User:Hawke/Proposal/Circa

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“Circa” dates

reference MBS-2954

Currently there is no way to store an approximate date in Musicbrainz. This applies to performance dates as well as artist birth/death dates.

The ticket above lists a couple of options for how to deal with them.

Examples:

Option 1: Circa checkbox

A single “circa” (or “approximate”) checkbox. This would indicate that listed date or dates are approximate:

circa-simple.png

In AR displays it would be:

  • composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (classical composer) (circa 1787)

Option 2: six checkboxes

Six checkboxes: “circa”, “before”, “after” for each of start/end. This would give finer-grained details on any start or end date.

circa-complex.png

Votes and reasons

I prefer a single “circa” box because…

  • It is sufficient: lets us enter approximate dates without needing to go into messy details or deal with six checkboxes(!) every time. Also, I’m not sure how the '6 checkboxes' option will work for displaying ARs. “Artist (1922–1930)” could become… what, “Artist (after circa 1922–exactly 1930)? (you need the “exactly” there so it doesn’t imply that both are approximate… Hawke (talk)

I prefer a lot of checkboxes because…

I have a better idea:

Additional comments

I’m fairly certain that most people, given a vague date will put it in anyway because some information is better than none. I know I do. —Hawke (talk)