Template talk:Ma

Plotting year ranges?[edit]

Q[edit]

Hi! This is an nice, dense template!

In Maotianshan shales this usage "between {{Ma|525 and 520}}" renders as "between and 520 1 million years ago". What's the proper way?

Thanks. Saintrain (talk) 16:15, 30 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Try between {{Ma|525|and}} {{Ma|520}}, which gives

between 525 and 520 million years ago.

Smith609 Talk 17:31, 30 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Done.

(fwiw, I think (I'm not sure yet) I would prefer the suffix (including the default) to be in the blue link.)

Thanks. Saintrain (talk) 00:28, 1 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Great template! Extremely useful. I wonder if the graphing timescale utility could be modified to display a range of years (for example, Index fossil has several items which will span many tens of millions of years). I guess this is a feature request - can the plotting timescale tool can be extended to accept and plot time ranges, as well as a subsequent template update to allow a range to be specified? Thanks! Nimur (talk) 03:52, 4 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Nice idea. Now implemented. So to amend my answer to the previous question:

Try between {{Ma|525|520}}, which gives

between 525 to 520 million years ago

Smith609 Talk 08:21, 4 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Enhancements needed[edit]

Ability to suppress generation of text. E.g. "4,000 million years ago to 3,800 million years ago" would read better as "4,000 to 3,800 million years ago". Adding the 3rd param with no value or a space does not achieve this, and adding   results in 2 spaces, as the template inserts   between the number and unit.
I thought I'd documented this, clearly not. {{Ma|400|380}} -> 400 to 380 million years ago. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 15:30, 11 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Ability to suppress wikilink to timeline in passages where the same date is mentioned a few times, e.g. current lead for Evolutionary history of life. -- Philcha (talk) 12:11, 11 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
SHould be easy to do - I'll put on todo list

Thinspace instead of comma?[edit]

A few of us were recently discussing (on User talk:Vsmith#Decimals - American vs European notation) the potential confusion for some Europeans when faced with a number like 3,450 million years (one editor recently interpreted the comma as a decimal point). One suggestion was to replace the comma by a thinspace, as in "3 450 million years ago". Could you provide that option? RockMagnetist (talk) 23:48, 1 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Note that the MOS points out problems with using the html (& thinsp;) thinspace, and recommends using the {{gaps}} template, perhaps that could effectively be incorporated? . . dave souza, talk 00:33, 2 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It's doable. We now have a Module:gapnum for this. Jimp 03:01, 15 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Timescale tool[edit]

The timescale tool seems broken. For example:

{{Ma|123}} renders --> 123 million years ago

Now when I activate the link on the number, it takes me to an error page saying

http://tools.wmflabs.org/timescale/?Ma=123, is not currently serviced

Thank you for the template, and please mention the timescale tool in the /doc. I'll add "See also {{val}}, {{units}}, {{gaps}}, {{convert}}, MOS:NUM" but AFAICT only you can document the timescale tool so I'll know if its broken or not. — Cpiral Cpiral 23:57, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

A quick chat session at #wikimedia-labs ^connect found that timescale needed to be restarted.

It would be great if timescale could be put on auto-restart until the crash is investigated. This template's call to timescale is used in many Paleontology articles, but it was down for a surprising amt of time. — Cpiral Cpiral 17:02, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

We're 2018, it's still broken. Wakari07 (talk) 20:19, 28 April 2018 (UTC) The chat asks to create a phabricator task. Wakari07 (talk) 20:54, 28 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Spacing problem[edit]

I am not certain that the problem I'm reporting is caused by the Ma template, but it's my best guess. If I'm wrong, I hope someone will direct me elsewhere.

In the article Eurypterid, the second paragraph of the lead ends like this: They became extinct during the Permian–Triassic extinction event 251.902 million years ago. Their fossils have a near global distribution.

I find I can arrange the width of my browser window so that a linebreak appears just before the final period of the sentence containing the Ma template. I assume that this is due to something happening inside the template. Maproom (talk) 17:11, 8 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Useless link[edit]

By default the template automatically links "million years ago" to myr. This is an article on the abbreviation "myr" explaining that the abbreviation means "million years" and blah blah blah (note "million years" not "million years ago"). This totally irrelevant because the template isn't even using the abbreviation. Even if it were, though, to link by default would tend to create overlinking. The phrase "million years ago" does not need a link to anything, it's plain straight-forward language that even a preschooler would understand. Jimp 02:56, 15 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed - and it makes it less obvious that clicking on the number takes you somewhere useful. I've removed the link. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 11:47, 7 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The link seems back, see f.i. Jaguar#Evolution. Agree with Jimp that it's unnecessary and can lead to a WP:sea of blue. Femke Nijsse (talk) 13:18, 9 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Forgot to ping @Smith609 Femke Nijsse (talk) 11:23, 12 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Jimp@Smith609@Femkemilene, it looks like it was only partially removed; I'll complete the removal, as I share the overlinking concern. Cheers, {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 21:36, 23 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Link broken[edit]

@Smith609:, the template is broken. At least from human evolution. http://archive.is/Z5lP0 --Ysangkok (talk) 16:56, 31 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the notification. Not sure what I can do about this, and afraid it's not easy for me to figure it out. Perhaps someone from WMF labs could advise? Perhaps the tool needs to be restarted (see above). Happy to take specific action as directed. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 11:45, 7 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Smith609: It's either still not working or not working again. Any ideas? Thanks, SchreiberBike | ⌨ 06:27, 29 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

See #Timescale tool above. Wakari07 (talk) 06:39, 29 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Links removed[edit]

I've removed the links to WMFlabs (as the tool was broken) in these two subtemplates: [1][2]. Regards, – Þjarkur (talk) 14:59, 12 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Nowrap[edit]

This template's use of nowrap on "million years ago." cause formatting issue on mobile. It interferes with other article objects and causes the text to jump down to a space that it will fit, leaving unnecessary white space. - LCU ActivelyDisinterested ∆transmissions∆ °co-ords° 11:30, 12 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I just noticed this at Cryogenian. The nowrap should end after "million". Hairy Dude (talk) 21:50, 15 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

New URL for easier future maintenance[edit]

For information: a user reported an issue with the previous implementation. To fix this, I have rewritten the timescale in JavaScript; the new implementation at https://geoltime.github.io should now be easier for the community to maintain and improve, and should not encounter the service issues referenced above. I have updated the teplate to point to this new URL. I've tested this reasonably rigorously, but the best place to report any issues is on GitHub, which I check more frequently than WP. Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 07:36, 24 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]