Talk:Isometamidium chloride

Citation style

@Invasive Spices: The original citation style that was established in this article was first initials followed by last name using |author-n= parameters. The citation that you added reversed the first and last names, spelled out the first names, and used |last-n=, |first-n= parameters. So my edit summary was accurate. Both of us prefer last name, first name order. However the advantage of |vauthors= is that enforces a consistent citation style (an error message is generated if it does not conform to Vancouver style authors) and is less verbose that |last-n=, |first-n=, or |author-n=. Also |vauthors= is parsed to separate authors as well as first and last names to produce clean meta data. |author-n= separates the authors, but the order of the first and last names in the meta data is reversed from the most common citation styles (Harvard and Vancouver). |vauthors= is much cleaner. Boghog (talk) 22:44, 6 March 2021 (UTC)

• @Boghog: What part of WP:CITEVAR requires this change? That's where I found WP:Requests for arbitration/Sortan#Preferred styles. Both say the opposite - this kind of edit is not allowed. Invasive Spices (talk) 16:27, 8 March 2021 (UTC)
  • @Invasive Spices:
    • Per WP:CITESTYLE, citations within any given article should follow a consistent style.
    • Per WP:CITEVAR, imposing one style on an article with inconsistent citation styles is generally considered helpful.
    • Per WP:CITEVAR, Editors should not attempt to change an article's established citation style merely on the grounds of personal preference
    • You have introduced a author citation style (last name, full first name) which is inconsistent with either of the two previously introduced styles. If the community cannot come to a consensus on the what style to follow, then WP:CITEVAR states, defer to the style used by the first major contributor. That is precisely what I did in this edit. Boghog (talk) 19:06, 8 March 2021 (UTC)

• @Boghog: I see. Ok. (For anyone else wondering, the edit introducing citations is this edit.) Just to note, I didn't change the page's style. I just added a {{cite journal}} that used whatever output {{cite journal}} gives us. (Also I'm a little surprised to see more information - of the same kind - described as a style. Full first names is indistinguishable from initials, except by having more letters so it's less prone to confusion, and less vulnerable to mangling by vandalism or mistaken editing, like *cough* for example if someone runs a bot that removes ISSNs and accidentally deletes references *cough*, as happened on Tick. And initials, last name only, same thing. Last name only, et al, etc. Etc. Cutting down the amount of information provided seems inherently problematic to me, because it increases the risks of <ref>s becoming unusable. I've never tried this, but I just looked in {{cite journal}}, and name-list-style=vanc does exist. That would avoid the information removal involved in conversion to Vancouver. If it took a name-list-style=lastfirst argument it could work in this case also.) Invasive Spices (talk) 20:46, 8 March 2021 (UTC)

• Forgot to add: Both of us prefer last name, first name order. Yeah I agree. Invasive Spices (talk) 20:58, 8 March 2021 (UTC)