Wave becomes ordered factor when using wave.factor=T

[guymorlan]

I have a numeric wave identifier. I create a panel_data object, and then pass the panel_data object to the wbm() function for estimation, using use.wave = T and wave.factor = T, which should use wave variable as an unordered factor according to the documentation.

However, in the model output the wave variable becomes ordered, and wbm() spits out "Unordered factor wave variable was converted to ordered. You should check that the order is correct.". While this error message comes from the panel_data() function, it doesn't arise when I call panel_data(), only when wbm() is called. And so my guess is that somewhere down the line the wave variable is converted to a factor, and then panel_data() is called again, converting the unordered factor to an ordered one.