Wikipedia:Date formatting and linking poll: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:13, 30 March 2009

Revision as of 14:14, 30 March 2009

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Beyond that goal, '''autoformatting enhances our ability to present a consistent date format'''. At present, the Manual of Style allows dates to be formatted in either DMY or MDY style, based on regional usage and editorial consensus. The absence of a standard format creates situations where pages are ''individually'' consistent, yet stylistically at odds when considered as a ''collection'' of articles. This differs from other encyclopedias, which employ a consistent format across the entire publication.<p>

Much has been made of the supposed "complexity" of autoformatting, but the reality is that '''Wikipedia's editors have been using date markup for almost six years now'''. Yes, dates do require special formatting to enable the feature – but this is no different from what is required of virtually every display option on Wikipedia. Markup enables us to enhance the presentation of articles, from the most basic options such as bold and italic text or section headers to more complex features such as templates and tables. Any large-scale changes can be automated through the use of existing editing tools. As for the impact on novice editors, Wikipedia has never expected them to master every aspect of the interface. In fact, new users have always been encouraged to contribute without worrying about spelling, grammar, or formatting options.<p>

Currently, ongoing discussions between editors and Wikipedia's developers are focusing on ways to resolve concerns expressed about the existing system, chief among them the links and what unregistered users see. These issues are being addressed through the active development of an improved system, elements of which have already been incorporated into the system software. Other options under consideration would add enhancements that improve control over site-wide standards while allowing individual articles to be tagged with page-specific default date formats where desired. Looking down the road, '''date markup has also been identified as central to the development of new features''' such as automated time lines, automated "this day in history" pages, and enabling improved efficiency with database dumps. Autoformatting would also replace the current need for "dateformat" parameters in templates.<p>