User:Stephen Turner/Date Proposal

This is my proposal for a new version of Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers)#Dates. Please discuss it at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (dates and numbers)#Stephen's proposal.

In the following, red text indicates text which differs between the two versions, and khaki text indicates text which is the same between the two versions but has moved.

Current text	Proposed text	Notes
Years, decades, and centuries This section describes how to link to years, decades and centuries. See sections, which follow, regarding when such linking is appropriate. See Anno Domini for a discussion on what is meant by AD and BC notation, and Common Era for a discussion on what is meant by CE and BCE notation. A page title that is just a positive whole number is always a year. Pages also exist for days of the year, decades, centuries and even millennia. The formats for references to years are: 474 [[474]] 474 BC (note no periods) or 474 BCE [[474 BC]] or [[474 BCE]] 18th century or eighteenth century (note that century is not capitalized, and "1700s" is not a century, but a decade, as illustrated below.) [[18th century]] or [[eighteenth century]] 10th century BC or 10th century BCE (or "tenth") [[10th century BC]] or [[10th century BCE]] 1830s (note no apostrophe) [[1830s]] December 1983 (note that December is not linked) December [[1983]] 320s BC or 320s BCE [[320s BC]] or [[320s BCE]] Articles for the year 500 BC and earlier should be redirected to the relevant decade. Articles for the year 1700 BC and earlier should be redirected to the relevant century. Articles for the year 4000 BC and earlier should be redirected to the relevant millennium. Note that the first century BC was from 100 BC–1 BC (there was no year 0) so 1700 BC would be the first year of the 17th century BC, 1800 BC would be the first year of the 18th century BC, etc. Similarly, 4000 BC was the first year of the fourth millennium BC, not the last year of the fifth millennium BC. When only an approximate date is available the abbreviation "c." (circa) may be used; see the example at Rameses III below. When a date is uncertain—because the sources are unreliable—that fact should be noted and, if possible, the source specified. For example, "according to Livy, the Roman Republic was founded in 509 BC", or "The Mahabharata is traditionally said to have been composed in 1316 BCE".	Years, decades, and centuries This section describes how to link to years, decades and centuries. See sections, which follow, regarding when such linking is appropriate. See Anno Domini for a discussion on what is meant by AD and BC notation, and Common Era for a discussion on what is meant by CE and BCE notation. A page title that is just a positive whole number is always a year. Pages also exist for days of the year, decades, centuries and even millennia. The formats for references to years are: 474 [[474]] 474 BC (note no periods) or 474 BCE [[474 BC]] or [[474 BCE]] 18th century or eighteenth century (note that century is not capitalized, and "1700s" is not a century, but a decade, as illustrated below.) [[18th century]] or [[eighteenth century]] 10th century BC or 10th century BCE (or "tenth") [[10th century BC]] or [[10th century BCE]] 1830s (note no apostrophe) [[1830s]] December 1983 (note that December is not linked) December [[1983]] 320s BC or 320s BCE [[320s BC]] or [[320s BCE]] Articles for the year 500 BC and earlier should be redirected to the relevant decade. Articles for the year 1700 BC and earlier should be redirected to the relevant century. Articles for the year 4000 BC and earlier should be redirected to the relevant millennium. Note that the first century BC was from 100 BC–1 BC (there was no year 0) so 1700 BC would be the first year of the 17th century BC, 1800 BC would be the first year of the 18th century BC, etc. Similarly, 4000 BC was the first year of the fourth millennium BC, not the last year of the fifth millennium BC. When only an approximate date is available the abbreviation "c." (circa) may be used; see the example at Rameses III below. When a date is uncertain—because the sources are unreliable—that fact should be noted and, if possible, the source specified. For example, "according to Livy, the Roman Republic was founded in 509 BC", or "The Mahabharata is traditionally said to have been composed in 1316 BCE".	Unchanged
Date formatting Adding square brackets "[[DATE]]" to full dates allows date preferences to work. Editors are not required to link full dates, but most full dates in Wikipedia are linked so that each user's date-formatting preference appears in the text. For this to work, at least the day and the month must be included; some date preferences won't work unless a year is also linked. For example: Month and day [[February 17]] → February 17 [[17 February]] → 17 February Day and month and year [[February 17]] [[1958]] → February 17 1958 [[February 17]], [[1958]] → February 17, 1958 [[17 February]] [[1958]] → 17 February 1958 [[17 February]], [[1958]] → 17 February, 1958 [[1958]] [[February 17]] → 1958 February 17 [[1958]], [[February 17]] → 1958, February 17 [[1958]] [[17 February]] → 1958 17 February [[1958]], [[17 February]] → 1958, 17 February [[1958]]-[[02-17]] → 1958-02-17 [[1958-02-17]] → 1958-02-17	Dates containing a month and a day If a date includes both a month and a day, then the date should normally be linked to allow readers' date preferences to work. The day and the month should be linked together, and the year should be linked separately if present. For example: Month and day [[February 17]] → February 17 [[17 February]] → 17 February Day and month and year [[February 17]], [[1958]] → February 17, 1958 [[17 February]] [[1958]] → 17 February 1958 To create a date that is linked but not converted, use a "piped" link with alternate text, for example "[[February 17|17 February]]". This should only be done with good reason, for example in a direct quotation. In article titles, dates will not be converted. There are some exceptions to the rule that dates with a month and a day should always be linked: Using the date formatting feature in section headers complicates section linking, see date formatting. On disambiguation pages, only the disambiguated articles should be linked, not explanatory text.	Shortened, and made the advice to link more forceful — I'm pretty sure there is almost unanimity that full dates "should normally be linked". Removed examples of dates that people should not be encouraged to use (either incorrectly formatted, or ISO 8601 dates (for which, see below)). Moved some paragraphs up from #Usage of links for date preferences below, so that everything about full dates is together. Added the exception about disambiguation pages, which I think we all agree on.
