Template:Update after

^{[update needed]}

Usage

Parameter 1 is the year

Parameter 2 is the month number

Parameter 3 is the day of the month

Optional parameter 4 is the category

Optional named parameter COMMENT= is for leaving a note to the next editor about what exactly needs to be changed (if it's not obvious or if there are multiple items) and where to find the new information.

This template shows the ^{[update needed]} note shown above, but the note is only visible on or after particular (future) date. The date is specified as a year, followed by a month (1-12; leading zero is okay), followed by a day (again, leading zero is okay), for example

{{update after|2008|11|4}}

for November 4, 2008. An optional 4th parameter is for a category for the article to be put into on the specified date, although the page probably needs to be viewed before this occurs. An example of this would be

{{update after|2008|11|4|United States Government articles in need of update}}

If the nature of the needed update(s) or the source of the updated information might not be clear, this should be mentioned also by adding a "comment=" parameter. An example of this might be:

{{update after|2008|11|4|comment=Show name of new president, and list the election statistics, such as how many Electoral College votes there were for each candidate (perhaps broken down by state), and how the actual votes compared to predictions; information will be available on virtually all U.S. news sites. May also want voter and other reactions. Check talk page to see if there's anything else which should be mentioned}}.

Note that the named parameter should always be last, as in:

{{update after|2008|11|4|United States Government articles in need of update|comment=Show name of new president, and list the election statistics, such as how many Electoral College votes there were for each candidate (perhaps broken down by state), and how the actual votes compared to predictions; information will be available on virtually all U.S. news sites. May also want voter and other reactions. Check talk page to see if there's anything else which should be mentioned}}.

Please read Wikipedia:Avoid statements that will date quickly; use update after only in exceptional cases. Do not use update after on pages which simply need to be reviewed later to see if they might need updating. It should only be used when there is a 100% probability that an update is needed. Do not use this template on talk pages. It is probably not necessary to use this template on frequently edited articles such as for current events. Never add this template referring to the current day or any date in the past. Do not use this template within section headers, as it will break the header. Do not use this template as part of a parameter of another template.

It is acceptable to continue to use this template when an expected event does not occur; the date can be updated to expire a reasonable time later (such as a week, month, or quarter; this should be fairly commonsensical) after which an editor can check again; by that time, if the event still has not occurred, the source material should at least have an explanation of the reason and a new target date. For the benefit of readers, a note can be provided to indicate that the expected event has not occurred as of such-n-such a date, so that they will know that someone is keeping on top of the matter.

Effects

• When the template is added to an article, the article is linked to As of yyyy (where "yyyy" is the expiration year); a list of such pages can be found at As of. The article is also linked to Articles linked to Template:Update after
• At approximately the expiration date (the exact day can vary with changes to the template formulas), the article is linked to Wikipedia:Updating information\yyyy, Wikipedia:Updating information\yyyy\mm (where "mm" is the expiration month), Wikipedia:Updating information\yyyy\mm\dd (where "dd" is the expiration day), Category:Wikipedia articles in need of updating, and the category (if any) specified as a parameter. The phrase "update needed" also appears in the text of the article at the indicated spot.

Go to Wikipedia:Updating information for a list of pages currently needing updates. For compatibility/interoperability, Category:Wikipedia articles in need of updating as well as As of also contain links to pages needing updates. See Wikipedia talk:Updating information for links to future years, if you're curious about what has been linked but has not yet expired.

Related templates

• Template:Update can be used to mark an entire article or section needing to be updated. This template adds the article to Category:Wikipedia articles in need of updating.
• Template:Out of date is used to mark an article whose factual accuracy may be compromised (although this may be disputed) due to out of date information. This template adds the article to Category:Articles with obsolete information.

Discussion

Developmental discussion was originally at Wikipedia talk:As of#Template:Update after but is now at Template talk:Update after.

Developmental notes

This template was developed in order to resolve a number of problems seen with the As of links.

• The template is outside of the standard Wikipedia namespace; there is no sign of it in "flattened" print or CD versions except maybe when the prose passes the expiration date.
• Carefully-planned usage instructions, which are partially enforced by the template mechanism.
• Can be extended and/or modified, and all pages that it is already used on will show the changes.
• Prose does not need to be altered to accomodate it; it is invisible to readers until the "due date".
• NO maintenance is needed; the built-in Wikipedia "what links here' mechanism is used to determine which pages need to be updated for a particular day, and a formula is used to generate the correct links.
• The template is very simple to use, and it is very simple to find pages needing update.
• Can be Has been modified to work with other techniques, such as {{update}}, {{Out of date}}, and As of.
• The template itself is modular and heavily commented, in case future changes to the template are desired.
• The dates of the text display, linking to Wikipedia:Updating information subpages, and linking to categories are all calculated independently, so that each of these events can be set to occur on different days.
• A full date is required; this helps force/remind editors to be careful to select and specify a date when a change WILL be needed.

Notes for future reference

• The ^{[update needed]} message currently appears on the day specified, but does not need to; as a cosmetic issue with regards to non-editors (readers), the template can be modified to show this at a later day than the date on which the article is scheduled to be updated. Specifically, it may be desirable to have the message not appear until the next day or so, to give update editors a chance to update the page before readers see the notice.
• A Template:Review after template will probably be created later, once Template:Update after appears to be working satisfactorily.