Talk:List of Tau Epsilon Phi chapters

message: One of the many, many problems we have wrestled with here on Wikipedia, regarding the Greek Letter Organizations, is how to sort lists of chapters.  , you've pressed for alphabetization... OK, but this begs the question, which alphabetization?  Greek or English letter order?  What our Fraternity and Sorority Project has landed upon as a solution allows multiple sort columns, and as a default, to lay out the chapters in order of founding. Here's a basic example, one of many: Delta Omega. Some editors have embellished with color separator bars or have default sorted large numbers of chapters by state, first, such as: List of Alpha Gamma Delta chapters.  None of us seem to mind these minor stylistic variations.  You may want to use one of these sort table examples for this page. By the way, nice work on your diligent efforts to update and improve these pages over the long years.  I see you began well over a decade ago as a Wikipedia editor. Jax MN (talk) 16:58, 3 June 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: @Jax MN, Now that TEP national has a complete list on their website, I found that they used a chapter numbering system. This was helpful in determining what chapters were missing from the list. However, the numbering system does not exactly follow charter date, so is probably the based on the colony's founding date. Question: should we order numerically or by charter date? No rush on deciding--range dates, date templates, and efn are still needed. However, it would be easier to leave in numerical order and might be a good compromise between the various editors. Rublamb (talk) 08:06, 13 May 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: I was just reviewing your edits to the TEP list.  Nice work.  We should use the date of installation as the primary sort date.  Colonies can grow faster or slower, but each actual chapter has a definitive installation date.  Jax MN (talk) 16:41, 13 May 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: I was asking if we should order between the installation date or the number. Sounds like you are in favor of the usual charter date. However, I just learned that some colonies were assigned names but never chartered. If chartered, the dates appear to be correct. However, if the colony went dormant before being installed, the dates listed are for the of operation of the colony. So that throws a wrinkle in organizing by date. I have added an efn indicating that these 3 were never chartered and have colony in the chapter title. I also have colony as status for the active colonies. (Note that they use two terms for colonies--I decided not to differentiate since I could not find a explanation or description of the difference between the two.) Have I done enough to explain that these dates are for a colony and not for installation. Any suggestions? Rublamb (talk) 19:09, 13 May 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: I think so.  Early copies of Baird's helped corral the various national societies toward a standard numbering or dating system, but outliers remain.  Some grew so large, so early, that the cookies were baked before the out-of-step situation was realized.  For them, EFNs that explain the outliers seem the best way to address why. Jax MN (talk) 21:53, 13 May 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Alphabetization 

message: I will be implementing some table format updates to be more consistent with the Wikipedia:WikiProject Fraternities and Sororities guidelines. This includes merging the active and inactive chapters. Although the tables may look different, I will not be removing any existing information. Rublamb (talk) 02:35, 13 May 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Format updates