Avoid overlinking dates The content of this section is currently being discussed at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (dates and numbers)#linking of dates If the date does not contain a day and a month, date preferences will not work, and square brackets will not respond to your readers' auto-formatting preferences. So unless there is a special relevance of the date link, there is no need to link it. This is an important point: simple months, years, decades and centuries should only be linked if there is a strong reason for doing so. See Wikipedia:Make only links relevant to the context for the reasons that it's usually undesirable to insert low-value chronological links; see also Wikipedia:Manual of Style (links)#Internal links. Usage of links for date preferences Examples where date preferences do not work: year only. So [[1974]] → 1974. Generally, do not link unless they will clearly help the reader to understand the topic. month only. So [[April]] → April. Generally, do not link. century. So [[20th century]] → 20th century. Generally, do not link. decade. So [[1970s]] → 1970s. Generally, do not link (including an apostrophe (1970's) is incorrect). year and month. So [[April]] [[1974]] → April 1974 Generally, do not link. new year and month. So [[April 2000]] → April 2000 Generally, do not link unless they will clearly help the reader to understand the topic. Presently, articles only exist for combinations from the year 2000 to current. day of the week (with or without other date elements). So [[Tuesday]] → Tuesday. Generally, do not link. An unlinked date, such as "February 17, 1958" will not be converted. To create a date that is linked but not converted, use a "piped" link with alternate text, for example "[[February 17|17 February]]". This should only be done with good reason. Using the date formatting feature in section headers complicates section linking, see date formatting. In article titles, dates will not be converted.	Partial dates If the date does not contain both a month and a day, date preferences do not apply: linking or not linking the date will make no difference to the text that the reader sees. So when considering whether such a date should be linked or not, editors should take into account the usual considerations about links, including the recommendations of Wikipedia:Only make links that are relevant to the context. There is consensus among editors that month and day names should not be linked unless there is a particular reason that the link will help the reader to understand the article. There is less agreement about links to years. Some editors believe that links to years are generally useful to establish context for the article. Others believe that links to years are rarely useful to the reader. Some advocate linking to a more specific article about that year, for example [[2006 in sports|2006]]. Examples of links which do not respond to readers' date preferences are: year only. So [[1974]] → 1974. month only. So [[April]] → April. Generally should not be linked. century. So [[20th century]] → 20th century. decade. So [[1970s]] → 1970s. year and month. So [[April]] [[1974]] → April 1974 new year and month. So [[April 2000]] → April 2000. Currently articles only exist for combinations from the year 2000 to current. day of the week (with or without other date elements). So [[Tuesday]] → Tuesday. Generally should not be linked.	This is, of course, the controversial section. I've tried to be fair to all sides by (i) stating that date links are subject to the general considerations of links; but (ii) stating explicitly that there is a diversity of opinion on this matter. For months and days, I changed "do not link" to "should not be linked"; if it's not correct to link it, it should be correct to unlink it. The final three paragraphs moved up to the section #Dates containing a month and a day above.
