Post status labels use inconsistent grammar

[johnjamesjacoby]

Our post status labels switch back and forth between being verbs, adjectives, or potentially past-participles:

• All
• Mine
• Published
• Scheduled
• Drafts
• Trash

I'd like to suggest we tidy these up. Maybe something like:

• All
• Authored (I don't love this, but you get the idea)
• Published
• Scheduled
• Drafted
• Trashed

[johnjamesjacoby]

Screenshot of a few different post status labels together

[johnjamesjacoby]

For added context, this issue was identified by a tester of my WP Event Calendar plugin, where "Passed" is a custom status label

[johnjamesjacoby]

"Passed" vs. "Past" makes this issue much more apparent, since it could be grammatically bias in either direction (as a verb like Published & Scheduled, or an adjective like All, Mine, Drafts, and Trash.)

[SirLouen]

@johnjamesjacoby I have the feeling that it shouldn't be changed now, specially because it is very well known as-is. And almost a decade later it has not had any traction so it seems noone has felt this to be problematic (except for the user of your plugin).

"Passed" vs. "Past" makes this issue much more apparent, since it could be grammatically bias in either direction (as a verb like Published & Scheduled, or an adjective like All, Mine, Drafts, and Trash.)

Technically is not a verb, but an adjective, more specifically, an adjectival past participle.

In fact, personally I would better read this the other way around: Instead of Scheduled, using Future and only leaving Published, as the adjectival past participle.

Switching them all to past-participles adds cognitive load and is less idiomatic in UI copy. I've recently seen this copy in other projects like Mattermost. Maybe WP has made a trend on not using adjectival past participles for everything.

I assume that in your plugin "Passed" means something like: "The event already happened". Like you said, "Past" could also have worked (which is more common in most Event Calendar plugins than "Passed"). Never use "Passed" for a status label...

Looking to hear more feedback, but given the lack of traction, I think it's time to add close as a wontfix candidate.