy a SFN-based footnote to another article, you have to put the SFN template into the main text, and its citation counterpart between   and   in the References section.
Footnotes based on the EFN (Explanatory FootNotes) template consists of 3 pieces of text. The first piece is the EFN template, the second is the note counterpart, the third is the citation counterpart.
The EFN template is inserted into the main text, for instance

This code tells the computer to go look for its note counterpart, which has the name EIA-2021b (you choose this name yourself). Here it is:

The first part of the note (the quote) can now be generated. But it is not complete; we also need the citation. However, the last part of the note gives the computer the information it needs in this regard; it tells the computer that the author is EIA, and that the date is 2021b. The computer then looks further down the article to find a citation that matches these requirements, and finds this:

The computer here sees that the author is EIA and the date is 2021b, and is satisfied. It then generates the correct footnote.
If you want to delete EFN-based footnotes, you have to delete all the three pieces of text. Otherwise the computer will generate an error message. (Exception: If other footnotes use the same citation, you should not delete it. If you actually delete it, the computer will generate an error message. Go back and reinstate the citation.)
If you want to copy an EFN-based footnote to another article, you have to
1.) put the EFN template in the main text
2. put the note counterpart between

(Note that the 40em parameter above is not essential, it only tells the computer how wide the columns should become.)
3. put the citation counterpart between  and  in the References section.
If you are looking for the easiest way to edit and move content, consider NOT converting SFN and EFN-based footnotes manually to inline (that is, only one piece of text) REF-based footnotes. Inline REF-based footnotes can later be added at will, with SFN and EFN-based footnotes co-existing. If you keep the SFN and EFN-based footnotes, these footnotes will be presented in two layers like they are today, with the quote/comment first and citation second, but on the plus side you will not have to do any manual labor converting them. However, since they are presented in two layers, you might want to consider keeping just a tiny fraction of the quote or comment, what you consider the most essential part. In Source editing mode, it is super easy to delete the part of the footnote you find excessive. Just scroll down to the notelist and start editing.
I have found that for big jobs, I work faster by simply copying the article code over to several text documents, which I work on at the same time. For instance when I work on EFN-based footnotes, I have one text document for the main text, one for the notelist, and one for the citations. That way, I save myself a lot of scrolling back and forth. When you are done, simply merge these three documents together. The Perennial Hugger (talk) 17:33, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
thread_title: The correct way to delete or move content containing SFN and EFN-based footnotes

message: I've removed the "further reading" list. These publications used to be in the sources for content that has in the meantime be removed. I don't think we need them anymore now. EMsmile (talk) 10:11, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
thread_title: Removed "Further reading" list  

message: — Assignment last updated by Zenturaa (talk) 22:03, 24 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title: Wiki Education assignment: Plant Ecology Winter 2023