Waze forum

I am using the new Wiki management templates to start the work to remove and replace the older Cartouche pages with current ones. If anyone has any concerns around this effort please respond.

Option 3.

Option 1 (delete). So long as the pages exist there's a need for someone to manage them and I am uncertain that is outweighed by their historical value. Just because something can be saved, doesn't mean it should.

One of the 15 freaking hats I wear is file server administrator. It's not my job to manage the files, but the server operation. File servers are used as a dump for anything someone thinks might be of value to someone else someday. When that "someone" leaves for other employment (every 3 years, roughly), the files sit there unnoticed forever. Even if someone does notice them, they're afraid to delete them since they aren't their files. Then people have conniptions when the server runs out of space and suggest buying another server to hold everything.

In short, my experience informs me it isn't a good business practice.


Best,
banished

Option 4.

I prefer option 3.

Option 3

Waze management has proposed that I go through and actually delete the old Cartouche pages. It has been obsolete for over one year and comes up pretty high in many searches causing confusion for users.

Options to consider:
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1. Delete them completely - This process removes their existence and history and can only be done by an admin. The content and title will not appear in any search. There is no way to see any prior information from that page.

Note: an admin has access to restore a deleted page, but their history cannot be seen until they are restored. A person needs to know what page is desired for restoration since they are unsearchable. Any prior links to a deleted page will lead to a blank page, but you can see a message that the page had been deleted previously (but again you cannot see the historical content).

2. Edit to Blank - This process keeps the edit history and therefore you can look at a prior edit to see content. Helpful if there is a chance older Cartouche pages have content we think is necessary, but somehow has not been ported to new pages. The title still appears in searches, but the page has nothing. Could cause confusion to users.

3. Edit to Redirect - This process keeps the edit history and therefore you can look at a prior edit to see content. Helpful if there is a chance older Cartouche pages have content we think is necessary, but somehow has not been ported to new pages. The title still appears in searches possibly causing confusion, but it automatically redirects to a more relevant page for the user anyway. This is more work for editors (to find the appropriate alternate page).

4. Move to an alternate namespace - We could move the pages out of the main namespace so they do not come up during a standard search. But if you went to the advanced search you could include other namespaces and your search would then include Cartouche pages. Less desirable plan than the two Edit options because the content is still in the live state and could still cause confusion.
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Personally I have looked at most of the Cartouche pages over the last 9 months and I don't there there is anything significant we don't already have moved over. I am supporting option 1. Delete.

Other feedback is desired. After 1 week of feedback I will begin the process unless someone believes I need to wait longer.

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EDIT: This post in this thread summarizes the plan based on the group's feedback.

sketch wrote:Maybe I'm a sucker for history, but I'd like to keep them around in some way. Why not move them to a namespace called, say, "OBSOLETE"?

If we have enough support for option 4, we could create "Obsolete" as a new namespace and move the pages there, yes.

sirKitKat wrote:Combine option 3 and 4:

Option 4: When moving a page, a redirect is left at the old page.
Option 3: Edit this redirect and point it to the new information.

I believe all prior links to Cartouche pages from active/live pages have already been redirected (minus a few I have not completed).

For the page that remains after the move, we can use a redirect to a more appropriate page (as you mentioned) or delete the redirect page if there is no appropriate connection. Both would work and should be a part of option 4 as you proposed.

sirKitKat wrote:

kentsmith9 wrote:I believe all prior links to Cartouche pages from active/live pages have already been redirected (minus a few I have not completed).

General idea with mediawiki is not to delete pages because of links to the pages from other websites (like this forum)

Good point. We will need to balance spreading wrong information and giving people the correct updated information.