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→Automated archiving: +{{Auto-archive}} Tag: Reverted |
clarify, those archiving bots don't actually use the archive template straight (but rather use its redirects); see recent creations by each bot at User talk:Monhiroe/Archive 10 and the page now at Talk:Hebrides/Archive 1 as examples |
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{{Short description|Advice on archiving completed discussions}}
{{About|archiving old discussions on a talk page|adding web archives to citations|Help:Archiving a source}}
{{redirect|WP:AATP|the project page with the [[WP:ATP]] shortcut|Wikipedia:Attack page}}
{{pp-vandalism|small=yes}}
{{Pp-move-indef}}
{{Beginner version|Help: Archiving (plain and simple)}}
{{nutshell|This page explains how and why to set up archiving and archive search boxes on Wikipedia, offering multiple options and assessments of those options; for plain and simple instructions, see [[Help:Archiving (plain and simple)]].|}}▼
{{Wikipedia how to|H:ARC|WP:ARCHIVE|WP:AATP}}
▲{{nutshell|This page explains how and why to set up archiving and archive search boxes on Wikipedia, offering multiple options and assessments of those options
It is customary to periodically '''archive old discussions on a talk page''' when
* [[User:ClueBot III]] will create archives based on the parameters set using [[User:ClueBot III/ArchiveThis]].
* [[User:Lowercase sigmabot III/Archive HowTo|User:Lowercase sigmabot III]] will create archives based on the parameters set using [[User:MiszaBot/config]].
Archives can also be created manually. Manual archiving can be done [[Help:Archiving a talk page/Manual archiving|by hand]] by cutting and pasting from a talk page to an archive subpage. [[Wikipedia:One click archiving|One click archiving]] streamlines this process by adding an archive button to all talk page sections.
Only noticeboards and talk pages are archived because both can become very long. The [[Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines#When to archive pages|talk page guidelines]] suggest archiving when the talk page exceeds 75 KB (or 75,000 bytes) or has multiple resolved or stale discussions. Older discussions that are still relevant can be summarized and linked using the {{Tlx|FAQ}} template. Archiving one's own user talk page is preferred but optional; some users simply [[WP:BLANKING|blank the page]].
== Technical overview ==
{{main|Help:Archiving a talk page/Naming}}
There are several standard ways to archive a talk page. Each consists of [[Cut and paste|cutting and pasting]] sections from a talk page to an "Archive" [[Wikipedia:Subpages|subpage]]. The sections can archived [[#Manual archiving|manually]] or [[#Automated archiving|automatically]]. Manual archiving is done by editing the page by hand or using a [[Wikipedia:One click archiving|one click archiving]] script that adds an archive button to talk page sections. Automatic archiving is done by a [[Wikipedia:Bots|bot]]. There are two widely archiving bots, [[User:ClueBot III]] and [[User:Lowercase sigmabot III]].
The most common method of [[Help:Archiving a talk page/Naming|naming talk page archives]] is with sequentially numbered archives. For example:
* The 20th archive of [[Talk:Earth]] would be named <code>Talk:Earth/Archive 20</code>
* The first archive of [[User talk:Example]] would be named <code>User talk:Example/Archive 1</code>
Remember to use the correct namespace – the part before the colon (<code>:</code>) – when archiving your own user talk page. It should start with "<code>User talk:</code>", not "<code>Talk:</code>".
Alternatively, archives are often named chronologically. Archive templates will not automatically detect subpages with unusual names.
== Are there any existing archived talk pages?==
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:<code><nowiki>Special:PrefixIndex/</nowiki>''Talk:Pagename''</code>
For example
:<code>
== Manual archiving ==
===Cut and paste procedure===
{{main|Help:Archiving a talk page/Manual archiving}}
The most basic way to [[/Manual archiving|manually archive]] a page is to [[Cut and paste|cut the material]] from the talk page and [[Cut and paste|paste it]] into an archive. If no archive exists, you will need to create a new subpage. Create the archive subpage at <code>Talk:Example page/Archive N</code> where "N" is either "1", the next positive [[integer]], or an appropriate name for a topic-specific archive (for example <code>Talk:Example page/Place of birth debate</code>). When an archive subpage becomes too large, new archives can be created as needed.
