Help:Archive

Shortcut:

• H:ARCHIVE

Archives of talk pages are made when a talk page becomes too long (due to browser limits, 32kb is generally considered the maximum length).

Utilizing the "Move this page" feature for such an operation is not at all advised.

Please note that refactoring a talk page is an alternative to archiving it.

Sequential archives

Cutting and pasting the text to be archived into a new page is considered the best method for archiving a talk page.

When archiving old discussions, it is customary to leave current, ongoing discussions on the existing talk page. In some cases, a header text is also preserved.

For example, to archive the discussion on the talk page of this article:

1. Start at the Talk page.

2. Click on "Edit this page".

3. At the top of the edit area, type in:

[[Help talk:Archive/Archive 1]]

4. Click on show preview.

5. Once the preview is on your screen, highlight the desired text in the edit box.

6. Cut the desired text from the page using CTRL-x or the cut command in the menu bar.

7. Click on the red coloured "Help talk:Archive/Archive 1" that is in the preview text. This will open a new page with an empty edit area.

8. Paste (using CTRL-v or the paste command in the menu bar) the desired text into the new page ("Help talk:Archive/Archive 1") and the click on "save page".

9. Finally, place a link to the archive on the talk page.

In due time, you would end up with a sequence of archives files named Archive 1, Archive 2, Archive 3 and so forth.

User talk pages

It is recommended that you do not attempt to archive another user's talk page. These are not subject to the recommendations on this page, and each user may choose alternate means to archive their own talk page.

When archiving your talk page by moving it, be aware that this causes the newly-created archive to be added to the watchlist of any user who was previously watching your talk page. This could be annoying for people who have no desire to watch your talk archives.

Conclusions

Separate archive files have the advantage that they are indexed and can be searched. This should be taken into consideration for pages where people repeatedly ask the same kinds of questions and it is useful to be able to search the archives.

In closing, there are no fixed rules about archiving discussions on the Gemini Station Wiki.