Using <ref name="123" /> in article namespace gives quite understandable error message: "Invalid <ref> tag; name cannot be a simple integer. Use a descriptive title" (Message MediaWiki:Cite error ref numeric key)
However if used in user namespace, like sandbox, this message is not displayed. In Latvian Wikipedia it gives "Kļūda atsaucē:" (Error in reference), in English it returns nothing at all.
| Status | Subtype | Assigned | Task | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Invalid | None | T168719 On enwp, Cite error messages are not shown in User namespace if UI language is English (due to custom on wiki code) | |||
| Invalid | None | T147652 Cite error ref numeric key not displayed in user namespace |
This is not really an issue with the Cite extension's code.
Both the English and the Latvian Wikipedia contain a lot of local overrides for the relevant error message, see en:MediaWiki:cite_error_ref_numeric_key and lv:MediaWiki:cite_error_ref_numeric_key. The local override calls a template, see lv:Template:Broken_ref. Personally, I don't fully understand what the template is supposed to do. But it appears it is either incomplete, or intentionally suppresses the error message in some namespaces, including the User namespace. I suggest to ask the technical community in your local wiki to help you understand and fix this template.