When manually creating an archive, add {{tlx|Automatic archive navigator}} to the top of each archive page. If an archive box doesn't already exist on the main talk page, add the line {{Tlx|Archives}} below the WikiProject tags. For the full list of archiving templates, see [[:Category:Archival templates]]. For step-by-step instructions, see [[/Manual archiving]].
=== {{anchor|Semi-automated cut and past procedure}}Semi-automated cut and paste procedure ===
[[Wikipedia:One click archiving|One click archiving]] allows you to archive any section of a talk page by clicking a button next to the section. To use this method, you'll need to install a [[Wikipedia:User scripts|user script]]. After installing one of the scripts listed below or at [[Wikipedia:One click archiving]], you will see links next to talk page headers allowing you to archive a section immediately:
* [[User:Elli/OneClickArchiver]] – archives one section at a time<!--Maintained as of 2024-->
=== Other manual procedures ===▼
* [[User:FlightTime/OneClickArchiver.js]] - archives one section at a time<!--Maintained as of 2024-->
* [[User:andrybak/Archiver]] – archives multiple sections at once<!--Maintained as of 2024-->
[[Help:Archiving a talk page/Other procedures|Other manual procedures]]—like [[Wikipedia:Moving a page|moving]] talk pages to archive subpages—are discouraged. See the discussion at [[Wikipedia talk:How to archive a talk page/Archive 1#Archive standards]] for rationale.
{{anchor|Automated_archival}}
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{{for|plain and simple automated archiving|Help:Archiving (plain and simple)}}
{{shortcut|WP:AUTOARCHIVE}}
[[User:ClueBot III|ClueBot III]]
See the '''[[User:ClueBot III|ClueBot III page]]'''
=== Choosing a bot ===
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|-
! style=text-align:left; | Number of talk pages in use on
| [https://templatecount.toolforge.org/index.php?lang=en&namespace=2&name=MiszaBot%2Fconfig ~
| [https://templatecount.toolforge.org/index.php?lang=en&namespace=2&name=ClueBot+III%2FArchiveThis ~
|-
! style=text-align:left; | Index of archives?
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The following are example configurations to set up automatic archiving of an article talk page or user talk page. These configuration templates do not produce any visible output, so you should generally also include [[#For talk pages|a template]] such as {{tlx|Archives}} to provide readers with links to search and navigate the archives. These templates may also be configured with the parameters <code>bot</code> and <code>age</code> to include a message notifying readers that automatic archiving is taking place. For example: {{tlc|Archives|age{{=}}90|bot{{=}}[[User:ClueBot III#How to archive your page|ClueBot III]]}}.
===
{| class="wikitable"
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! colspan="2" | Sequentially numbered archives
|-
! [[User:
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| <!-- This is intended to be able to be copied while you are viewing the page, not while editing. --><
| algo=old(90d)
| archive={{SUBST:#titleparts:{{SUBST:FULLPAGENAME}}}}/Archive %(counter)d
| counter=1
| maxarchivesize=75K
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| minthreadsleft=5
| minthreadstoarchive=2
}}</
|| <!-- This is intended to be able to be copied while you are viewing the page, not while editing. --><
| age=2160
| archiveprefix={{SUBST:#titleparts:{{SUBST:FULLPAGENAME}}}}/Archive
| numberstart=1
| maxarchsize=75000
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| minarchthreads=2
| format= %%i
}}</
|}
Both of the above examples will create archive pages, as needed, starting with <code>''TalkPage''/Archive 1</code> and continuing with <code>''TalkPage''/Archive 2</code>, etc., when the current archive page grows to more than 75,000 bytes. Only sections with dates that are older than 90 days (2,160 hours) will be archived, although the five sections with the most recent contributions will be retained on the talk page no matter how long ago the last contribution was added. If archives for the page already exist, then set the counter/numberstart parameter to the next archive number in the series.
