Guideline:As of

Not to be confused with Template:As of?.

The "as of" technique is a method to deal with information that will quickly become dated. Some articles have information that is valid only at a specific moment in real world history, such as current and future product announcements and events. If you suspect that something in an article will become dated at some point in the future, and want to ensure that people will update it, include a tag of the form

{{As of|year}} or {{As of|year|month}}

with the year of validity in place of year and the month number in place of month. See the {{As of}} template for additional options and detailed examples.

Every individual, non-contiguous statement in an article that may date quickly should be so tagged, even if there are several such statements that link to the same year. Otherwise, it is possible that when one statement is updated, other statements in the article might be overlooked, and no one will realize that they need to be checked also.

Usage guidelines

For more details on this topic, see Template:As of/doc.

Usually "as of" is used only in cases where an article is intended to provide the most current information available and will need a future update. It should not be used for historical information that will not change. The date used for a given statement should be the date of the most recent reliable source (for currently valid statements), or the date on which the data were obtained (for example, when using census figures).

"As of" should not be used with future dates, as it will place the article in, instead, use {{Update after}} to mark when the next event will occur. Here are two ways to correctly mark statements with future dates:

     {{As of|2024|post=,}} these forcepacks are expected to be released in 2034 and cost the same MSRP.

     These forcepacks are expected to be released in 2034 and cost the same MSRP.{{update after|2034}}

Remember to always use precise language when writing about future or current events. The statement should make sense to a reader years into the future, even if the information has changed. If it is possible to predict when a statement will need updating, use the {{Update after}} template to indicate when it should be updated. In the above statement the most obvious date is 31 December 2034, after which the forcepacks will have been produced or the statement will have become inaccurate. In either case the article should be updated to reflect this.

Avoid beginning a series of paragraphs or sentences with repeated instances of the wording "As of", as this can produce a distracting list-like effect. Both "As of" and "Since" can be made lower-case for use in mid-sentence, by addition of the |lc=y parameter, and any use of |alt=... can contain text beginning with lower case.

Precise language

See also: BattleTechWiki:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers § Chronological items, and BattleTechWiki:Manual of Style/Words to watch § Relative time references

In general, editors should avoid using statements that will date quickly. This does not apply to quotes, which must remain true to their source.

Where possible, avoid terms such as "now" and "soon" (unless their intended meaning is made apparent), "currently" and "recently" (except on rare occasions where they are not redundant), or phrases such as "in modern times" and "the sixties" (unless their frame of reference was previously made clear). One exception to this is in articles that are regularly updated, such as those that cover current events.

Do not use variables to automatically update the date, such as "as of {{CURRENTYEAR}}", unless the information being referenced is automatically updated each time the page is parsed, such as {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}.

When writing about past events, use more precise language, such as "during the 1990s", or "in August 1969". For future and current events use phrases such as "as of March 2007", or "since the start of 2005", which indicate that the information is time-specific. The "as of" technique/template described above can be used to assist fellow editors in keeping information up-to-date. However, this technique is not intended to replace precise language.

"As of" tracking

When statements are tagged using {{As of}} the article they are in is automatically added to Category:Articles containing potentially dated statements (2).

See also

• BattleTechWiki:Template index/General#Timing-related messages
• Guideline:Updating information, for updating information at a known future date, and:
  • The accompanying {{Update}} template.
  • The accompanying {{Update after}} template.
• {{Show by date}}/{{subst:Show by}}