Discontinuation of comments subpages relates to the deprecation of the use /Comments subpages. Existing /Comments subpages and the Template:WPBannerMeta/comments used to implement many of the /Comments subpages will be phased out over time.

History

In October 2009, a discussion on the village pump, continued here, found a consensus to phase out the use of subpages on articles for comments on the assessment of an article. This page will describe the process that will be followed to deprecate these pages, and the talk page will be used to hammer out the details.

Notification

  1. A message is sent out to all WikiProjects whose project banners have been using comments subpages. The message describes the changes that are happening and asks projects to inform us of their preferred method of dealing with the content of these pages.
  2. As WikiProjects respond, their wishes are implemented:
    • For any projects that wish to convert the comments into an inline parameter of their banner, a bot will be engaged to do so, and the banner will be adapted to display these.
    • Projects that wish to continue to use subpages of their project space will need to find a bot to move the pages within their scope.
    • For projects that do not wish to make further use of these subpages, this functionality will be disabled in their banner.

Template:WPBannerMeta

Most /Comments talk subpages are implemented through Template:WPBannerMeta/comments. Template:WPBannerMeta, including Template:WPBannerMeta, Template:WPBannerMeta/comments, and Template:WPBannerMeta/doc should be revised to reflect that use of comments subpages is deprecated.

Deletion and redirection options

Wikipedia's licensing requires that attribution be given to all users involved in creating and altering the content of a page. However, attribution no longer is needed for pages deleted through MfD or CSD, for example. Options for deletion/redirection of a /Comments subpage include:

  1. Copy (1) the /Comments talk subpage and (2) provide a complete list of authors of the original content by copying the history of the /Comments talk subpage. Paste (1) the subpage content, in its chronological order in the talk page or archived talk page, with (2) the complete list of authors below the subpage content, and (3) a URL to the original page (in case it becomes necessary in the future to access that history). Use a statement in the edit summary such as Copied content from [URL of page]. Then, request that the /Comments talk subpage be deleted per CSD G6. Technical deletions. Consider noting in your CSD request (1) that your copy-paste move that retained attribution and (2) providing a link to this Wikipedia:Discontinuation of comments subpages information page.
  2. For more complicated /Comments subpages, consider listing the page at MfD to obtain consensus on what should be done with the page.
  3. Redirecting the subpage to the talk page and placing a note on the talk page to explain that this has happened and to check the history of the subpage for prior content.

See also

  • Search for comments subpages (has some false positives)