Date formats related to topics If the topic itself concerns a specific country, editors may choose to use the date format used in that country. For topics concerning the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, the formatting is usually 17 February 1958 (no comma and no "th"). In the United States and Canada, it is February 17, 1958. Elsewhere, either format is acceptable. See WP:MoS#National_varieties_of_English for more guidance.	Date formats related to topics If the topic itself concerns a specific country, editors may choose to use the date format used in that country. This is useful even if the dates are linked, because new users and users without a Wikipedia account do not have any date preferences set, and so they see whatever format was typed. For topics concerning the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, the formatting is usually [[17 February]] [[1958]] (no comma and no "th"). In the United States and Canada, it is [[February 17]], [[1958]]. Elsewhere, either format is acceptable. See WP:MoS#National_varieties_of_English for more guidance.	State why this is useful even though linked dates respond to date preferences. Link the example dates per guidance above.
ISO date formats The ISO formats, e.g., 2004-02-17 are less ambiguous but also not as widely comprehended. Redirects for other ISO forms should always be created. The YYYY-MM-DD format currently only follows the style of ISO 8601, but not the proleptic Gregorian calendar.	ISO date formats ISO 8601 dates, for example 1958-02-17, are unambiguous, and useful in certain technical contexts. However, they are not standard English, and are unfamiliar to many readers, so they should not generally be used in normal prose. This applies even if they are in a link: although the software will convert such dates according to users' date preferences (for example, [[1958-02-17]] → 1958-02-17), new users and unregistered users do not have any date preferences set, and will therefore see the unconverted ISO 8601 date.	I have completely changed this section in response to an earlier discussion which very nearly reached consensus. Although I'm hesitant to mix up the two issues, it's also more efficient to consider them together. But if this proves controversial, we can separate the two discussions.
Incorrect date formats Do not use numbers to express a month, except in full ISO 8601 format, which always includes the year. Always express a month as a whole word (for example, "February") to avoid ambiguity. In the ISO 8601 format, a leading zero is always added to single-digit months and days. Do not use two digits to express a year unless at the end of a range, e.g., "1970–87" (the same for BC). In all other cases, use four digits for years and decades after AD 999 (the same for BC). Using the less formal two-digit form for a decade is acceptable when not ambiguous; for example, when referring to the decade of the 20th century known as "the eighties", use "1980s" or, less often, "the '80s", not just "80s". Use consistent date formatting throughout an article, unless there's a good reason to vary it. Do not use ordinal suffixes: Incorrect: "February 14th" and "14th February" Correct: "February 14" and "14 February" Do not use articles: Incorrect: "the 14th of February" Correct: "14 February" Do not put a comma or the word "of" between a month and year: Incorrect: "December, 1945" and "December of 1945" Correct: "December 1945" An important exception to these guidelines is that direct quotations—the word-for-word reproduction of a written or oral text—should not be altered to conform to the Wikipedia "Manual of Style". In other words, a paragraph such as the (fictional) quotation from a newspaper report is fine as is: "Tony Blair, responding to critics in his party, said 'The world has totally changed since the 11th of September.' He was echoing earlier sentiments by Lord Ronald McDonald, who said that 'nine-eleven' was the day that the American public woke up to the reality of terrorism."	Incorrect date formats Do not use numbers to express a month. Always express a month as a whole word (for example, "February") to avoid ambiguity. Do not use two digits to express a year unless at the end of a range, e.g., "1970–87" (the same for BC). In all other cases, use four digits for years and decades after AD 999 (the same for BC). Using the less formal two-digit form for a decade is acceptable when not ambiguous; for example, when referring to the decade of the 20th century known as "the eighties", use "1980s" or, less often, "the '80s", not just "80s". Use consistent date formatting throughout an article, unless there's a good reason to vary it. Do not use ordinal suffixes: Incorrect: "February 14th" and "14th February" Correct: "February 14" and "14 February" Do not use articles: Incorrect: "the 14th of February" Correct: "14 February" Do not put a comma or the word "of" between a month and year: Incorrect: "December, 1945" and "December of 1945" Correct: "December 1945" Do not use an apostrophe to indicate a decade: Incorrect: 1970's Correct: 1970s Direct quotations An important exception to these guidelines is that direct quotations—the word-for-word reproduction of a written or oral text—should not be altered to conform to the Wikipedia "Manual of Style". In other words, a paragraph such as the (fictional) quotation from a newspaper report is fine as is: "Tony Blair, responding to critics in his party, said 'The world has totally changed since the 11th of September.' He was echoing earlier sentiments by Lord Ronald McDonald, who said that 'nine-eleven' was the day that the American public woke up to the reality of terrorism."	Removed references to ISO 8601 dates, to match advice in previous section Added decades with apostrophes as incorrect usage Moved Direct Quotations into a separate section, because it applies to all the guidance in this section.
		Remaining sections unchanged