People/Character names & dates

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People/Character names & dates

1Carmen.et.Error
mei 21, 2020, 3:37 pm

Lately I've seen a lot of edits being made for People/Characters that pertain to real-life historical people, where the edits tack on the date of the person's life to the end of the entry. Is this correct? I thought the pattern was First Last name, and any position or other information went into parenthesis?

The edits are also made on entries that may share the name of the person but don't actually pertain to the person at all. Not sure what to do with this. I'm not trying to be pedantic, but don't want to keep editing if this is correct.

2MarthaJeanne
Bewerkt: mei 21, 2020, 3:42 pm

If the entries are for a person with the same name, but not the same dates, the dates should not be there.

It would be helpful if you would show us a few examples.

3Carmen.et.Error
mei 21, 2020, 3:42 pm

Otherwise, the dates are fine? The changes also switch it to Last name, First name. I thought it was the reverse?

4r.orrison
mei 21, 2020, 7:14 pm

It should be Firstname Lastname. Anything else could be in parentheses.

5karenb
mei 21, 2020, 7:16 pm

>3 Carmen.et.Error: First name last name is correct.

For the dates, would you please link to some of the names you saw?

7MarthaJeanne
Bewerkt: mei 22, 2020, 3:17 am

Some of these are on works with hundreds of characters listed.

https://www.librarything.com/work/12217
https://www.librarything.com/work/14749984

8karenb
Bewerkt: mei 22, 2020, 7:43 am

> 6
Ah yes, I recognize those changes. A handful of accounts appear to be trying to reshape that CK on LT to their personal preferences. They seem to be going through all historic and (Christian) Biblical people on LT, one by one. While I can appreciate a desire for consistency in naming etc., they add all sorts of extra information: page numbers, Bible chapter & verse, relationships to other people, opinions, and more.

Actually, it might be only one or two people behind the user accounts. I noticed incongruous info in a contemporary mystery*: a character named "Rene Descartes" had dates and a quote from the historic person. I laughed and reversed those changes for that book. I messaged the user privately about the mistake, poked further around CK, and carefully reverted a bunch of the user's edits, working from the Descartes quote.

The user never replied to my private message. They stated a new user account and resumed their CK editing -- including to Rene Descartes. That name appears in CK 177 times on the English-language LT. Now 174 of those names read "Descartes, René, {dates}". The two Jefferson Bass books have "Descartes, René, {dates} (Police Inspector)".

I gave up. That way lies madness** or, at least, a potentially endless edit war.

* a contemporary mystery novel by Jeffeson Bass: https://www.librarything.com/work/12330538
** you're laughing with me, not at me, I know

9gilroy
mei 22, 2020, 7:41 am

>8 karenb: In a situation like that, I'd get Kristi or Tim involved.
But I am also editing to convert CK to the proper format. There's ... a lot to fix.

10Carmen.et.Error
mei 25, 2020, 2:03 am

Re: Laughing with, not at-- You're definitely right there XD. I took a few steps down that way and realized it was NOT going to lead to anywhere productive. That's when I decided to take it to this forum. Thank you and everyone else for the help!