This template informs readers that the current article contents are subject to rapid change due to a highly related current event. Articles closely related to current events may greatly expand their content due to level of activity, publicity, and such.
This template is for articles which involve an article about an evolving current event which is either changing rapidly or about which understanding is rapidly evolving. This is an advisory to readers that the article may be incomplete and subject to change. Use of this template without indicating the topic or article that it is related to may result in prompt removal of this template.
As an advisory to editors, it may also be used in those occasions that many editors (perhaps a hundred or more) edit an article on the same day, for example, in the case of natural disasters, the death of celebrities, or other breaking news.
It is not intended to be used to mark an article that merely has recent news articles about the topic; if it were, hundreds of thousands of articles would have this template.
Generally it is expected that this template and its closely related templates will appear on an article for perhaps a day or two, occasionally several days.
Place this template at the top of the article, if the entire article is relevant to the related article.
Alternatively, place the template in an appropriate section of the article, and use the first parameter to indicate that the "section" is relevant to the related article.
Use the second parameter to indicate the name of the article describing the current event to which this article is related. Failure to specify this parameter may constitute grounds for prompt removal of this template.
Use this template to indicate that an article may be affected by a current event, that information may change rapidly as the event progresses and that initial news reports may be unreliable.
This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.
Parameter
Description
Type
Status
Month and year
date
The month and year that the template was placed (in full). "{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}" inserts the current month and year automatically.
Example
January 2013
Auto value
{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}
Line
suggested
Event article
2
The Wikipedia article of the event in question.
Example
2020 United States presidential election
Page name
suggested
Event link text
3
If the event link text should be different to the article name, enter it here.
Example
2020 US presidential election
String
optional
Type of event
4
Text to replace "current event" in the template
Example
current election
String
optional
Affected area
1
Text to replace the word "article", usually "section"