Wikipedia:Date formatting and linking poll: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:35, 31 March 2009

Revision as of 18:57, 31 March 2009

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'''What is date autoformatting?''' It is a system that allows dates displayed in articles to automatically change to reflect a ''registered'' user's settings under "[[Special:Preferences|Special:Preferences/Date and time]]"; unregistered users (IPs) cannot access the preference" settings. The existing autoformatting system (Dynamic Dates, outlined [[mw:Manual:Dynamic dates|here]]), introduced [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title{{=}}Wikipedia:Announcements&diff{{=}}prev&oldid{{=}}1210544 in 2003], requires use of the double-bracket link syntax to identify dates for autoformatting.<p>

A [http://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title{{=}}Special%3ACode%2FMediaWiki%2Freleasenotes&startrev{{=}}47458&endrev{{=}}48811&path{{=}}%2Ftrunk%2Fphase3 recent] update to Wikipedia's software allows dates to be autoformatted through the use of [[mw:Help:Extension:ParserFunctions|a function]] (<nowiki>the template {{#formatdatetl|date}}</nowiki>) instead of with the link-based markup (<nowiki>[[30 March]] [[2009]]</nowiki>). This function displays autoformatted plain-text dates per a registered user's preferences, without links ("{{#formatdate:30 March 2009}}"). It adds the option of defining a default date format for unregistered users and anyone who has not set a preference. As with the original system, all dates in an article would require markup to guarantee consistency.<p>

'''What happens if autoformatting is accepted?''' Consensus will be sought on specifications, which will then be used by developers and editors to establish a system based either on a modified version of the existing software or on a new markup or template scheme; dates will be marked up accordingly.<p>