Prompt for page number(s) for compatible cite sources (e.g. book, journal)
Problem: People often forget to add page numbers, making it more time-consuming to verify information for readers and editors.
Proposed solution: Prompt for page numbers in Visual Editor when adding a source type with page numbers, like book or report. Similarly prompt for time-stamp for audio-visual sources
With this, make it easier to add page numbers for quotations. For instance, I might be citing a book throughout, but some sections are from a certain page or chapter. There should only be one reference, but the citations can provide the page numbers. I see too many people making individual references for each page number or leaving out page numbers altogether. Both cause problems. Significa liberdade (talk) 21:32, 10 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
w:Template:Cite book/TemplateData "pages" is already marked as "suggested" instead of "optional", so the field shows up by default when citing a book. What did you guys have in mind for the technical implementation of this wish? Did you want to move "pages" up to make it more prominent, display an extra popup, etc? –Novem Linguae (talk) 04:43, 13 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Novem Linguae: good question. This is most useful for when you automatically generate a citation using ISBN numbers. I just realised that automatically generating citations for reports usually doesn't work, so maybe this wish is not as relevant for it. Possibly, it could also be triggered when you click on an already existing book or report citation without a page number. In that case, care has to be taken that the editor knows they're adding the page number for all instances of that source being used on the page (at least, before WMDE implements this wish.) Femke (talk) 17:06, 14 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support The Phabricator ticket mock-up would definitely encourage adding page numbers and time stamps before clicking insert. As for avoiding separate citations to different portions of the same book/video, the associated parameters should have their description text altered to outright instruct this point. For example, changing the Cite book template's "Page(s) cited" description to use a parenthetical plural for "The range(s) of pages in the source that support the content (not an indication of the number of pages in the source); displays after 'pp.'; use either page= or pages=, but not both", encouraging distinct ranges to be used in the same citation BluePenguin18 🐧 ( 💬 ) 23:22, 10 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Especially for articles with highly contestable sections (including one that would be targeted for fake news and other kinds of misinformation/disinformation), this quirk will remind editors of the importance to veracity. LunafreyaLaphicet (talk) 00:53, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Only for Template:Cite_book. Open-access journals are popular on wiki, and they frequently don't have page numbers. (They have "article numbers" instead, and you don't need to know the article number to find the article.) WhatamIdoing (talk) 01:59, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
That would work for me. The two most important ones are the books and reports. Scientific articles are often shorter, and it can be a pain to find the pdf version (which usually exists, but always). Femke (talk) 07:43, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support This proposal could be better for page number (sfn/harvnb) to be added to cite sources like book/journal which may be digitalized. Thingofme (talk) 15:46, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]