Are centuries legitimate events?

I've just started reading a book about Joan of Arc, and noticed that the "events" field include two questionable entries, "Middle Ages" and "15th Centuries" -- both of which are markers of time periods, not things that happened.

While it could theoretically be argued that a century is actually about the same length of time covered by a century, mere duration isn't much of a basis for inclusion as an event: such-and-such war also carries a geographical context that is wholly absent from such-and-such time period.* And while "Middle Ages" carries a suggestion of "medieval Europe," the period is so broad as to be effectively meaningless for use as an "event"**.

So, my question is, do time periods like these count as events, or not?

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* This is why I don't really object to those "Reign of <Monarch> of <place>" entries.

** Normally, I don't take well to being told to just use tags for everything. Broad things like eras (particularly "eras" created as a back-formation -- long story) that apply at a work level are the exception.

In my opinion, no. Time periods like 'Middle Ages' and '18th century' aren't events and don't belong in that field.

I don't think they are.

I think most people would agree they should be tags rather than events. And good luck to anyone intending to do anything about it, because they're pretty popular: Middle Ages (1,166 works) and 15th century (365 works).

Not forgetting the decades, eg 1350s (30 works) and 1950s (101 works).

I think that ship's sailed.

I think that this was also discussed here

http://www.librarything.com/topic/127870

>4 Cynfelyn: I've done project that I thought would take a couple of hours but took months. All it takes is a little OCD, a lot of patience, and not having a life. :-D

I'm retired, broke, and mobility limited, so sometimes I do look for goofy stuff to fill my days. But right now I'm obsessed with TinyCat-ing my library, so won't get to this one any time soon. I'll mark this thread, though, so if I need a break from something, I might take a look to see if something still needs doing.

Can we name and shame I know the 19th century culprit (1813) entries ? No wonder they have over 100 000 Common Knowledge contributions

Lolol! Deleted those last.

How about this one?

https://www.librarything.com/work/9767843/commonknowledge/75903940

>13 MarthaJeanne: Waaaa! I suppose if some of them were shorthand for 'Discovery of ...' that would make sense but that's evidently not the case!

Oh dear :|

>13 MarthaJeanne:

Well one of the events is a real event - The Great Exhibition of 1851. But that isn't a very good hit rate.

>11 Collectorator:

Yes I agree with you.

Christmas I guess should stay.

But I am also more than a bit puzzled by it being attached as an event for the The Holy Bible: New King James Version (NKJV). I would have used The birth of Christ rather than Christmas. They aren't synonyms - at least not for me.

https://www.librarything.com/events/Slow+Food+Movement

Is that really an event?

>18 andyl: Not to my thinking. More of a topic.

>16 andyl:

So are the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and the Great Stink, and I'll go along with the Industrial Revolution.

I very nearly left "street lightning" for amusement purposes, but decided against that.

Once or twice I found (and duly removed) things like "Bayeux Tapestry" -- not the making of, just said outsized embroidery project itself.

Things like "Christmas" -- which, as a holiday, has some event-like qualities -- I'll generally leave in situ. Removing them is just bait for an edit war, and I don't really want to start one over something merely questionable.

Reigns and dynasties and the "eras" named after monarchs are close enough to event status that I left those, too. Except for the odd dynastic war, they generally had reasonably definable start and end dates, and -- Hapsburgs aside -- had a similarly definable geographic scope.

>22 Collectorator: Events are an enormous mess.

Agreed.

>22 Collectorator:

Ditto World War II, where something like seven-eighths of the 7,953 titles listed show 1945, presumably because they've followed the suggestion, and used "World War II (1939|1945)".

Ditto between two-thirds and a half of the events World War I (2,792 titles) ("1918"), American Civil War (2,861 titles) ("1865"), Napoleonic Wars (643 titles) ("1815") and Hundred Years' War (204 titles) ("1453").

Agreed. An enormous mess, and probably not fixable while the suggestion line is misleading.

>26 Collectorator: Great! I feel ten years younger.