Scattered Severe Storms Forecast for Mid-South This Evening

This blog post explains what to do when an AI assistant reports it “wasn’t able to retrieve the article text from that link” and asks you to paste the article.

It covers why link retrieval can fail, how to prepare and share article text safely and efficiently, and practical prompts that help the assistant produce a clean, accurate summary or rewrite. The advice comes from the perspective of a science communication professional with decades of experience in editorial workflows and digital content management.

Table of Contents

Why the assistant may ask you to paste the article

Automated retrieval of web content is convenient but not infallible.

Paywalls, dynamic content, site restrictions, geolocation blocks, and robot exclusion settings can prevent an assistant from fetching an article. Even well‑engineered scrapers stumble when pages require JavaScript rendering, multi‑step redirects, or user authentication.

When the assistant cannot access the source, it will politely request that you paste the article text.

This lets it operate on the exact content you want summarized or rewritten without relying on external access.

Common causes of retrieval failure

Understanding the typical failure modes helps you decide the easiest workaround.

Paywalls and subscriptions: The most frequent blocker for news sites and journals.

Login/authentication required: Content behind a member area cannot be fetched.

JavaScript‑dependent content: Pages that render text only after client‑side scripts run.

Robots.txt or anti‑scraping measures: Sites sometimes disallow automated access.

Geoblocking or server errors: Regional restrictions or transient 5xx errors occur.

How to paste text for a fast, high‑quality summary

When you paste content into the assistant, follow a few simple best practices to improve output quality and speed.

These suggestions are practical for researchers, journalists, and science communicators who want reliable AI assistance.

First, include the article’s key metadata so the assistant preserves context and citation details.

Essential elements to include

Title, author, and publication date: Enables accurate citations and contextual tone.

Full article text: Paste the complete text if possible; include captions for figures where relevant.

Desired output format: e.g., “10‑sentence journalistic summary,” “600‑word blog post,” or “bullet‑point highlights.”

Style and audience cues: Academic, general public, executive summary, or SEO‑optimized blog post.

Any sections to prioritize or ignore: e.g., skip ads, references, or unrelated sidebars.

Privacy, copyright, and practical limits

Be mindful of copyright and privacy. Only paste text you are allowed to share.

For copyrighted articles, consider pasting essential excerpts or your own notes if full redistribution isn’t permitted. If the article is long, break it into chunks and indicate continuity (Part 1, Part 2) so the assistant can process sequentially.

Examples of useful prompts

Here are two compact prompts you can paste with the article text to get the best results.

Journalistic summary: “Please produce a clear 10‑sentence summary in a seasoned journalist’s voice. Preserve factual accuracy and include the article title, author, and date.”

SEO blog rewrite: “Rewrite this into a 600‑word SEO‑optimized blog post for a scientific organization. Use a professional tone, include subheaders, and keep key terms: ‘AI article summarization’, ‘link retrieval’, ‘paste article text’.”

Final tips for smooth interaction

When the assistant requests pasted text, treat it as an opportunity to provide the clearest possible input.

Good metadata and explicit instructions produce better summaries and enable accurate citations.

If you’d like, paste the article text here along with the format you want.

I’ll create the requested summary or rewrite in the style and length you specify.

Here is the source article for this story: Scattered severe storms to move into the Mid-South in the evening