[WikiEN-l] Linking Dates

[Marc Riddell]

> 2008/10/16 Marc Riddell <michaeldavid86 at comcast.net>:
>> It just happened again. I went in and edited a biography article, made some
>> corrections as to the Date of Birth, and left the month and day unlinked but
>> linked the year. One minute later someone else came in and de-linked the
>> year with the edit comments, "(unlink yob per WP:MOSNUM)". Is this the
>> present policy? And if so, how came we change it?
>> 
>> Marc Riddell

on 10/16/08 9:16 PM, geni at geniice at gmail.com wrote:
> 
> Yes it is present MOS and you change it in the normal manner. However
> this would what be the third time the debate has happened in a few
> months so I doubt you would get very far. See for the most part what
> happened in the year of someone's birth is of little interest unless
> the event dirrectly impacted them. You might be able to make a case
> for the years where they did whatever makes the noteable but even then
> a case could be made that you would do better linking to say 1860s in
> engineering.
> 
Thanks for your thoughts, geni. Although I see value in linking the years,
what, in the end, I am REALLY looking for is some consistency. I still do
not understand fully much of the decision-making process that goes into
matters such as deciding on a specific format policy. But what I do see
throughout the encyclopedia is an arbitrariness in form and structure that
greatly detracts from the professionalism of the Project. A reader is coming
to the encyclopedia looking for information on a particular subject. That
information should be presented in a consistent, reliable, familiar form.
This form becomes the "signature" of the encyclopedia. As the Wikipedia
Project matures, it is important that the decision-making processes
regarding such basic issues as its very form and structure mature as well.

Be healthy,

Marc Riddell