Template talk:Event

To Do

1. The 'Perpetrators' and 'Cause' are almost identical, so one should be modified.
   1. I need to study the code and see why (in the case of redirects) they can give different values. Then eliminate one.
   2. I feel like a single field "perpetrators" is too crude, since it doesn't distinguish on the ground operatives from planners or financial backers.

Robin (talk) 15:42, 11 August 2014 (IST)

Language and Semantics can be so slippery. In this case the problem is that there is more than cause and/or perpetrator(s) at the root of an event. So far as deep events are concerned. I find the Sponsor-Facilitator-Mechanic model useful - ie 3 levels of responsibility in a chain from decision through planning to execution. For example, if MH17 was a pre-planned deep event (and as an aside, I personally think the evidence points that way), then who were the perps? - The Anglo-US-NATO Sponsors, The Ukrainian junta Facilitators, or the Military Mechanics? Such things don't fit easily or comfortably into to simple property structure. AKA TS Elliot: “Words strain, Crack and sometimes break, under the burden, Under the tension, slip, slide, perish, Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place, Will not stay still.” I guess that's not much help but you did ask and it pushed a button:-) --Peter P (talk) 16:42, 11 August 2014 (IST)

Input Welcome

I'm not happy with the names 'a', 'b', 'c'... and also the meanings. Thoughts welcome before this gets used... Robin (talk) 12:58, 24 December 2013 (GMT)

Good stuff Robin. A few points:

1. The original Simile Timeline product had a facility for 'fuzzy' start and end dates for events. The thinking is that precise times are often unknown, but a good stab can be made at start and end time-date ranges (Precise time of David Kelly's death in a good example of a fuzzy instantaneous event). They are indicated graphically by changes to event tape colour. I'm currently deep in email exchanges with Yuri Katkov, author of the new Chap-timeline extension. He has just uploaded new scripts which he assures me WILL work and is interested in my proposals for enhancements. The fuzzy-dates thing is a no-brainer and he has already agreed it. Both timelines currently work on the assumption that a single date means an instantaneous event and it MUST be allocated to 'Start'. So we need to consider how best to use the existing 'Occurred on' property.
2. There is already a template-Form pair for JFK 'Timeline Event'. They are pretty basic but are serving current purpose OK.
3. I have got the JFK timeline working properly again. Also, it has two new parameters, Xstart and Xend which are used to define start/end times between which the timeline is zoomed (so that crowded portions can be exploded without reducing the entire top band to minutes). Seems to be working OK so far.

There's no rush on the events project either. I'd rather make sure we've thought of everything (well most of them) before committing to what will be a major upgrade with many existing event pages. --Peter P (talk) 13:46, 24 December 2013 (GMT)