[WikiEN-l] Deletion policy needed

Sat Oct 25 09:25:47 UTC 2003

Toby Bartels wrote:

>Eclecticolgoy (Ray Saintonge) wrote in part:
>
>>My inclination with the long example-title would be to create a
>>reasonable place to redirect, change all the links that lead there to
>>the new title, wait for a month, then quietly delete the long-titled
>>article.  A lot of other lists would be better served by consolidation.
>>
>
>The final sentence is the only serious disagreement that I have
>with anything that you've said on this matter, Ec.
>Once we move the article to a more convenient name,
>then the long name is harmless and it's ''OK'' to leave it alone.
>OTOH, if it exists for a month, then it will get archived,
>so there is a reason, assuming that you didn't catch it immediately,
>why it's ''good'' to leave it alone.
>
>This is the "Redirect, don't delete!" slogan (well, part of it).
>
I don't think we really have a big difference here.  All that would be 
left to delete after a month is a redirecting article with a long title 
that is too long to be something that would be used in a search.  I know 
the argument that redirect articles take up minimal space in the DB.  I 
clashed with Mav on that when I was suggesting in my newbie days that 
some old Camel Case titles should be deleted.

Sigh, what with the first computer that I ever met face to face having 
been one with drum memory, and paper tape,  that's tended to taint my 
attitude toward memory even now as we get closer to terabyte drives.

Ultimately deleting the orphaned redirecting remnant was relly the least 
important element in my proposal.

Ec