Add-Work Page Issue/Suggestion
Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 2:02 am
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BTW I think that line about Year of First Publication may be somewhat outdated; it's now preferred that ca.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
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