Talk:The Smoke Screen (Yes, Prime Minister)

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[edit] Wikilinking dates

It is contended that all dates should be wikilinked in order to enable user formatting preferences. Two editors have tried to wikilink the dates in the infobox in this article; however these have both been reverted back to the non-wikilinked version. I believe that the date should be wikilinked in accordance with the Manual of Style and that dates are a special case which is not subject to the multiple linking guideline (see Manual of Style (links), paragraph Dates and numbers). I would appreciate other editors' views on this matter. -- MightyWarrior 11:51, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Just to my add my view: I created the article and I too believe that dates should be Wikilinked, but not where they are duplicated. The date in question is the transmission date, which is already given (and Wikilinked) in the opening paragraph. I appreciate that dates should be formatted to allow user preferences, but I'm sure this need only apply to one instance of each different date. Chris 42 15:27, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

This is in reply to the WP:3O request. I agree with MightyWarrior that the MOS guideline should be followed: "If a date includes both a month and a day, then the date should normally be linked to allow readers' date preferences to work, displaying the reader's chosen format. The day and the month should be linked together, and the year should be linked separately if present."

I disagree with Chris 42 that this need not apply to multiple instances, because there is no such exception among the exceptions in the guideline, because readers probably like to have all instances of dates on a page displayed in their preferred format, and because the approach preferred by Chris 42 can result in inconsistent formatting of dates in an article, which is probably more disturbing to the reader than multiple blue date links.

Personally, I disagree with the MOS guideline of linking dates at all, because I too don't like seeing blue links everywhere, but the way to go about this is to seek consensus for changing the guideline. Sandstein 19:11, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Okay, I take the point that those instances that are unlinked will not display properly. I'll change them, but for consistency's sake it will have to be across all 38 episode articles, so I'll do them a few at at a time. :-) Chris 42 22:10, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

All done. :-) Chris 42 21:25, 11 October 2006 (UTC)