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 This page is currently under construction. As such, it is not yet ready for action. [Script error: No such module "Purge".]
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See also: Help:Archiving talk pages
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This page documents a Scratchpad guideline. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should follow, though it should be treated with common sense, and occasional exceptions may apply. When editing this page, please ensure that your revision reflects consensus. When in doubt, discuss your idea on the talk page. |
The standard archival system (consisting of a naming convention and two templates) is a method of organizing discussion archives for easy navigation, creation, and bot parsing.
Organization
Each set of archives ideally consists of two types of pages:
- one archive index, which lists archives and topics (this is optional);
- several archive pages, which contain the archived discussion.
Archive index
The optional archive index must be located at “<current talk page>/Archives”. This index is a list of discussion topics by archive, generally in the following format. The list format can be freely changed to reflect local needs, such as subdivided lists (example) or removing the lists of topics.
{{archive-index}}
==Archives==
* [[/2007-07|July 2007]]: <small>''topic 1'' | ''topic 2'' (2 subtopics) | ''topic 3''.</small>
* [[/2008-01-01|01 January 2008]]: <small>''topic 1'' | ''topic 2'' | ''topic 3''.</small>
* [[/2007-01-15|15 January 2008]]: <small>''topic 1'' | ''topic 2'' | ''topic 3'' | ''topic 4''.</small>
Archive pages
If there is an archive index, each archive page should be at “<current talk page>/Archives/<date>”. If there is no archive index, each archive page should be at “<current talk page>/<date>”. The date format should be yyyy-mm-dd (one of: 2025, 2025-06, or 2025-06-12).
Each archive page should contain {{archive header}} at the top, which will detect the archival date from the page title, and link to current discussion and the archive index (if present).
The content is always archived to the last relevant archive page (i.e. the archive page which has the date of the period when you're archiving), regardless of the original date of addition of the content to the original page.
Quick instructions
- Create an archive page at "[[Page name/Archives]]" (for example, m:Meta:Requests for deletion/Archives) with the following code:{{archive-index}}
==Archives==
* - Add a link to the archive pages under "Archives". Archive pages should be named "<current talk page>/Archives/<date>". The date format should be yyyy-mm-dd (one of: 2025, 2025-06, or 2025-06-12). For example:* [[/2025-06|June 2025]]
- Save, and click the link to create the page. Copy and paste "
{{archive header}}" to the top of the page. - Save; the archive is now created. To add entries, simply cut and paste them from the main page to the archive.
- Optionally, list the discussions on the archive index (example). This can be quickly done by copy and pasting the table of contents to this page, and then copy and pasting
'' | ''between each heading name.
See also
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This page uses content from the WikiMedia Meta-Wiki. The original article was at Standard archival system. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Scratchpad, the text of the WikiMedia Meta-Wiki is available under the Creative Commons Licence. |
- Project:Archiving talk pages
- Scratchpad:Standard archival system
- {{Archive}} → places a notice atop archived discussion pages
- {{Archive bar}} → places a bar-form archive index atop archived discussion pages and their archives
- {{Archive header}} → incorporates {{Archive}} plus various formatting bonuses.
- {{Archive header admin}} → incorporates {{Archive}} plus various Administrator-only formatting bonuses.
- {{Archive index}} → for use on archive index pages located at “<current talk page>/Archives”
- {{Archive list}} → the classic Wikipedia archive box placed atop discussion pages which have been archived
- {{ArchiveTalk}} → simplified notice for use on talkpages which have been archived