User talk:71.56.195.173

Advice: Which version of English, and how to use dates, on Wikipedia

Wikipedia has millions of readers. Some use American English. Some use British English (also known as International English). Some also use local forms like Canadian English, Hiberno-English, Indian English, etc.

Because of this, Wikipedia has a policy of respecting articles written in whatever form of English the original author of the article used.

The guidelines are simple:


 * If the topic is exclusively about something to do with Britain, for example, a member of the British Royal Family, or British geography, a famous British person, etc, use British English.
 * If a topic is exclusively about some to do with the United States, for example an American president, or Hollywood, or an American author, etc, use American English.
 * If it is an international topic, use whatever form of English the original author used. So if the article is written in British English, and uses colour, don't change it to color or vice-versa. Remember, American English often uses a z where British English uses an s, for example, recognize/recognise.

In view of that, 'please don't change articles from one version of English to the other, even if you don't normally use the version the article is written in. Respect other people's version of English. They in turn should respect yours.'

Finally, please also don't change the dates. Most British people and many people internationally write dates as dd/mm/yy, eg, 12 December 1904. Most Americans use mm/dd/yy, eg, December 12 1904. If the article is about an American topic, use mm/dd/yy. If it is a British topic, use dd/mm/yy. If neither, leave it as originally written.

Many Americans or British people take offence if an article written about their country and which was written their local version of English is changed around to a version they don't use. So please do not do that.

All dates usually have two square boxes around them, as in 12 December or December 12. This means that you can set your preferences (if you look around your screen you'll see the word preferences. Just hit that and follow the instructions) to ensure that you see all dates in the format you want, whether dd/mm/yy, mm/dd/yy or yyyy/mm/dd.

The general rules on how Wikipedia articles are written can be seen in our Manual of Style. Type in WP:MS and you'll see the page.

If you have any queries about all this, just ask anyone on Wikipedia and they will help you. Enjoy your time on the internet's fastest growing encyclopædia (or encyclopedia, if you write it that way!). Thank you. FearÉIREANN \(caint)  23:45, 10 November 2005 (UTC)