User talk:Doc James

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File:Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.png has been listed at Commons:Deletion requests so that the community can discuss whether it should be kept or not. We would appreciate it if you could go to voice your opinion about this at its entry. If you created this file, please note that the fact that it has been proposed for deletion does not necessarily mean that we do not value your kind contribution. It simply means that one person believes that there is some specific problem with it, such as a copyright issue. Please see Commons:But it's my own work! for a guide on how to address these issues. Please remember to respond to and – if appropriate – contradict the arguments supporting deletion. Arguments which focus on the nominator will not affect the result of the nomination. Thank you! Afrikaans ∙ العربية ∙ беларуская ∙ беларуская (тарашкевіца) ∙ български ∙ ပအိုဝ်ႏဘာႏသာႏ ∙ বাংলা ∙ bosanski ∙ català ∙ čeština ∙ dansk ∙ Deutsch ∙ Deutsch (Sie-Form) ∙ Zazaki ∙ ދިވެހިބަސް ∙ Ελληνικά ∙ English ∙ Esperanto ∙ español ∙ eesti ∙ فارسی ∙ suomi ∙ français ∙ galego ∙ עברית ∙ hrvatski ∙ magyar ∙ հայերեն ∙ Bahasa Indonesia ∙ íslenska ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ 한국어 ∙ 조선말 ∙ кыргызча ∙ македонски ∙ മലയാളം ∙ Bahasa Melayu ∙ မြန်မာဘာသာ ∙ norsk bokmål ∙ Plattdüütsch ∙ Nederlands ∙ norsk nynorsk ∙ norsk ∙ occitan ∙ polski ∙ پښتو ∙ português ∙ português do Brasil ∙ română ∙ русский ∙ sicilianu ∙ slovenčina ∙ slovenščina ∙ shqip ∙ српски / srpski ∙ svenska ∙ ไทย ∙ Türkçe ∙ українська ∙ Tiếng Việt ∙ 中文 ∙ 中文（简体） ∙ 中文（繁體） ∙ +/−

Hyperba21 (talk) 15:24, 28 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

Hey Doc, this map does not show anything about the year 1963, just OWID's current lack of data in 2025. Don't you think the {{Map showing old data|year=1963}}-Template should be removed from the file, as well as the [[category:Maps showing 1963]]-Category?

As a replacement, I have already prepared Maps showing no data, I think that this should get assigned to all similar placeholder-maps that just do not display any data (yet). I think the category could be renamed as either "OWID-maps showing no data" or "Our World in Data maps showing no data"; but I can also imagine other dataless maps from other sources. There are enough uploads about OWID already that we will need to create "Maps of North America showing no data" and so on - so I think we should not make overly long names.

Finally, none your maps are products from their time; for example this map was not created in 1826. In the Commons' map naming scheme, "<time> maps of <location>" are reserved for maps from <time>. As of right now, we do not have a too-great category system for history maps, but there is Maps of North America in the 19th century, for example, which will need expansion. Once there is enough content, I think we would create subcategories like Maps of North America in the 1820s, and so on.

All the best, --Enyavar (talk) 16:47, 30 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

In regards to your third paragraph, Commons categorization is currently so that <year> maps of <location> is for maps of <location> showing data as of or for that year. Especially for older maps, year of data equals year of map made. Especially for newer maps, categorizing by year made makes little sense for example as maps get updated via new revisions. What you are talking about is located at Category:Maps by year created. Prototyperspective (talk) 18:27, 30 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

Hey Enyavar, will look at building that functionality (blank maps) into the graph viewer. Right now we still need them or the interactive graphs will break. I am not; however, sure how hard it will be to build. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 19:08, 30 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

@Prototyperspective: , I had to do a bit of searching but I admit I have come up emptyhanded. Apparently you refer to this CfD from 2014? Well, essentially nothing has been done on that front since then, but we do have an established practice to differentiate between the two ideas nevertheless: "<year> maps" are a subcategory of "<year> works", "<year> in geography" and most importantly of "Old maps", and that means categorization follows TFOMC, which is a guidance template from 2006. Categorization of maps by year (sadly) got out of control after 2019, and practically in just one direction: by now, "<year> maps" have become essentially synonymous with "Maps created in <year>" - just look at 1780 maps. Following the TFOMC-template, "History maps" on the other hand were few enough that they mostly just accumulated in "history-of"-categories without ever getting subdivided by years. Some others and me only made a push in the last two years to create more and more "maps showing <year>", while "Maps by year created" looks pretty much empty to me. Right now it seems easier to just change the Template:MapsYear to specify that it means creation year.

Do you think this merits a VP-proposal? --Enyavar (talk) 21:42, 30 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

I was mainly describing the current use and understanding of these categories. by now, "<year> maps" have become essentially synonymous with "Maps created in <year>" Not at all; you are talking about what I referred to with "Especially for older maps, year of data equals year of map made" but this is very different for newer maps. If you change something like that, you'd be responsible to make sure the categories contents match their title and the formalized distinction but keep in mind that people upload new revisions of data visualization maps and the cat would need to be set to the year the last revision map was created. If you don't want to do that or can't, then don't do it. Prototyperspective (talk) 23:33, 30 October 2025 (UTC)Reply