Subject: Birth Dates in Quizzes
Posted by: lordprescott
Date: Nov 21 23
What's the protocol about listing the birth dates of people who are still living? Will the possibility of outdated information in the future mean I shouldn't list them?
Posted by: lordprescott
Date: Nov 21 23
What's the protocol about listing the birth dates of people who are still living? Will the possibility of outdated information in the future mean I shouldn't list them?
8 replies. On page 1 of 1 pages. 1
pollucci19 
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Somehow, I doubt very much that a person's date of birth is likely to change Reply #1. Nov 21 23, 7:31 AM |
Ilona_Ritter
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Actually I see their point. In my Red Journal magazine and in others Kirstie Alley’s birthday was listed 1955. Later it was found she was actually born in 1951 ergo birthdate changed. It wasn’t a typo in the magazine as there was an exlanation given at the time I forget what it was but I have seen it with others. My own uncle thought he was born one year amd found tbst it was wrong and was a different age thsn he believed. How it happens no idea but it does. Especially older people (he was born 20snor 30s) as records were not as good. Celebrities maybe hide it and get found out perhaps. Reply #2. Nov 21 23, 9:20 AM |
lordprescott
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Well, I wasn't really thinking that the birthdate would change, but that some day it'll be stale information because there is no date of death. Would that be a problem, or is that just something to be fixed later when it happens? Reply #3. Nov 21 23, 10:56 AM |
LadyNym
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I often come across present-tense questions about people who are now deceased, so I think mentioning a birth date should not be that big of a problem. However, an editor may answer your query much more accurately. Reply #4. Nov 21 23, 11:31 AM |
WesleyCrusher
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(Note: This is *my* editor opinion - I am not a chief editor, but at least you won't go wrong with it in Hobbies or Sci/Tech :) ) You are fine listing just a birth date for a currently living person. If we had to account for the fact that people will die, it would be impossible to ask many questions about living persons at all - you would have to be prepared to replace phrases like "Justin Bieber is a Canadian music superstar" with the "was" wording at some time - although, of course, you could write something like "Justin Bieber, a Canadian musician, shot to worldwide stardom with his album [whatever it was named]..." Try to be as conscious of possible changes as you can and use writing that avoids stale data - but "X was born on date Y" is definitely not a problem since that even holds true after death. (And we can't foresee EVERY change. Sci/Tech knows what it was like when the IAU demoted Pluto from planet status... - no one saw that coming and it was a LOT of quizzes!) Reply #5. Nov 21 23, 1:38 PM |
agony
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This is the kind of thing that is easy to update when the time comes. And if it doesn't get updated, the worst that will happen is that the question will feel a little stale. So, try to avoid it if you can, but if you can't, don't worry about it. Reply #6. Nov 21 23, 4:43 PM |
| lordprescott
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Thanks, everyone! Reply #7. Nov 21 23, 5:26 PM |
FatherSteve
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In many of my quizzes and single questions, I put the year -- but neither the day nor the month) in parentheses after a person's name, e.g. Karel ?apek (1890-1938), Elis Regina (1945-1982), the Most Rev. John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890). As regards people who have yet (at the time of writing) to shuffle off this mortal coil, I still use the year of birth following the lower-case letter "b", e.g. Mickey Mouse (b. 1928), Kim Jong-Un (b. 1984), Sir Isaac Vivian "Viv" Alexander Richards (b. 1952). This just makes sense to me and looks better, I think, than (1946-????) or (1946-present). Reply #8. Nov 21 23, 8:16 PM |
8 replies. On page 1 of 1 pages. 1
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