Anıl Şerifoğlu (talk) 13:05, 24 June 2023 (UTC)Now that Star Wars: Timelines is out and a number of folks have access to it, it's time to discuss how we implement the various changes it makes to how the dating system has worked up to this point. The major change to discuss is what is placed within 1 BBY and 0 BBY, or just 0 as the book refers to it now. According to Timelines, the time period 0 only covers all of the events of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope (including the medal ceremony) and anything happening concurrent to them.
Everything prior to ANH that was previously 0 BBY is now 1 BBY, including Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Star Wars 100 Objects also consistently dates Rogue One material to 1 BBY so I think it's pretty clear cut that we just start moving any pre-ANH 0 BBY material to 1 BBY with new timelines refs. I'd say that notes can be made on effected media and year pages to state that it was previously 0 BBY but changed by Timelines, but that this isn't necessary on every effected individual subject page (although I'd consider noting it on event pages).
How we handle 0/0 BBY is less straight forward. My personal opinion is that we keep the page at 0 BBY and list 0 as an alternate name for it. This is primarily because the BBY provides context to readers who would be confused to read just "In 0, Luke Skywalker destroyed the Death Star." If we did go with just zero, we'd need to put something like "In the time period known as 0, Luke Skywalker destroyed the Death Star." every time to make clear what the number zero is referring to, which I think is less concise and reads weird. Given all the previous sources that used it and that 100 Objects still uses it for the Defender Sporting Blaster (although 100 Objects is actually all over the place with its ANH dating and puts many in 0 ABY or even 1 ABY) I think that 0 BBY still appears to be a valid name. With either 0 or 0 BBY we also need to make sure we no longer refer to it as a year at all since it's now clearly a much shorter period between two years.
As I've tried to make clear, this is just my personal suggestion and not some bureaucrat edict on how we have to do it so I'd apprecite everyone's feedback, including any other suggestions of how we handle it. I'm hoping if there's general agreement we can just start implementing whatever we agree on, but if needed we can always put it to a vote. (Also worth noting that Star Wars Encyclopedia seems to have already started using ABY/BBY dates again more frequently based on some of the most recent ones so will be interesting to see how it and other sources handle it going forward). Ayrehead02 (talk) 08:51, 28 April 2023 (UTC)
Discussion
- Do we mean that the new 0 BBY is the period 0 given by Timelines, which means that 0 BBY and 0 ABY make up one full standard year? Loqiical (talk) 10:37, 28 April 2023 (UTC)
- In what I'm proposing 0 BBY is just the period 0 in Timelines. My read is that 0 ABY is a full year separate from 0 BBY, which is just a matter of days or however long ANH is in-universe and doesn't sit within any named year. Ayrehead02 (talk) 10:43, 28 April 2023 (UTC)
- I agree with the bureaucrat edict. :P Jokes aside, it does seem to me like the best way to handle it. LucaRoR
(Talk) 13:32, 28 April 2023 (UTC) - I agree that it is clear that Rogue One and before is 1 BBY. It is less clear how to handle the 0/0 BBY stuff, I agree that it is simplest to treat Timelines' "0" as 0 BBY. ThrawnChiss7
Assembly Cupola 14:14, 28 April 2023 (UTC) - On one hand, referring to 0 as 0 BBY makes a lot of sense to me because it makes it much less ambiguous. On the other, 0 BBY is not a full year, which is kind of implied by the BBY. This might confuse people. That being said, I think I'm still leaning towards agreeing with Ayre's proposal. Wok142 (talk) 16:51, 28 April 2023 (UTC)
- In my opinion, I really don't like that they changed this :P. But yeah, it's definitely an intentional change and I think this is probably the best way to handle this. Rsand 30 (talk) 17:42, 28 April 2023 (UTC)
- If the term "0 BBY" has been decanonized, we can't continue to use it (at least not if we want to continue to claim we're documenting canon), regardless of how much clearer it might be. On the other hand, for a book that's been out less than a month, its Wookieepedia page has already gathered over 30 bullet points in its Continuity section, many documenting how Timelines's information flat-out contradicts the order of events as presented in narrative works, so there's something to be said for viewing this book's changes to the dating system with some skepticism until further works clarify things. Asithol (talk) 23:48, 3 May 2023 (UTC)
- I'm not sure that a single book not using it is confirmation that its been entirely "decanonized" as a term given that Star Wars 100 Objects still uses it and was published in the same month by one of the same authors. Part of the reason I'd recommend we don't move to just zero is that it's the bigger change and we've yet to see how sources going forward will refer to the time period. If we do see sources start to consistently use zero then we discuss it again and potentially make the change in future. Ayrehead02 (talk) 08:00, 4 May 2023 (UTC)
- Just chiming in to say I like the idea of 0 BBY being the more formal term for "0" given that Timelines dates all of the ANH events leading up to the Battle of Yavin to that brief time period. So 0 years before Yavin makes sense to me in that case. Braha'tok enthusiast Hello there 11:00, 24 May 2023 (UTC)
