Forum:Tense consistency

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Since there is no active forum and I couldn't find a custom rules/guidelines page, I thought I'd ask here: There is this notice right on the main page which requires editors to use in-universe descriptions. That's fine by me, but I would like to know how this should be implemented. If you look at Gwen's page, it's a hodgepodge of present tense and past tense, in-universe descriptions of what happened, in-universe speculation, and real-world elements (like "in series 2"). The other main character pages I've glanced over don't fare much better in this regard. I don't want to mess with them before finding out what the community prefers: My personal preference would be the third option, and it is also the one most consistent with the "point of view" notice. --Tulipclaymore 22:30, October 7, 2011 (UTC)
 * Consistent past tense for everything (most sections of Kilgharrah are written like this).
 * Consistent present tense for everything (like The Crystal Cave; this would, however, make staying in-universe very difficult on character pages).
 * Present tense where facts are still true as of the last episode, past tense for everything else (like Knights of Camelot).


 * I think it best if we always write in past tense to keep the same standard throughout and so that things do not became warped and/or confused. How do you decided whether or not facts are still true? That system simply cannot be maintained.-- 14:36, November 18, 2011 (UTC)

If we decide to rewrite those articles, we could make a template to marks respective articles, for better handling and overview which articles are left to be ‘converted’. Btw., if we have to do more consensus talk, maybe start using the Forum? That is what is on my mind for now, greetings &mdash; ochristi (t&middot;c) 16:32, November 18, 2011 (UTC)
 * Hi, I would prefer past tense as well, but I am not exactly getting, how would you do, for example, the introduction on character articles (the “X is/was a knight/…”), depending on whether they are alive/deceased at the current point of the plot? (Other examples would be, “Arthur was prince”, … is king”, etc.) IMO, those should be written accordingly, while for the description of the actions and story line I would always use past.


 * I wouldn't say you need a template, unless you really want to. You can just write a hidden message like this: In any case, I think it would be quite obvious if a page is past tense. :)
 * I definitely agree that a forum needs to be set up and used as there are plenty of improvements I for one would like to suggest for you all to comment and improve upon and I'm sure many others are in a similar boat. Right, I'm done - over and out.-- 21:49, November 18, 2011 (UTC)

New comments
Wookieepedia uses consistent past tense for in-universe articles; the idea is that everything covered in the wiki are "historical documents" taking place in the distant past ("a long time ago..."). If we retain the in-universe perspective, that is a logical approach (and technically, Merlin does take place in our past, if a very romanticised version of it). So in the case of Arthur becoming king, the change from "Arthur was a prince of Camelot" to "Arthur was King of Camelot" would be justified by saying "oh, new documents (i.e., a new episode) have been discovered". --Tulipclaymore 16:09, November 19, 2011 (UTC)