{{anchor|FULLPAGENAME}}Warning: the
===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
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Note:Each time ClueBot III runs it places threads in a ''single'' archive which is the YYYY/Month of (NOW - age). If you are starting archiving with a backlog this will result in a ''single file'' with all of your old threads older than <code>age</code>. ClueBot III does not appear to run every single day. Thus, even when archiving has been running for a while, some threads may end up in an archive that is one month later than when they were last edited.<br />
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| <!-- This is intended to be able to be copied while you are viewing the page, not while editing. --><
| algo=old(90d)
| archive={{SUBST:#titleparts:{{SUBST:FULLPAGENAME}}}}/Archives/%(year)d/%(monthname)s
| minthreadsleft=4
| minthreadstoarchive=2
}}</
|| <!-- This is intended to be able to be copied while you are viewing the page, not while editing. --><
| age=2160
| archiveprefix={{SUBST:#titleparts:{{SUBST:FULLPAGENAME}}}}/Archives/
| minkeepthreads=4
| minarchthreads=2
| format=Y/F
}}</
|-
| colspan="2" |Both of the above examples will create archive pages, as needed, with names similar to <code>YourPage/Archives/June</code>, <code>YourPage/Archives/July</code>, etc. Only sections with dates that are older than 90 days (2,160 hours) will be archived in these examples.
|}
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===For archive pages===
A template should be placed at the top of each archive page indicating that it is an archive. The simplest such template, which is automatically added (using its earlier names) by ClueBot III and Lowercase sigmabot III, is {{tl|
===For talk pages===
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{{clear}}
;Example 2
{{Archives|*[[Help_talk:Archiving_a_talk_page/Archive_1|
*[[Help_talk:Archiving_a_talk_page/Archive_2|
*[[Help_talk:Archiving_a_talk_page/Archive_3|
*[[Help_talk:Archiving_a_talk_page/Archive_4|
*[[Help_talk:Archiving_a_talk_page/Archive_5|
For a box with a manual archive list and a search bar {{tlp|Archives|''List of archives''}} can be used. For the box to the right the code is:
<br><
{{clear}}
;Example 3
{{Archives|auto=long|'''Archive box archives''':<br>[[Template talk:Archive box/Archive 1|Archive 1]], [[Template talk:Archive box/Archive 1|Archive 1]]|root=Template talk:Archives}}
For a box with both an automatic and manual list {{tlp|Archives|auto=long|''List of archives''}} can be used. The example below for [[Template talk:Archives]] where the archives for the old {{tl|archive box}} template are shown use the following code:
<
{{clear}}
;Example 4
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}}
This template just demonstrate a lot of the parameters. Most of them are quite self explanatory. <br>
<
| auto = short
| search = no
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| age = 1
| units = year
}}</
{{clear}}
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{| border="0"
|-
| width="
bot=ClueBot III |age=90 |
}}</syntaxhighlight>
| style="vertical-align:top;" | {{Archive box |search=yes |title=[[Help:Archiving a talk page|Archives]]<!--
--> ([[{{#titleparts:{{TALKPAGENAME}}|1}}/Archive index|index]]) |collapsible=yes |bot=ClueBot III |age=90
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== Archive indexing ==
Having an archive index makes finding old discussions on a given topic easier, particularly in pages with many archives, or when the archives are of considerable size. An archive index, when one exists, is typically stored on the page <code>Talk:YourPage/Archive index</code>. While it is possible to generate an index by hand, the <code>/Archive index</code> page is normally generated automatically. There are two bots which automatically create indexes: [[User:Legobot|Legobot]] and [[User:ClueBot III|ClueBot III]].
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! Numbered archives !! Archives/Year/Month
|- valign="top" <!-- This is intended to be able to be copied while you are viewing the page, not while editing. -->
| <
|target=/Archive index
|mask=/Archive <#>
|leading_zeros=0
|indexhere=yes
}}</
|| <
|target=/Archive index
|mask=/Archives/<year>/<month>
|indexhere=yes
}}</
|}
[[User:ClueBot III|ClueBot III]] automatically creates an archive index when archiving. ClueBot III stores the archive indexes it creates on unique pages in its user space. The archive index for the page you are archiving can be [[WP:TRANS|transcluded]] onto your <code>Talk:YourPage/Archive index</code> page by putting the following text in that page:<br />
<code><nowiki>{{User:ClueBot III/Master Detailed Indices/{{NAMESPACE}}:
== Archive searching ==
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== See also ==
* [[Help:Archiving
*[[Help:Using talk pages]]
* [[Wikipedia:Closing discussions]]
* [[Wikipedia:Refactoring talk pages]]
* [[Module:Archive list]]
* Pages that need archiving
** [[:Category:Archive requests|Category Archive requests]] is populated by the {{Tl|Archiveme}} template.
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