Template talk:Show by date

New ondate parameter in development / sandbox started
A new sandbox is testing an ondate parameter which will show text only on the given date. If ondate is not specified, the after parameter will be used on the given date, which should preserve current usage. If tests go well, ondate will be added to the live template. Dl2000 (talk) 03:15, 18 September 2010 (UTC)

space
When inactive, it still take a space on page, is there any way to fix that? 13:02, 29 December 2011 (UTC)


 * Could you provide an example of an "inactive" situation? Also, what sort of "space" would it be taking up? Was there a particular article on which this happened, if so that could be investigated. This would be easier to diagnose with a few additional details. Meanwhile, some tests could be tried for various cases. Meanwhile, if the date has elapsed, there is no point in keeping the template in the page so it can simply be replaced the after text. Dl2000 (talk) 23:42, 29 December 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, it have bug only on wikia :( 08:18, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

Leading space bug or shortcoming
This template trims leading spaces. This could be regarded as an error; at least it should be documented. This can be a nuisance when punctuation requires a space in one case but not the other, e.g. "[pens] and pencils" before, "[pens], pencils, and calculators" after. If the before and after strings are " and pencils" (note leading space) and ", pencils, and calculators", the leading space is trimmed off before: "pensand pencils".

This can be worked around, either by including more text in the strings, or with a non-breaking space (nbsp). But I would suggest either that the template be modified to use text strings exactly as entered, spaces and all; or that the documentation should mention this limitation and suggest workarounds. I don't myself want to edit either the template or its documentation. Pol098 (talk) 16:33, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
 * There is no straightforward way to adjust the template to preserve this spacing. A somewhat better workaround is to use &amp;#32;. Documentation updated. Anomie⚔ 19:27, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

Change to be aware of the current hour
I have updated the sandbox version here to be aware of the current hour, and to support an optional  parameter. This also fixes the issue that  defaults to noon, not midnight, if no hour is specified. If there are no objections, I'll integrate this into the live template. It shouldn't break anything if  isn't specified. --Ahecht (TALK PAGE ) 17:57, 19 February 2015 (UTC) PAGE''' ]]) 01:35, 24 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the work on this, the sandbox version seems like a good development. Perhaps it would be prudent to watch the sandbox testcases as another day or two rolls along before going live e.g. update the main template by Saturday (21 Feb 2015) if everything remains OK, Dl2000 (talk) 23:43, 19 February 2015 (UTC)
 * I kept my eye on it over the weekend and didn't notice any errors. I'm going to go ahead and copy the sandbox over to the live template. --Ahecht ([[User_talk:Ahecht|'''TALK
 * Noted ... checked over some of the pages using the template, and no problems encountered. Thanks for this effort. Dl2000 (talk) 03:10, 24 February 2015 (UTC)

The crystal ball
I am worried about the suggested (and probably real) use of this template: One of the examples is about a Mr. Smith having been elected to an office. Consider:


 * Mr. Smith was elected president and took office on 1 January 2015.
 * [wall of text]
 * The election results were overthrown by a decision of the supreme court on 15 December 2014. A new election was scheduled for 15 March 2015.

The reader will read this as that Mr. Smith indeed took office even though the election results had been rejected, which might very well be conterfactual.

(For a less dramatic example, the event might have been postponed because of a disaster or whatever. Somebody might check Wikipedia for whether he took office on the normal date, and gets the wrong answer.)

Can we ever say that something has happened, using a source from before that point in time? The template documentation says "'Mr. Smith took office on 1 January 2022' [is] normally citable to the results of the election". I think it is not.

–LPfi (talk) 08:23, 25 September 2021 (UTC)