Add note about varying use of BEF/AFT#775
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I'm not sure this is the right note, but hope it will be a useful starting point for conversation leading to the right note. Closes #773
tychonievich
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Jun 23, 2026
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| Those definitions suggest that `AFT 1850` would mean "1 JAN 1851 or later," | ||
| while under the 7.0 definition `AFT 1850` means "1 JAN 1850 or later." | ||
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| This change in definitions was made to align with common (but not universal) practice. | ||
| Given a source dated 1850 that asserts something had happened in the past | ||
| (which could mean earlier that same year or in an earlier year), | ||
| some users encode that as `BEF 1850` and others as `BEF 1851`. | ||
| Both user entries are consistent with the source under the 7.0 definition, | ||
| while only the second is consistent with the source under the 5.x definition. |
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| Those definitions suggest that `AFT 1850` would mean "1 JAN 1851 or later," | |
| while under the 7.0 definition `AFT 1850` means "1 JAN 1850 or later." | |
| This change in definitions was made to align with common (but not universal) practice. | |
| Given a source dated 1850 that asserts something had happened in the past | |
| (which could mean earlier that same year or in an earlier year), | |
| some users encode that as `BEF 1850` and others as `BEF 1851`. | |
| Both user entries are consistent with the source under the 7.0 definition, | |
| while only the second is consistent with the source under the 5.x definition. | |
| These definitions left ambiguous whether they meant the beginning or end of the date in question: | |
| did `BEF 1850` mean "before the beginning of 1850: 31 DEC 1849 or before" | |
| or did it mean "before the end of 1850: 31 DEC 1850 or before"? | |
| Some users found the inclusive definition more natural, | |
| and would encode a source dated 1850 asserting something had happened in the past | |
| as `BEF 1850`; | |
| others preferred the more natural linguistic form of the exclusive definition, | |
| and entered the same source as `BEF 1851` | |
| because they didn't know if it happened earlier in 1850 or an earlier year. | |
| Choosing one over the other also seemed to vary by region, | |
| with some dialects and translations interpreting "before" and "after" differently than others. | |
| The updated definition text in 7.0 is intended to be unambiguously inclusive: | |
| `BEF 1850` could mean sometime within 1850, or before that date began. | |
| The inclusive definition was chosen because it does not contradict the exclusive definition: | |
| interpreting exclusive intent as inclusive data loses precision, | |
| while interpreting inclusive intend as exclusive asserts falsehoods. |
This alternative wording points out that there was an actual ambiguity, not just a sloppiness of use, in the 5.x wording, but also doesn't suggest that disagreements still exist. I can't decide if I like this text better or not.
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I'm not sure this is the right note, but hope it will be a useful starting point for conversation leading to the right note.
Closes #773