Template talk:Syrian Civil War map

What date the image

@FugeeCamp: Hi. Thanks for the clarification. A few things:

1. I'm glad to know that the image isn't THAT old (ie. December 2011), but how old IS it? Because of the fluidity of the nature of subject being portrayed, there should be a specific date included in the caption, updated when the image is updated. My edit initially started because I wanted to tag the infobox with {{when}}. Your update didn't help that, so I scrolled down, found the image history and edited the caption to the date of the latest update to the image.
2. Many thanks to either you or whoever is doing the work keeping the image up-to-date. It's a great service, and seems like a lot of work.
3. FYI, there is the possibility of creating an animated version of your map, like has been done for this Wikipedia map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_invasions_and_conquests#/media/File:Mongol_Empire_map.gif . Its very useful / informative if you have your browser configured to only play the animation a single time instead of repeating ( http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_:_Tips_:_Animated_Images ).

Cheers, —Boruch Baum (talk) 22:24, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

@Boruch Baum: Hello, I am not responsible for the image. If you go to commons:File:Syrian civil war.png and go down to file history you can see that the image is quite regularly updated by different people and that the current version is from 19 October 2015 however the image could be updated any time and so someone will have to manually update the template with the date as well. I only deleted the date on the template after seeing it on an article and noticing that it can't be right. — Preceding unsigned comment added by FugeeCamp (talk • contribs) 00:42, 21 October 2015‎ (UTC)

@FugeeCamp: OK. I guess what I could do is go to that talk page and add them to this thread. BTW, there's an additional wrinkle. It turns out there is quite a bit of duplication of Wikipedia material on this conflict, and there are TWO sets of images. The other one is being used by a second template, called "Syrian civil war infobox", and that image hasn't been updated since September! I've already posted there to let them know of the duplication.

—Boruch Baum (talk) 01:05, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

@BlueHypercane761, Dedomop, ApcehCraft, Rob984, and DuckZz: Hi. Inviting you all to this thread, since you seem to be active in updating the image being used by this template. When the image is updated, the caption on this template should also be updated. Maybe there's a way to do so auto-magically using Wikipedia magic word, but I don't know how to do it.

—Boruch Baum (talk) 01:05, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

I don't believe that there is an automatic way of updating the caption, and (as you have pointed out elsewhere) the map is being updated regularly. It is, therefore, not sensible to include in the caption a specific date which will soon be incorrect. David Biddulph (talk) 07:38, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

@David Biddulph: Yup. That is the best solution. Until it isn't. Like the case I mentioned eight lines up in this thread (on my browser), of the second Syrian war map image, in the infobox template, that turns out not to have been updated since September. To not include a specific date suffers from two problems: 1] its designed against human nature; and 2] its begging to be tagged {{when}}.

If it is true that there is no way to automatically update the caption appropriately, the alternatives are to ask the people updating or watch-listing the image to update the caption. Earlier in the thread, I reached out to five of the recent uploaders of image updates for their input. It might be better to hear from them before reverting to the vague version of the caption.

@David Biddulph: To underscore my earlier point, take a look here for starters.

G'night all.

—Boruch Baum (talk) 08:14, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

May be safest just to remove the word "Current"? --David Biddulph (talk) 10:07, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

@David Biddulph: OK. Agree. —Boruch Baum (talk) 06:05, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

@FugeeCamp, BlueHypercane761, Dedomop, ApcehCraft, Rob984, and DuckZz: Would the image updaters please add a date to the image when updating it? —Boruch Baum (talk) 06:05, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

@FugeeCamp, BlueHypercane761, Dedomop, ApcehCraft, Rob984, and DuckZz:

@MrPenguin20: Can people who update this map please make a map of a subsection with the borders of the map on the right, but up to date? It would be preferable for this to be an SVG so the language of the labels can change. -- Callinus (talk) 08:21, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

You mean like this? MrPenguin20 (talk) 21:14, 3 December 2015 (UTC)