Template:When

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Template:Never substitute {{When?}}

{{When|date=September 2024}}

{{When|reason=Your explanation here|date=September 2024}}

Use when a lack of precision prevents you from understanding the material or when date of a file is in question.

Add {{When}} after a date or a time period to indicate either that it is obviously incorrect or that the time period is so vague or ambiguous that you do not understand what is being said.

You may append a date to the template in the following format:

{{When|date=September 2024}}

Notes:

• Do not substitute this template.
• The |reason= parameter is optional but often helpful. It is displayed as a tooltip in some browsers.
• If you don't add a date parameter, a bot may date your entry with the month and year at a later time. This feature is not implemented on Commons as of 19:36, 16 September 2024 (UTC).
• The date parameter consists of the name of the current month and the year only, not full dates. The names of the months are capitalized in English. Any deviation from these two rules will result in an “invalid date parameter” error.

The most likely use of this on Commons is when the source date of a file is implausible or impossible. It also can be used when a description "ages badly", e.g. "currently", "now", "today", "this year", "this decade", "this century", "last year", "ten years ago", etc. (none of which make sense unless you know when they were written) or, similarly, "still" in a context such as: "The statue is still standing in its original location."

One way to correct such usage is with an introductory phrase such as "As of 2007".

Similar problems can exist with

• "recent"
• "lately"
• "soon"
• "at a certain point"
• "at one point"
• "for some time"
• "for a while"
• "formerly"
• "frequently"
• "often"
• "previously"
• etc.

A date written in the format mn/xy/2009 may mean different things in different places — and even in the same place. To some, 1/4/2009 means "1 April 2009"; to others, "January 4, 2009". Commons prefers YYYY-MM-DD format, all numeric.

Seasons fall in different ranges of time depending on the area, and so using them to describe a particular range of time is vague and misleading to the reader. You'll often see this type of description in phrasing like the following:

• [Some event happened] in [season] of [year].
• [Something was completed] by [season] of [year].
• [Something happened] at [a particular date]. The next [season]...

When describing time of year rather than local conditions or a more formal use of a seasonal name (e.g., summer school), be as precise as your source of information will allow, from a date range to a calendar-related description of part of a year:

• 15 September–5 November 1995 (or September 15–November 5, 1995 if that's the format standard throughout the article)
• September–November 1995
• Before the end of the fourth quarter of 1995
• Latter part of 1995

You can also find other systems to which you can anchor the time-frame, as long as they relate to the subject of the article:

• The first few months of the 1995 school year (which begins at that district in September)
• Sometime in the 1995 hunting season, which in that state runs from September 15 to November 5.

• {{As of}} – possible response to {{When}}

Template:Inline tags