I noticed that the pages for Harry, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, Ginny and quite a few others all start in past tense: (name of character, birthdate) "was a" and then it continues with the description. For the ones that have not died as of the last official publication in the series (Deathly Hallows if JK hasn't released any supplemental information), should this be changed to "is a" to indicate they are still alive? The past tense "was a" generally is used when talking about someone that has died and the epilogue of Deathly Hallows verifies that specific characters are still alive in the same timeframe that we're currently in (2012 for us, 2017 in the book).
Probably doesn't need to be changed, but I'm just curious as to why past tense is used. —RRabbit42 (leave a message) 11:07, February 24, 2012 (UTC)
- It was voted upon by the community to use past tense. It reads as if it's an historical record being read by someone far in the future. It just keeps everything consistent and prevents jumping back and forth between tenses. --Cubs Fan (Talk to me) 13:37, February 24, 2012 (UTC)
- Thanks for the answer. I should have remembered to check for a manual of style or dug further into the forums and that would have answered this question. —RRabbit42 (leave a message) 22:52, February 24, 2012 (UTC)
- Hey, no harm, no foul. The only stupid questions are those that are never asked. --Cubs Fan (Talk to me) 03:19, February 25, 2012 (UTC)
- Thanks for the answer. I should have remembered to check for a manual of style or dug further into the forums and that would have answered this question. —RRabbit42 (leave a message) 22:52, February 24, 2012 (UTC)