[Wikipedia-l] date links...

[Ray Saintonge]

Karen AKA Kajikit wrote:

>The normal form of date links in the wikipedia seems to be Febuary 1,
>March 15 etc. However, people often try to link to date in different
>forms - Febuary 1st, 15 March etc. I'm not sure what should be done
>about that... However, as I speak, redirects are being created for dates
>in number format - 8-11 etc. And there is a basic problem with that,
>which if you look at my example shows up loud and clear. American date
>format is NOT the same as Australian or English date format. I don't
>know about the rest of the world, but in Australia and the UK dates are
>written day/month/year NOT month/day/year. So if I were to write an
>article and try to link to it using that format I'd end up on the wrong
>day entirely. 
>
>Which day is 8-11? Right now it's being linked to September 11, but if I
>was using it I'd want it to link to November 8... People shouldn't use
>this format at all, and it especially shouldn't be automatically
>disambiguated because it will make a LOT of facts apparantly 'wrong'.
>
Oh-no!  and I thought that 8-11 would be August 11.

The Canadian situation on this is chaotic.  Traditionally Canada 
followed the Australian and English example, but because of the American 
proximity and American multinationals just as many people follow the 
American pattern.  Thus any date up to the 12th of any month is 
ambiguous when it is in number form.  I once pointed out to a client who 
had written a year's worth of post-dated alimony cheques to his ex using 
numbered days that she could have cashed one a day until January 12.  On 
way of coping is to make sure that the name or letter abbreviation is 
used for the month; in some situation a Roman numeral can be used for 
the month.

Now all government correspondance and government forms use the ISO Y-M-D 
format;  Acceptance and usage by others is mixed.  Using [[08-11]] out 
of context is obviously confusing and misleading.  It is only a matter 
of co-incidence that the M-D elements happen to coincide with the 
American dating system.
Eclecticology