I made a change to the source categories. This is a feature that no one uses but myself, so if the feature does not interest you, I guess you can stop reading here.
Firstly, I renamed the authority category (_QUAY1) values from ‘primary’, ‘secondary’ and ‘tertiary’ to ‘original’, ‘transcript’, and ‘copy’. I did this because, the names have a clearer inherent meaning. I also did it because the Genealogy Proof Standard (GPS) commandeered the definitions of ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ to mean something entirely different than what was commonly thought. The new strings will therefore no longer interfere with the GPS. The old names are still supported for backward compatibility, but as I said, no one uses them. I also extended the category by supporting a new string, “abstract” so that users can distinguish between copies of copies and data not in the original form.
I will admit that when I first came up with my source categories, I did it in vacuum and was not even aware the GPS existed. Randy Seaver was kind enough to inform me. Since the GPS is just a subset of my categories, it was easy to support it. This is done by also supporting the string “derivative” for the authority category. GPS users can now simply set _QUAY1 to “original” or “derivative”. Likewise, GPS users can now also make use of the association category (_QUAY2) by setting it to either “primary” or “secondary”. Using these two categories, users can now get full support for certainty assessments. Unfortunately they still need to be able to add user tags to their sources which very few applications will allow.
While I was adding GPS support, I went ahead and added the strings “direct” and “indirect” to the conclusion model (_MODL) as well.
As a reminder, “negative” evidence (GPS) is already supported by Adam. See the FAQ for how to show a claim has been proved to be invalid. Consult the FAQ for details on source categories and certainty assessments as well.
