Forum:Archiving talk pages

Index → Panopticon → Archiving talk pages

Spoilers are strongly policed here.
If this thread's title doesn't specify it's spoilery, don't bring any up.

I'd like to propose archiving longer talk pages. This idea is used on other wikis for long talk pages which have too much on the page. If there's too much on a page then some computers/bandwidths cannot handle the amount of data on it and do not work properly, possibly causing problems for us. The other thing is that if the page is so long, some of the inexperienced may put newer topics at the top, which should not be done, and some other users may not notice this new topic. Not only that, but it also makes the page look tidier. What happens is that all of the text (to be archived) is copied from the talk page onto another page. For example, if we were to say 20 different headings to a talk page is for one archive page, and taking the Talk:Time Field as an example, then the first 20 headings ("spelling errors" to "When it appears...") would be removed and placed on a page called "Talk:Time Field/Archive 1". And so on with the other topics. Also needed would be an archive template, so that users know not to edit the archive pages and only to edit the main talk page.

So, what do you guys think? If there's anything else you think I've missed, let me know as well. The Thirteenth Doctor 18:09, June 2, 2010 (UTC)

Well, they should be archived. Another good example would be User talk:Tangerineduel. User:Solar Dragon/Signature 18:16, June 2, 2010 (UTC)

I think we should separate out what we're talking about as they're separate issues.

Article talk pages could be archived, though they would be moved to a sub-page of the talk page in order to preserve the history of the page.

As far as user talk pages go that should be for the user to decide (I'm not sure why my talk page has been singled out? There are likely longer ones around), but I reguarly delete my talk page either random sections that are just requests or longer sections that have ceased to be relevant, as it all remains within the page's history. Currently there are several things on my talk page that I'm attending to (and intend to leave them there for the time being). --Tangerineduel 06:27, June 3, 2010 (UTC)

Ok. I agree with the user talk pages being archived and I understand about the moving pages to preserve history. Its been two months, will we start archiving them? The Thirteenth Doctor 15:12, August 5, 2010 (UTC)

Is it ok to go ahead? The Thirteenth Doctor 13:41, August 28, 2010 (UTC)

Yes, certainly, just be sure to maintain a link to the archived talk page on the main talk page. --Tangerineduel 14:02, August 28, 2010 (UTC)