This is essentially a continuation of the topic mentioned above, Jam vs competition. There are at least two characteristics we’re trying to track. This is as close as I could get to understanding the complex competition/jam dichotomy:
Some of the old “MiniComps” had both those features, as do some recent “jams”. But by the same definition, though, some competitions call themselves jams, and some jams call themselves competitions.
We chose four event types (competition, jam, conference and meeting) for the new database – together with the concept of event series – in the knowledge that we might have to revisit it when the dust settled. Part of letting the dust settle is seeing what happens when people add the old event pages to the new event database, and have to choose an event type. We will probably add a new “Other event” type as an interim measure to see what other ideas we get (see Form talk:Event - IFWiki).
The old categories coexist with the new event database. Every event in the database is automatically added to a category (Competitions, Jams, Conferences, Meetings). For example, ECTOCOMP 2019 - IFWiki is now in the database but still is in its pre-existing Ectocomp category, and PunyJam 4 - IFWiki has automatically been put in the Jams category.
At the beginning I didn’t see the point of a separate “jam” event type but now, despite the nebulousness, I think it serves a purpose. For instance, I get the impression that people use the fact that a game was written in a limited timeframe for a minicomp or jam as a proxy for quality, just as they might use the voting results of a competition. Having said that, I don’t have strong views. An alternative might be combining both into “Competitions and jams” and having checkboxes for “Voting: Y/N” and “Creation time limit: Y/N”.
The ultimate answer is to convert all the event pages to use the database, and to keep the event types under review. This is as easy as clicking “Edit with form” and filling in the boxes.