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Tweets are usually unacceptable as sources.

Tweets and other self-published material may be acceptable if the conditions specified at WP:SPS or WP:TWITTER are met. For further information, see the Wikipedia:Verifiability policy and the Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources guideline.

This template is used on approximately 38,000 pages and changes may be widely noticed. Test changes in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

This template is a Citation Style 1 wrapper template based on ((Cite web)). For centralised Citation Style 1 discussions, see Help talk:Citation Style 1.

Redirect

((Cite twitter))

This template uses Lua:

Module:Cite tweet (sandbox)

Citation Style 1 templates
((Cite arXiv))	arXiv preprints
((Cite AV media))	audio and visual media
((Cite AV media notes))	AV media liner notes
((Cite bioRxiv))	bioRxiv preprints
((Cite book))	books and chapters
((Cite CiteSeerX))	CiteSeerX papers
((Cite conference))	conference papers
((cite document))	short, stand-alone, offline documents
((Cite encyclopedia))	edited collections
((Cite episode))	radio or TV episodes
((Cite interview))	interviews
((Cite journal))	academic journals
((Cite magazine))	magazines, periodicals
((Cite mailing list))	public mailing lists
((Cite map))	maps
((Cite medRxiv))	medRxiv preprints
((Cite news))	news articles
((Cite newsgroup))	online newsgroups
((Cite podcast))	podcasts
((Cite press release))	press releases
((Cite report))	reports
((Cite serial))	audio or video serials
((Cite sign))	signs, plaques
((Cite speech))	speeches
((Cite SSRN))	SSRN papers
((Cite tech report))	technical reports
((Cite thesis))	theses
((Cite web))	web sources not covered by the above
See also	Specific-source templates Citation Style 1 wrapper templates
v t e

A template for citing tweets posted on Twitter.

Usage

Copy a blank version to use. Almost all parameter names are supported only in lower case (some initialisms, such as |isbn= have upper-case aliases like |ISBN=, which are acceptable for use). Use the "|" (pipe) character between each parameter. Unused parameters may be deleted to avoid clutter in the edit window. Some samples on this documentation page may include the current date. If the date is not current, then purge the page.

Required parameters only, in horizontal format
`((Cite tweet \|user= \|number= \|title=))`

Full parameter set in horizontal format
`((Cite tweet \|author= (or \|last= \|first= ) \|author-link= \|user= \|number= \|date= \|title= \|script-title= \|trans-title= \|language= \|retweet= \|location= \|access-date= \|link= \|url-status= \|archive-url= \|archive-date= \|quote= \|ref=))`

Note: When known, the author's real name should be specified in the |author= parameter (or |last= and |first=). If their real name is not known, then the tweet is probably not an acceptable usage of a self-published source.

Using ((sfn)) and ((harvid))

To use this template with shortened footnotes (e.g. the ((sfn)) template), add |ref= with ((harvid)) in the parameter value, like this:

((Cite tweet |ref=((harvid|Porck|2017)) |last=Porck |first=Thijs |user=thijsporck |number=889205416596471811 |date=23 July 2017 |title=Spotted in Marvel's Doctor Strange: Sutton Hoo Helmet replica! |access-date=5 December 2017))

This reference would be cited as ((sfn|Porck|2017)).

Optional `|date=` parameter

Unlike most citation templates, the |date= parameter is optional. This is because the date can be calculated directly from the Tweet's ID using Module:TwitterSnowflake (wrapped with Template:TwitterSnowflake).

If the |date= parameter is off by more than one day from what the calculated date is, the template will output an error. This can be fixed by removing or correcting the date parameter.

If the Tweet was posted before November 4, 2010, the date cannot be calculated from the ID — the template will output an error if no date is provided.

Examples

((Cite tweet |user=Pigsonthewing |number=564068436633214977 |title=This is an example tweet. Hello, Wikipedians!))

@Pigsonthewing (February 7, 2015). "This is an example tweet. Hello, Wikipedians!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.

((Cite tweet |author=Andy Mabbett |user=Pigsonthewing |number=564068436633214977 |title=This is an example tweet. Hello, Wikipedians!))

Andy Mabbett [@Pigsonthewing] (February 7, 2015). "This is an example tweet. Hello, Wikipedians!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.

Andy Mabbett [@Pigsonthewing] (February 7, 2015). "This is an example tweet. Hello, Wikipedians!" (Tweet). Retweeted by Wikimedia Foundation [Wikimedia] – via Twitter.

If the author has a Wikipedia article, use of |author-link= is recommended:
((Cite tweet |author=Elon Musk |author-link=Elon Musk |user=elonmusk |number=743097337782763521 |title=Looks like thrust was low on 1 of 3 landing engines. High g landings v sensitive to all engines operating at max.))

Elon Musk [@elonmusk] (June 15, 2016). "Looks like thrust was low on 1 of 3 landing engines. High g landings v sensitive to all engines operating at max" (Tweet) – via Twitter.

@jack (November 4, 2010). "just setting up my twttr" (Tweet) – via Twitter.

Error detection

The parameters |user=, |number=, and |title= are required. If omitted or left blank, errors will be reported. For example:
((Cite tweet |title=I'm an incomplete citation!))
"I'm an incomplete citation!" (Tweet) – via Twitter. ((Cite tweet)): Missing or empty |user=; Missing or empty |number= (help)

Missing or empty |user=

The |user= parameter is required. The tweet URL is derived from the |user= and |number= parameters. If |user= or |number= are missing, the URL defaults to https://twitter.com/ Copy the twitter handle (minus the "@" symbol) into this parameter.

Missing or empty |number=

The |number= parameter is required. The tweet URL and date are derived from |number=. If |user= or |number= are missing, the URL defaults to https://twitter.com/ Copy the the long number behind the final \ of the tweet's URL into this parameter. For example, if the Tweet URL is https://twitter.com/pigsonthewing/status/564068436633214977, the template requires |number=564068436633214977

Invalid |number=

This error indicates that the required |number= parameter does not match a tweet's URL. Copy the the long number behind the final \ of the tweet's URL into this parameter. For example, if the Tweet URL is https://twitter.com/pigsonthewing/status/564068436633214977, the template requires |number=564068436633214977

|date= required

The |date= parameter is required for tweets posted before November 4, 2010. The |date= parameter is optional for tweets posted after November 4, 2010, as the date is determined from the |number= parameter. For earlier tweets, manually type the date into |date=.

|date= / |number= mismatch

The tweet date is derived from the |number= parameter for tweets posted after November 4, 2010. If the optional |date= parameter is used and off by more than a day from the calculated date, an error is displayed. If the |number= is correct, remove or correct the |date=.

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Cite tweet in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Cite tweet