I'm looking for an opinion here on what to do when a place or person changes their name. Should the name be accurate for the time the picture was taken or should it be updated. The former is more accurate, but it leads to more bookkeeping and fragmentation of the data. The latter leads to being able to find images easier, but means you have to work to find and update older images.
As an example that I'm dealing with right now. Near me is the San Diego Zoo Safari Park (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_Zoo_Safari_Park) and I've gone there to take pictures many times. But up until 2010, it was the San Diego Wild Animal Park. I currently have images tagged as the name at the time of the image. But this means it'll show up as two separate places and I have to remember that there was a name change.
A similar example would be when someone gets married and changes their name.
Any thoughts/ideas would be appreciated.
In 2009, did you go to San Diego Zoo Safari Park? No, although it is in the same place, it was a different entity. To tag those photos as SDZSP instead of SDWAP would be incorrect in my opinion.
My opinion is to use the name that was accurate at the time. I would say that Bruce Jenner won the Olympic medal, but it is Caitlyn Jenner now.
- Phil
I recently scanned old prints and used the current woman's surname for all photos' Keywords. In the Captions I used more free text and maybe (maiden name) in parenthesis depending on the situation.
In one historical project I use a lot of street names that have changed sometimes many times and I use the most current and familiar name in Keywords and maybe tell the old names in the Caption text. The same goes for houses that might have many names in history. Sometimes I have changed both of them en masse.
Quote from: wywh on December 30, 2020, 05:15:52 AM
I recently scanned old prints and used the current woman's surname for all photos' Keywords. In the Captions I used more free text and maybe (maiden name) in parenthesis depending on the situation.
This is pretty much what I've decided to do. Use the current name in Keywords so it's easier to find and makes it more obvious it's the same place/person for anyone who wouldn't know they're the same. Time appropriate name in the Description. It's a lot easier to change keywords with a decent DAM than it would be the description.
My thought here is that some descendant a generation or two removed might not know about any name changes. Though it's a stretch that my photos will survive beyond me. My family just isn't interested. :(