Template talk:Start date

Wikilinks in template?

There's an editor in the radio field who is removing microformat start and end dates from infoboxes in order that they may link a "year in radio" article, e.g. "December 5, 1969". Is it possible to wikilink to such an article within the context of {{start date}} or {{end date}}? (See User talk:Stereorock#Microformats) Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 02:25, 20 April 2021 (UTC)

• Such links are horrible, and possibly also MOS:EGG and should be avoided. Gonnym (talk) 11:01, 12 July 2021 (UTC)

Is it considered a misuse to use this template to format dates outside of infoboxes?

Just to clarify what the documentation states: should this template only be used in infoboxes and only once in such templates? I've come across quite a few uses in Template:Singles, which is added to and embedded in Template:Infobox album. Much like Template:Duration, it appears some editors believe any instance of a date in templates (and sometimes outside of them) should be formatted with this template and I'm clarifying that we should still abide by the documentation for only using it once in an infobox and not outside of them. Ping Pigsonthewing as the creator of this template. (Apologies if this "should be obvious" or is considered a silly question, and I'm aware Template:Singles states, under "Single # date", "Do not use the Start date template in this field", but I've recently come across editors who still actively use this template more than once outside of an infobox, even after I explained this to them.) Ss112 13:13, 30 September 2022 (UTC)

Any use of this template outside another, microformat-emitting, template is pointless. However not all microformat-emitting, templates are infoboxes. for instance, this template can be used in {{Timeline-event}} . Similarly, any use after the first instance in a microformat-emitting template is ignored. If the documentation states "Do not use the Start date template in this field", then it is a fair bet that editors should not use the Start date template in the field. THis template;s documentation opens with (emboldening in original):

This purpose of the {{start date}} template is to return the date (or date-time) that an event or entity started or was created, and to do so in a standard format. It also includes duplicate, machine-readable date (or date-time) in the ISO date format (which is hidden by CSS), for use inside other templates (or table rows) which emit microformats. It should be used only once in each such template and never used outside such templates. The hidden date degrades gracefully when CSS is not available.

which seems clear enough to me. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 11:49, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

@Pigsonthewing: Thanks for clarifying. I thought it was clear enough too, but some editors still format dates in Template:Singles with this, even after I linked to the documentation and explained. I'm aware now that Template:Singles also states not to use start date in its singlexdate= parameters. Ss112 12:47, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

Reading dmy mdy templates

If Template:Use dmy dates or Template:Use mdy dates are in an article, cs1|2 citation templates will automatically format their dates to display using that format. Would that work for this template as well, rather than relying on the |df parameter? Best, CMD (talk) 11:11, 18 June 2024 (UTC)