User talk:Viriditas/sandbox/chron

There is a need for relative and absolute chronological markers connecting all Wikipedia articles. Presently, categories, timelines, classification, succession boxes and templates fulfill this role, but are cumbersome to navigate efficiently from one article to the next, and very often do not specify an absolute date. Ideally, an inline page history should follow article browsing, updating the timeline in relation to the current article view. For example, for every article, it should be easy to navigate categories and related articles by century, decade, and year; essentially a comprehensive Browse by timeline across the Wikipedia, accessible from every article, with a default range specified in user preferences.

Example

 * New Kingdom

Problems

 * Rendering is difficult to read
 * Range is predetermined
 * Timeline only appears on New Kingdom page. Related articles do not allow timeline navigation
 * Categories cannot be accessed through this particular timeline, only articles. Option for both would help
 * Cannot zoom in/out, or expand/collapse useful data, such as display related lists, like "list inventions", "list notable people", etc.
 * Pop-up navigation needed

Options

 * Populate Category:History by period: add at least one date-related category to each article. If a year is unknown, add the closest known Years by decade, working up if needed.  (needs to be refined)


 * A modified version of Template:YearsInCentury or Template:CategoryYEARsheader should be accessible in the mainspace, with the century displayed based upon the chonology of the currently viewed article. Upon visiting a particular year, the timelines for that year should appear at the top of the category.


 * Timelines as graphical categories.

By century
Option to navigate YearsInCentury (based on the date-related category in the current article) should be added.

By current year
It may be helpful to add timelines to topic by year categories. Category:1936 meteorology would have Template:Timeline 1936 meteorology, with Greensboro, North Carolina tornado listed during the first week of April, and Tupelo-Gainesville tornado outbreak between April 5-6. It should be easy to navigate to Category:Days and back from the timeline.