Template:Use mdy dates/doc

Usage
To promote consistent date formatting, place this template with other maintenance near the top of articles that use the  date format (below hatnotes, but above infoboxes, as per the Manual of Style). Use the parameter  for the month and year that an editor or bot last checked the article for inconsistent date formatting and fixed any found.

Wikipedia articles that use  ("American") dates, either because of the first main contributor rule or close national ties (see Manual of Style/Dates and numbers, shortcut: WP:MOSNUM), are systematically tagged with Use mdy dates over time. The template is invisible except in edit mode.

The template lets editors know which date format to use when adding or editing dates in an article. It also facilitates article maintenance by enabling bots to recognize use of this format, and by adding the article to the hidden category called Use mdy dates.

This system of tagging/categorization is used as a status monitor of all articles that use mmm dd yyyy date formats, and not as a cleanup per se.

After being tagged, and bearing in mind article evolution, a bot can eventually be programmed to clean up formats periodically, correcting any new introductions since its last visit, and updating the visit date on the Use mdy dates template.

The dmy and mdy templates indicate date styles in the body text of articles by convention, although it may also indicate the date styles in Reference sections. Therefore, this template notice ought to be read in conjunction with the blurb at Date formattings. MOSNUM script documentation may also be relevant to those interested in more technical details.

When a citation style does not expect differing date formats, it is permissible to normalize publication dates to the article body text date format, and/or access/archive dates to either, with date consistency being preferred (see MOS:DATEUNIFY).

TemplateData
 {       "description": "This template should be placed near the top of articles that use the mmm dd, yyyy date format.", "params": { "date": { "label": "Date", "description": "The month and year that the article was last checked for inconsistent date formatting. Example: 'June 2013'; may use '' template instead", "type": "string", "required": false }       } } 

Wrongly tagged?
If you determine that an article is incorrectly tagged with this template, you should replace this template with the correct one or at least remove it. This will prevent scripts and bots from applying the "wrong" format.