https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4582
--- Comment #275 from Bill Clark <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 2008-12-05 17:20:54 UTC --- (In reply to comment #274) > who would have to learn a different linking syntax specially for dates There's *already* a different linking syntax for dates, and it's the same as for links to categories and for images (and inter-wiki links for that matter.) The patch doesn't change that. If I wanted to link to a specific date *currently* I would still need to use the [[:]] or [[|]] syntax to do it, otherwise my link would automatically be broken into a link to the day-month combination and a different link to the year. So the patch has nothing to do with the weird date linking syntax. > those who wish to retain existing linked dates in many articles > (such as the chronological articles themselves). If those dates aren't already marked up using either the [[:]] or [[|]] syntax, then editors like Tony and Lightmouse are going to delink them (if they haven't done so already.) They're using a Javascript tool that does the delinking automatically and (if the number of complaints on their talk pages are any indication) they aren't being too careful about which dates they're delinking. > I'm personally all in favour of the delinking, but I don't see a > need to do it by brute force in a way that leaves a pointless syntactical > complication for editors frozen in for the foreseeable future. I don't see the need to do it by "brute force" (which applies more to what Tony and others are doing rather than the proposed patch) in a way that makes the decision (reached without proper consensus) hard to reverse. Bear in mind that the patch is meant as a temporary measure. Applying it would allow us to do *instantly* what Tony and others will take months or years to do by hand, and to gauge reader response right away. If readers complain about the change, it's trivial to remove the patch and revert the instructions on MOSNUM to how they were for the past few years (i.e. encourage date linking for autoformatting.) If readers applaud the change, then the manual delinking could still occur (or a bot could take over) to clean up the now-obsolete linking syntax, and THEN the patch could be removed. Either way, the patch will eventually no longer be needed, either because an improved date autoformatting function has been created or because readers show that they really do want date linking and/or autoformatting. -Bill -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are the assignee for the bug. You are watching all bug changes. _______________________________________________ Wikibugs-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikibugs-l
