Template talk:Year needed

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Proposal to make this template more general-purpose for dates

Hi,

I propose that this template be changed so that it can display one of the following: "year needed" (as it does now, by default, to not break previous usages of the template), "month needed", and "day needed". There should be a parameter which, if "month" or "day" (or "m" or "d" is entered into it, the template's "text=" should be changed to "month needed" or "day needed", respectively. A more generic "title=" which fits all three cases could be "An editor has requested that a specific part of the date preceding this tag should be added for specificity.", but "title=" could have three different displays instead: "The preceding date may require its year.", "An editor has requested that the preceding date's month be added for specificity, if it is known.", and "An editor has requested that the preceding date's day be added for specificity, if it is known.".

Please let me know what you think. Regards, DesertPipeline (talk) 06:43, 5 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Let's first ask ourselves "why was this template created to be so specific?" I think year is a crucial piece of information (except of course for ancient events where pinpointing even the right century might be good enough!) For those rare instances when a specific month (or even day) is necessary, a bespoke (non-templated) talk message should probably be used. We don't want to encourage people asking for details that just aren't critical, and while year was deemed sufficiently critical, month and day weren't. What use case is so prevalent we need a template for "Month needed" that can't be handled by existing templates such as {{When}}? (I'm not involved with the creation of this template) CapnZapp (talk) 09:32, 5 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I proposed this change because I sometimes come across articles which say – for example – "in the autumn of (year)". Stating a season isn't that precise; I'd like to be able to add "month needed" after such instances so that someone who can verify the source can add the month name for precision. Using a "when?" tag might be confusing in that case. I'll admit that the day is probably not very important, but there could be some cases where it's desired (if it's possible to provide it). Also, I forgot to mention in my original post that if this is implemented the template will need renaming. Maybe "specify date" since "clarify date" already exists (and is a redirect to "when"). Thanks for your reply. DesertPipeline (talk) 18:45, 5 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]