Editing GoArch:History Project

The '''Archive History Project''' seeks to create a thorough, inter-linked timeline of D'ni history, from the earliest known date in D'ni time to the present day. This project is complicated by the fact that this history spans almost 10,000 years and two separate (but related) calendar systems.

== Progress ==
* D'ni dates: Completed through 14th century DE.
* Surface dates: Not started.

Please update this progress indicator as you complete work, and make notes as needed on this article's Talk page.

== Date formatting ==
Dates on the Archive should be formatted as "month, day, year" or "vailee, yahr, hahr" depending on the calendar system being used. The first occurrence of any year or hahr should include the calendar system's epoch signifier (BC/CE for surface dates, BE/DE for D'ni dates) to aid in proper identification. As long as subsequent dates are in the same calendar, the signifier can be left off.

=== Linking dates ===
The first time a year is mentioned in an article, it should be linked. This link '''must''' include the epoch signifier so that it takes visitors to the correct calendar system's entry. For instance, [[0 DE]] or [[2007 CE]].

When a date has a specific month/vailee and day/yahr associated with it, link the combination as a single entity (e.g. [[Leefo 1]]).

=== When to use each calendar ===
Events which took place before the [[fall of D'ni]] should use the D'ni calendar as their primary dating system. Gregorian dates may be provided if desired, but this can quickly become cumbersome to read. Visitors who want to know what the equivalent Gregorian date is for a D'ni-dated event can open the page for that date to see what it is in other calendars.

Events which took place during the Myst series of games, as well as the Book of Atrus and the Book of D'ni, should also use the D'ni calendar as their primary dating system. Gregorian dates may be used with somewhat more freedom here, as visitors may be more interested in tying these events to our own calendar.

Beginning with the modern-day rediscovery of D'ni in [[1987 CE]], events should be dated with the Gregorian (surface) calendar. Aside from highly notable events, such as holidays or other high-profile milestones in D'ni history, D'ni dates should be avoided, and left to the visitor to uncover by accessing the relevant year page.

== Converting dates ==
You can use the Archive's [https://archive.guildofarchivists.org/dateconverter date converter] to translate between the Gregorian and D'ni calendar. Note that this converter is not precise down to the second across long timespans, but it should suffice when all you need is day-level granularity.

When dealing with dates from before the official adoption of the Gregorian calendar in a given region, you should be aware that the date converter creates [[w:Proleptic Gregorian calendar|Proleptic Gregorian calendar]] dates, rather than Julian calendar dates. Because of this, you should avoid tying specific surface events which occurred before the adoption of the Gregorian calendar to specific dates in the D'ni calendar. The converter will generally suffice for year-level granularity, but more specific dating is almost guaranteed to be fraught.

== Date pages ==
=== D'ni calendar ===
It may be easiest when creating new articles for these timeline elements to copy and paste an existing article's contents as a template to work from.

==== Yahrtee (days) ====
Vailee/yahr combinations (like Leefo 1) should only be created when needed. These pages should list events from any hahr (year) that took place on that day.

Yahrtee pages should indicate how far into the D'ni hahr they are, and how many days remain after it (e.g. "'''Leefo 1''' is the first ''yahr'' of the [[D'ni calendar]]. There are 289 ''yahrtee'' remaining until the end of the ''hahr''.")

Every yahr's page should also include the {{tlx|vailee}} template at the top to provide inter-yahr and inter-vailee navigation. This template takes the current month as its only parameter; this can be provided using the <nowiki>{{PAGENAME}}</nowiki> magic word, like so: {{tlx|vailee|<nowiki>{{PAGENAME}}</nowiki>}}.

==== Vaileetee (months) ====
Each vailee should also have its own page. This page should list observances during that vailee, as well as any other pertinent information about the vailee itself. This page is ''not'' for listing events; that should be done on the yahrtee and hahrtee pages.

Each vailee page should also include the {{tlx|vaileetee}} template at the top.

==== Hahrtee (years) ====
Every D'ni hahr (year) page '''must''' include the {{tlx|hahrtee}} template at the top. This template requires two parameters: the [[:Category:D'ni decades|D'ni decade]] and the [[:Category:D'ni centuries|D'ni century]] in which that hahr appears.

