Add-Work Page Issue/Suggestion

[Eric]

Re the page Special:AddWork ,

newer users tend, I think, to forget that fields should be left blank if one has very little information for them that can't already be found in other fields. For instance, if one already has and has entered a publication date (or a date of first performance), and has no information about the date of composition than that the work must have been completed (in that version) before it was published/performed (in that version), then the composition field needs to be left blank; but often isn't. (Often the dates of composition and publication are the same, but this does not simply follow, it requires evidence. IMSLP is so often quoted and copied that I anyway think this is kind of important.) The AddWork page has a line

Year of First Publication: Give the year the work was first published. If estimated, please include ca. before the date.

but no corresponding guidance about what to do about the fields just preceding; something compact there or, if it wouldn't fit, some slight rewriting of that section might be a good idea, I don't know.

BTW I think that line about Year of First Publication may be somewhat outdated; it's now preferred that ca. be after the date, so that the computer can process what the date is, since it pays attention, regexp-style, to that first number, I gather... (and maybe a bit about "do not include links!"... erm... no, ok, don't give anyone any ideas.)

Eric

[Carolus]

This is obviously an old instruction because the date fields are now all "read" by APIs and the like so it's best that they start with the four-digit year. Anyway, you make a good point. We probably need to re-write the instructions some so that we make it clear that the General Info section refers only to the composer's original version of the piece. I find myself having to tell newer contributors about this quite often, as they will frequently upload an arrangement (which has been transposed) and mention the instrumentation or key of the arrangement instead that of the original version. Growing pains, I guess.