Forum:Tense inconsistencies
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I doubt I'm the only person to have noted this trend. But there seems to be a lack of consistency (albeit it's not an incredible lack of consistency) in the otherwise well written articles. This usually manifests as random shifts between present tense and past tense. Is there any strict guidlines that I'm missing out on? AineoftheSidhe (talk) 17:04, 23 August 2014 (EDT)
- Make sure to submit a concern or inquiry next time using the appropriate forum. Thank you! Helianthus — All right. Shoot!
- Oops, sorry. AineoftheSidhe (talk) 18:16, 23 August 2014 (EDT)
- Do you have any specific examples in mind? Also, here are some unwritten rules we follow in regards to tense: if the subject (character, piece of technology, society, organization, etc.) is known to be extant or alive as of their most recent appearance, we use present tense in the introduction, descriptions, etc. However, histories, biographies and basically all references to "past" events (i.e. events that have happened in released media) use the past tense. An exception to this are timelines (which you'll find on some pages, like Insurrection and Human-Covenant War or all of our year articles, starting from 10,000,000 BCE), which invariably use the present tense. Also, if a character's last appearance is many decades or centuries before the "present" (c. April 2558) in the timeline, we might use the past tense in the introductions and descriptive sections like "Personality and traits". And, as the Manual of Style says, all this only applies to articles written from an in-universe perspective: pages about real-world media (games, books, comics, etc.) always use the present tense. --Jugus (Talk | Contribs) 08:41, 25 August 2014 (EDT)