Events within a hahr should be broken down by type, then date. Currently, the categories for events are:

* '''Births''' - for any person born in that hear
* '''Deaths''' - for any person who died in that hahr
* '''Events''' - for anything else that happened in that hahr

Events that are only identified by the hahr in which they occurred should be listed first, unless there is some indication that it took place between two other events with more accurate dates. Other events should then be listed chronologically by vailee and yahr (month and day).

===== Categories =====
Categories should be placed inside a <nowiki><noinclude></noinclude></nowiki> container. This will prevent them from appearing on pages when the contents of the hahr's page are transcluded into other places.

Every hahr page '''must''' include the following categories:
* <nowiki>[[</nowiki>Category:''<decade>'' DE activity<nowiki>]]</nowiki> (e.g. [[:Category:1100s DE activity]])
* <nowiki>[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}| ]]</nowiki>

The activity category is a hidden organizational category that enables the D'ni decade pages to pull only the contents of that decade from the specific hahr pages that make that decade up. Pages that do not contain the activity category will not be pulled into the decade pages.

===== Other calendars =====
{{ambox|text=This portion of the project hasn't been started yet. I'm still working out templates that would make it easy to drop this information into a page without having to manually deal with formatting it every time. --[[User:Alahmnat|Alahmnat]], Grand Master ([[User_talk:Alahmnat|talk]]) 13:52, 4 January 2019 (PST)}}

Each hahr's page should at the very least indicate the time span covered by that hahr in the Gregorian calendar system (aka "surface time"). Because our calendar and the D'ni calendar are offset from one another and drift slightly due to leap years, you should include the specific month and day on which the hahr began and ended.

==== "Decades" ====
If the D'ni decade containing that hahr does not yet exist, it should be created as well. Because the D'ni number system is in base-25, a "decade" is 25 years long, so for instance the decades surrounding 1124 DE are the 1075s DE, the 1100s DE, and the 1125s DE.

Every decade page's title should follow the convention of "''<decade>''s DE", e.g. "1100s DE".

Decade pages '''must''' have the {{tlx|Hahrtee fahrah}} template at the top of the page. This template takes the D'ni century ("hahrtee fahrah") as the only parameter. Note that although the D'ni calendar system includes a 0 DE, D'ni centuries start at 1. Each century is 625 years long, because of the D'ni's base-25 number system. Thus, the first century is 0 - 624 DE, the second century is 625 - 1224 DE, and so on.

Decade pages should also list the years that comprise them. The wording is typically as follows:
<blockquote>
The '''''<decade>''s DE''' was a [[:Category:D'ni decades|D'ni decade]] which began on Leefo 1 ''<first hahr>'' DE, and ended on Leenovoo 29 ''<last hahr>'' DE.
</blockquote>

Every decade page '''must''' also contain the template {{tlx|Activity by year for decade}}, with the special <nowiki>{{PAGENAME}}</nowiki> magic word as the template's parameter. This template will pull every event from each page tagged with that decade's activity category, order them by hahr, and link them. This cuts down on the amount of maintenance and busy-work required to keep every part of the timeline up to date as the Archive expands. You can see an example of what this looks like on the [[975s DE]] page.

==== Hahrtee fahrah (centuries) ====
Every D'ni century page '''must''' begin with the {{tlx|Hahrtee fahrah}} template. As on the Decades pages, this template takes the D'ni century in question as its only parameter (e.g. {{tlx|Hahrtee fahrah|2}} for the second D'ni century).

The events list on a century page may be abbreviated to contain fewer entries for a hahr than actually occurred, essentially creating a "highlights" list, which visitors may explore more deeply by visiting the pages for specific hahrtee.

Century pages may also list significant individuals, and provide overviews of complex events (though visitors should be directed to specific Archive entries for full details). Currently our historical records are limited, so there are not likely to be many circumstances where a D'ni century page cries out for a great deal of embellishment beyond simple lists of events.

=== Gregorian (surface) calendar ===
I'll get to this after work, promise. --[[User:Alahmnat|Alahmnat]], Grand Master ([[User_talk:Alahmnat|talk]]) 13:52, 4 January 2019 (PST)