Talk:The American Bible Challenge

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the The American Bible Challenge article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

The American Bible Challenge is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.

This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on December 24, 2017, and on June 27, 2023.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
November 29, 2014	Good article nominee	Listed
January 21, 2017	Featured article candidate	Promoted

Current status: Featured article

Bible Low‑importance

	Bible portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Bible, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the Bible on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.BibleWikipedia:WikiProject BibleTemplate:WikiProject BibleBible
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Television: Game shows Low‑importance

	Television portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Television, a collaborative effort to develop and improve Wikipedia articles about television programs. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page where you can join the discussion. To improve this article, please refer to the style guidelines for the type of work.TelevisionWikipedia:WikiProject TelevisionTemplate:WikiProject Televisiontelevision
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by the Television game shows task force (assessed as Mid-importance).

United States: Television Low‑importance

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	Television portal This article is supported by American television task force (assessed as Low-importance).

The following Wikipedia contributor has declared a personal or professional connection to the subject of this article. Relevant policies and guidelines may include conflict of interest, autobiography, and neutral point of view.
Their edits to this article were last checked for neutrality on 05-09-2017 by Bcschneider53.

Realkyhick (talk · contribs) This user has contributed to the article.

Tense change

Last series was in 2014, so shouldn't the lede and elsewhere be in the past tense? Klbrain (talk) 09:50, 24 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

MOS:TENSE says "By default, write articles in the present tense, including for those covering products or works that have been discontinued." The article uses present tense in description of what the show is, but past tense to refer to specific events (e.g. "The show became..."); this is the correct style. — Bilorv_(talk)^(c)(e) 12:20, 24 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Bilorv: Thanks for that very clear guidance. Klbrain (talk) 13:46, 24 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Having a look at the details, I agree that the first sentence is correct in present tense, but much of the rest, describing events, is incorrectly in the present tense. For example:

Second sentence: "is hosted" should be "was hosted". Switching to "the hosts are ..." would match with style, but seems odd for presenters who are no longer actively involved with the process of hosting.
Second paragraph: "is played" should be "was played"

etc. Klbrain (talk) 13:57, 24 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm... the article's choice of tense makes intrinsic sense to me, but I'm struggling to explain why. The show itself is a work rather than an event, and the host is part of that – if someone was watching an episode, they would say "this episode is hosted by Foxworthy". Similarly, when watching a series, they would talk about it being in the form of the 6-2-1 tournament structure. The show is non-fictional, so of course these events really happened, but I think the examples you list more fit the "products or works" category. — Bilorv_(talk)^(c)(e) 16:53, 24 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

And that is intrinsically nonsense to me because if I am watchkng it it must have already occurred, thus it would be past tense. --Khajidha (talk) 17:25, 24 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I've just seen an example in WP:FICTENSE, "Friends is an American sitcom that was aired on NBC." Now I'm thinking maybe it should be "The series was hosted", but still "Each season of the series is played" (using historical present tense for description of the work). Does anyone else care to weigh in? Otherwise, I'm unsure how to resolve this issue. — Bilorv_(talk)^(c)(e) 21:17, 24 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]