Wikipedia:Names of articles on recent events
 | This proposal has become dormant through lack of discussion by the community. It is inactive but retained for historical interest. If you want to revive discussion on this subject, try using the talk page or start a discussion at the village pump. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Don't propose that dates be added to, or removed from, the names of existing articles about recent events. That's unless either the name is ambiguous without the date, or you have good reason to reopen the discussion! |
There is no consensus as to whether the name of an article about a recent event should include the year of that event when the year is not required for disambiguation, and in what form if so. When considering renaming an article to add or remove the year, be cautious about such changes, since the matter may be contentious. Don't assume that your opinion would be shared by everyone.
Whichever name is chosen, redirects should exist from the reasonable alternative forms.
Considerations[edit]
Even when not required for disambiguation and/or not commonly included in sources, the year may be helpful to the reader in identifying the article topic. Appropriate redirects can minimise any negative impact on the reader.
The decision about whether to include the year (or a more specific date identification such as a month and year) can involve determining whether the reader would be able to unambiguously recognise the topic of the article if the timeframe reference is omitted. The desire to be concise should be balanced with the need for sufficient precision. For example, an article with a potential title of "Attack in Biggertown" should probably include the year, since the reader is unlikely to know whether there are any other articles on Wikipedia that discuss some form of attack in that city. In contrast, an article entitled "Biggertown nuclear reactor meltdown" probably does not need the year identified, since it is likely there has only been one such incident in the city. Similarly, an article about the death of a particular named person does not need the year, since each person only dies once, and a person's name is a sufficiently unique identifier of who it was that died.
When wikilinking, it is entirely left to writer discretion to decide which version of the article title is used. The use of pipe with a link to a longer title has advantages in providing more informative hovertext. Use of the most concise title makes wikilinking easier for the editor. Use of the standard disambiguators makes wikilinking almost as easy by using the pipe trick, which does not recognise a leading date as a disambiguator. However the date-first format is similar to natural disambiguation, and some editors are more comfortable with it.
Bold moves are strongly discouraged, moves should be discussed first using the WP:RM process. According to WP:RM#CM, if there is any reason to believe a move would be contested use the RM process first. While it is valid to occasionally test whether consensus has changed, undiscussed moves, "uncontroversial" technical moves or mass move requests are potentially contestable (see examples section below) and should follow the procedures at WP:RM.
Examples[edit]
Articles that include the year[edit]
- 2003 Aceh New Year's Eve bombing
- 2005 Palu market bombing
- 2012 Paros beating and rape
- 2013 La Défense attack
- 2014 Tours police station stabbing
- 2016 Malmö Muslim community centre arson
- 2016 Normandy church attack
- June 2017 Brussels Central Station attack
- Tornado outbreak of April 6–8, 2006 (date placed at the end as the result of an RM discussion closed on 19 February 2017)
- Tornado outbreak of April 14–16, 2011 (date placed at the end as the result of an RM discussion closed on 21 February 2017)
Articles that omit the year[edit]
Recent renames to add or keep the year[edit]
- 2017 Chicago torture incident (the result of an RM discussion closed on 27 November 2017; there have probably been other torture incidents in Chicago)
- 2017 Fresno shootings (the result of an RM discussion closed on 20 November 2017; there have been other shootings in Fresno)
- 2016 Chattanooga school bus crash (date restored in an undiscussed move on 22 November 2017 after being removed in an undiscussed move on 21 November 2017; there have been many school bus crashes in Chattanooga)
- 2016 Cimarron train derailment (date restored in an undiscussed move on 22 November 2017 after being removed in an undiscussed move on 21 November 2017; there have been other train derailments in Cimarron)
- 2016 Wilkinsburg mass shooting (date restored in an undiscussed move on 9 December 2017 after being removed in an undiscussed move on 21 November 2017; there was another mass shooting in Wilkinsburg six years earlier)
- 2015 Thalys train attack (which had an RM discussion closed as not moved on 8 December 2017)
- April 1999 Albania–Yugoslav border incident (date added in an undiscussed move on 20 September 2015 and reduced in precision in an undiscussed move on 18 October 2017)
Recent renames to remove the year[edit]
- Caracas helicopter incident (the result of an RM discussion closed on 23 August 2017 that also included another change)
- Lakanal House fire (date removed in an undiscussed move on 14 June 2017)
- Manchester Arena bombing (the result of an RM discussion closed on 10 October 2017)
- Orlando nightclub shooting (the result of an RM discussion closed on 26 November 2017)
- Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack (date removed in an undiscussed move on 21 November 2017 after being added in an undiscussed move on 15 July 2016)
- Würzburg train attack (date removed in an undiscussed move on 21 November 2017)