I am wondering if the community would find it helpful to have the first publication date displayed on the Work page alongside the Sort Name, Type, and Language.
I have been adding this information to the Annotation section but it does tend to get buried away.
Me too and I think an extra field for “First published” would ne a nice idea. indeed.
It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so here is a mock-up of the Work with the inclusion of the first published date:
Yes, this should definitely be added.
It has also been suggested that we should be able to add when the Work was written (I imagine as a time range): https://tickets.metabrainz.org/browse/BB-469
I will add your suggestion to that ticket.
Recording the Written date can be useful (it is a feature on Bookogs’ Works) as it is sometimes cited in scholarly articles or listed at the end of a novel.
You raise a good point about date range. A lot of science fiction and fantasy novels / novellas, etc. were first serialized in magazines, so the first publication date can range over several months (for Charles Dickens’ serialized works, they can range over a year and a half or more). On Bookogs it is possible to list multiple dates, so the publication history can be listed as a range e.g. The Strange People by Murray Leinster https://books.discogs.com/work/522449-the-strange-people
