Can someone just tell me how to make this show up correctly - I can't seem to figure it out.

example:
? (as Altus Verum), 2007-2008, 2008-present (as Mephistophilus)

The Band is Christ Tormenti - that was their name from 2007-2008. Then they switched to Mephistophilus from 2008 to ? and then to Altus Verum from ? - present.

The problem is that there was a two year gap between Mephistophilus and Altus Verum and no confirmation on the web if they changed it in 2008, 2009 or 2010.

So how do I get Mephistophilus to show up as 2008-? instead of 2008-present. Putting in a "?" in the end date field throws an error.

Thanks

In those cases you can use ~ for wildcards to force correct sorting without years given. These wildcards can be somewhat approximate, but mainly serve to have the years active displayed correctly as they are not visible on the page itself.

I've added some now, see here: http://www.metal-archives.com/band/edit/id/128284 (and here: http://www.metal-archives.com/band/edit/id/3540304531)

This is also mentioned in the help section, though I admit it can be elusive at first. Under "Adding new data", "Band entry form", "Years active".

Thanks - sorry, I've read the notes and knew about the ~ but I think what I missed was that I still needed the year in there. I guess I was thinking the year would show up if I did that but I see in your example that it's only for sorting.

Thanks

This seems like a suitable thread for this question.

If the time line is filled out, like Трепанация, can the info about name changes be cleared out of the additional notes?

Obviously, info outside of "changed name to X in 1900, and then Y in 1911" can be left in if relevant.

Yeah, I personally think it is a bit redundant to have that information in the additional notes as well as the years active. I usually remove notes like those when I see them, which I think is okay to do...

In this particular case, yes. But don't get too trigger happy. It should only be deleted if all the informational content is virtually identical with the year ranges.

So if, let's say, the bio here actually read:
"Formed in 1990 by *this guy* under the name Craniotomy, and changed their name to Трепанация in 1992 after *that guy* left."

...it should stay. Just an example.

Also, don't eviscerate longer bios that happen to read "Formed in year XYZ. [longer text] Then changed name in year ZYX [longer text]" or something.