Template:Update after
Usage
This template shows the update needed note shown above, but the note becomes visible only on a particular (future) date. The date is specified as a year, optionally followed by a month (1-12), optionally followed by a day, for example {{update after|2008|11|4}} for November 4, 2008. If the day is not specified, the [update needed] indicator appears on the first day of the specified month. Similarly if neither month or day are specified, the indicator appears on the first day of the specified year.
Please read Wikipedia:Avoid statements that will date quickly; DO NOT use update after in cases where it can be avoided. 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 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. NEVER add this template referring to the current day or any date in the past.
History
This template partially replaces the [[As of nnnn]] convention. These pages have multiple problems, such as being in the encyclopedic namespace, frequently not being used correctly or consistently, and editors often unnecessarily mangled the prose in order to use it. This template resolves these problems, since the update warning only appears after an indicated future date, does not appear when a page is printed, and does not require artifically linking any text in the article.
Discussion
Developmental discussion is at Wikipedia talk:As of#Template:Update after.
Notes for future reference
- The "update needed" message and category currently appear on the first day of the year or month, but do not need to; as a cosmetic issue with regards to non-editors, the template can be modified to show this at a later time than the date on which the article is scheduled to be updated. Specifically, when a day is given, it may be desirable to have the message not appear until the next day, a week later when only a year and month are given, and a month or quarter later when only a year is given.
- If it is desired that the category message appear at a different time than the "update needed" message, an extra line can be added to the template to support this.
- Having the page be added to a category may turn out to be either unnecessary or annoying. In this case, ask User:Rick Block or another admin to remove the category from the template.
