Help:Archiving talk pages

Some talk pages get so much traffic that they routinely accumulate too much old content. If a page reaches a point where much of the content is from old discussions that are no longer salient or the page is just too long to facilitate easy usage, it might be time to create an archive of the page. The important thing to remember when creating an archive is that it is inadvisable to move ongoing conversations away from the main talk page. If there are important conversations ongoing, those should be left in main talk page, not the subpage archive. To archive a page follow the instructions listed below. Note that you must be an established registered user to archive pages.

1. Begin by moving the page you wish to archive to the new archive location. The new page title should be the complete article's name with the suffix "/Archive 1" added. If the page already has an archive, simply add the lowest number not already used. For example, to archive Talk:Tier list, it would first be moved to Talk:Tier list/Archive 1. But archive 1 has already been used for that talk page, so it would be moved to Talk:Tier list/Archive 3, as that is the next lowest archive number not yet used.
2. Once the page has been moved, add the archive template ({{archive}}) to the archive and cut out any (if there are any) ongoing discussions that will remain in the main talk page.
3. Now return to the main talk page and remove the redirect. Then add in the ongoing discussions (if any) to the page.
4. At the top of the main talk page add the substed template Template:arcbox. This is placed inside braces (i.e. {{subst:arcbox}}). After the arcbox, but before the braces, the number of each archive should be written, each separated by a pipe (|). For example, a page with three archives would use {{subst:arcbox|1|2|3}}

When archiving talk pages, there are a few things that should be considered:

• Don't archive another user's talk page. If you feel that it is too long, ask them to archive it, but do not do it yourself.
• Always use the move page tool. Do not simply create a new page and cut and paste the text. This splits the content and the edit history and makes it quite difficult for editors to review.
• Don't archive a talk page just to get rid of a discussion you don't like.