User:SOTO/Forum Archive/The Drax Cave/@comment-7302713-20130424002107/@comment-188432-20130426193226

What I'm saying in regard to your second paragraph is that I cannot replicate your results.

Do I wish that the categories displayed immediately upon adding the template? Yes. That's the way it's supposed to be. But they don't anymore as long as you're using the category module. If you turn off the category module in your Special:Preferences or use the Monobook skin, things look and feel completely "right".

Even if you are using the category module, however, all it takes is a simple reload to reliably refresh category display. (Well, with the proviso that I simply cannot provide complete support to you, since you won't/can't upgrade your browser.)

The other possibility is that I haven't adequately explained the automated category process. When you add a category by template, you will not be able to see that category in the page history or on the page in edit mode. You will only be able to see it in the category area at the bottom of the page after a refresh. As long as {{timeline}} is in the history, so too are the decade and century categories.

And that brings us to your last question. Why not just have the template add the year, too? It's because of caching issues over which I have no control. Wikia's installation of networked MediaWiki software has notorious caching issues that make changes to templates, particularly in the area of automated category application, take forever. Now, it's fine for new pages. But if you're talking about a template like {{timeline}} that's on around 1000 pages, it can take a while for changes to the categories to kick in. Generally, you have to "touch" the page to get it to re-apply cats. Thus, I made the decision to just add en masse category:years, and leave it up to editors to add that category to any new pages they might add.

I can certainly see the logic of changing {{timeline}}, but having things the way they are means that I only need to strip cat:years from pages, rather than removing then replacing {{timeline}} to get a full refresh.