Wikipedia:Avoid statements that will date quickly
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[edit] Preferred style: use precise language
Unless you are writing on pages that are regularly amended, such as current events, avoid statements that will date quickly. Examples include "recently", "in modern times", "now considered", "is soon to become", and "the sixties"; instead use phrases such as "as of October 2001" or "the 1960s." In many cases, such statements are also more precise.
Your words should make sense to a reader six months or fifty years into the future. Precise language will not sound dated if the article is never edited again.
[edit] Another option
That said, it sometimes suits the article to include time-sensitive statements that will need to be updated in the future.
The As of mechanism helps us to include current and timely information with less risk that someone browsing the Wikipedia in 2009 will read an article about that new album that is due in spring of 2004...
A link to As of 2005 will redirect to the 2005 page, acting the same as a 2005 link. However, once redirected, you can click the subtitle "(Redirected from As of 2005)" to return to the actual "As of 2005" article, and from there you can use the "What links here" link to find pages that may need updating.
In most cases, you'd create a standard link, such as: [[As of 2005]] or [[As of 2005|Currently]]
[edit] In special cases
If you believe that the article is not likely to need review until a different year (perhaps after the next Olympic Games or the like), you can link only the words "as of":
- [[As of 2009|As of]] 2005
which would appear as:
- As of 2005
The "As of" would link to As of 2009 while the "2005" does not link. The link to As of 2009 means that near the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010, someone can go to As of 2009 and use the "What links here" link to see a list of articles that need reviewing.
A newer mechanism, under development, is Template:Update after; it fixes many of the problems with As of.
[edit] Discussion
- See debate and more debate on the subject.
