BattleTechWiki:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers

Purpose

This page guides the presentation of Dates and Numbers in articles. The aim is to promote clarity, cohesion, and consistency, and to make the BattleTechWiki easier and more intuitive to use.

Where this manual gives options, Editors are encouraged to maintain consistency within an article unless there is a good reason to do otherwise. Additionally Editors should not change an article from one guideline-defined style to another without a substantial reason unrelated to mere choice of style; revert-warring over optional styles is unacceptable. If discussion fails to resolve the question of which style to use in an article, defer to the style used by the first major contributor.

Chronological items

Dates and Time

BattleTechWiki uses the day–month–year format across the entire database, except in cases where quoted material presents it differently (see § Quotations and titles).

• 15 April 1987 / 5 August 2023 / 31 March 3039
• Not: April 15, 1987 / 5 August, 2023 / the 31st of March 3039

When only the month and year are written, the same formatting applies.

• January 3042
• Not: January, 3042 / January of 3042

When only the day and month are provided, Editors are free to write in their preferred style.

• May 4th / the 4th of May / 4 May

Ranges

Year–year, month–month, and day–day ranges are done using an en dash (–) without adding spaces.

• 2881–2882 / May–July / October 1–9 / 5–7 January 2979
• Years should not be abbreviated (3026–28) because in most cases they are linked ([[3026]]–[[3028]]).

Editors are free to write in their preferred style if the en dash is not used.

• March–September 2799 / from March to September 2799

If both sides of the en dash contain a space, then a spaced en dash is used. InfoBoxes should use this format to keep the information concise, but Editors are free to write in their preferred style within the main body text.

• April 20 – November 10 / 3 June – 18 August 3052 / March 3022 – January 3023
• April 20th to November 10th / from 3 June to 18 August 3052 / between March 3022 and January 3023

Note in the second example of each line above, "3 June" is necessary for consistency with the day–month–year format of 18 August 3052, which it is paired with.

Prepositions

The preposition on is used when a specific day (or a short few days) is provided, while in is used for months and/or years.

• On 4 May / On 5–7 January 2979 / In January 3042

Longer periods may require different prepositions or rewording based on the context.

• The conference was scheduled for 5 to 27 January 2979
• Not: The conference was scheduled on 5–27 January 2979

Approximate year

To indicate "around," "approximately," or "about," the term circa is used before the year. Editors are permitted to abbreviate it (c. or ca.) or write it out in the main body of an article, though abbreviation is used for InfoBoxes, planetary system Political Affiliation sections, and other timeline lists.

In order to de-emphasize the specific year, which is not certain, do not link the year (ca. [[3025]]) unless it is one of the aforementioned cases.

Decades and centuries

When referring to a decade as a chronological period, always use four digits and an s (the 3080s). Do not use an apostrophe (the 3080's). Since this represents a range of years, it should not be made a link (the [[3080]]s). In this example, the Reader would be directed to a list of events specific to only 3080.

Centuries are always written out (the twenty-ninth century) and contain an additional hyphen when used as an adjective (the thirty-first-century technological resurgence).

Mid is a prefix and should be hyphenated (the mid-3080s, the mid-thirtieth century). Late and early are adjectives and do not have a hyphen (the late 3050s, the early twenty-eighth century).

Hours

BattleTech uses Terran Standard Time, which is 24-hour military time without the colon (1703 hours or 1703 TST). Hours under 10 should have a leading zero (0815). 24 should not be used for the first hour of the next day (e.g. use 0010 hours for ten minutes after midnight, not 2410 hours).

Often, time is referenced relative to the specific planet or setting in context. Editors should generally use the language provided in the source and may use "local time" when unsure.

Special cases

Some literature such as Hour of the Wolf, IlClan, and Surrender Your Dreams feature "+/– Days" in the narrative, and other material may similarly have atypical methods for describing time. If unsure how this coverts to the day–month–year format, it is recommended that Editors utilize the style used in the source in keep the information as accurate as possible.

Numbers

BattleTechWiki follows the Chicago Manual of Style and generally writes out all whole numbers from one through one hundred. This also applies to ordinal numbers (first, twenty-second, ninety-third), fractions (two-thirds, three-fifths), and ratios (they had a three-to-one advantage).

There are many exceptions, however, including but not limited to:

• Dates (as explained earlier on this page)
• InfoBoxes
• Military command article titles (1st Davion Guards, 89th BattleMech Division)
• Vehicle/ship profiles
• Quoted material where it is presented differently

Additionally, percentage and degree values use the number and word (45 percent, 34 degrees Celsius) in main body text, but in InfoBoxes use symbols.

 {{InfoBoxPlanet
 | name                = Barcelona I
 | position            = First
 | distance            = 7.47 days
 | gravity             = 0.93
 | temperature         = 34°C
 | water               = 45%
 | continents          = 2 (Norn, Moira)
 | population          = 321,964,000 (3150)
 }

Commas are used after every three digits for clarity (321,964,000), while a decimal point (not comma) is used to indicate values smaller than one (7.47). Values with a decimal do not need to be written out. Add a zero before the decimal if the number is less than one (0.93).

Number ranges are joined by an en dash (e.g. Handbook: House Steiner, pp. 26–27), the same as is done with date ranges (see § Ranges).

Units of measurement

BattleTech uses the metric system, with size often measured in meters (m) and distances measured in kilometers (km). Except in InfoBoxes or tables, these words should never be abbreviated.

• 12.5 meters / fifty kilometers / 64 km/h

One notable exception is speed, which is commonly displayed as km/h (kilometers per hour) and is permissible in main body writing. Its accompanying numerical value is also allowed.

General notes

Quotations and titles

See also: BattleTechWiki:Manual of Style § Quotations

Quotations, titles of books and articles, and similar "imported" text should be faithfully reproduced, even if they use formats or units inconsistent with these guidelines or with other formats in the same article. If necessary, clarify via article text, or footnotes.

Tense

See also: BattleTechWiki:Manual of Style/Words to watch § Relative time references, Guideline:Updating information, and Guideline:As of

Generally, BattleTechWiki articles should be written in the past tense. Except on pages that are inherently time-sensitive and updated regularly, terms such as now, today, currently, present, to date, so far, soon, upcoming, ongoing, and recently should usually be avoided in favor of phrases such as during the 3010s, since 3010, and in August 3020.

Wording can usually be modified to remove the "now" perspective:

• beginning in 3110 / she became director on 1 January 3152
• Not: 3110–present / she is the current director

Terms likely to go out of date include best known for, holds the record for, etc. For current and future events, use phrases such as as of May 2024 or since the beginning of 2024 to signal the time-dependence of the information; use the template {{as of}} (or {{updated}}) in conjunction.

See also

• BattleTechWiki:Manual of Style
• BattleTechWiki:Manual of Style/BattleTech Style Guide