Wikipedia's historical data storage and accessibility --THIS page was last substantively updated on___--
 | This page in a nutshell:
|
There are two big parts toxt Wikipedia: the "front-facing" part, the actual articles, portals, main page most that readers get to see, and then the articles that deal with all the inner workings in the constructions of the encyclopedia: Pages on guidelines, policies, userpages, talk pages, projects, essays, etc.
Pretty much all that data, both in its current form and all prior iterations, are kept and remain publicly available.
Two exceptions to that are some data of the early days of Wikipedia, and
Except for some data that was lost early on in the construction of Wikipedia, all edits, conversations in talk pages, are kept and publicly available indefinitely.
userpages deletion request protection of personal info copyright vio, etc. article deleted
Wikipedia:Administration
Wikipedia:Namespace
Wikipedia:Project namespace
Help:Page history
Wikipedia:Snowball clause
Short list of examples of retaining outdated documentation for historical purposes
editList of articles and areas devoted to historical data preservation
edit- Category:Wikipedia archives
- Wikipedia:Historical archive
- Wikipedia:History of Wikipedian processes and people (incomplete essay attempting to outline major changes in wikipedia's policies and practices)
- History of Wikipedia
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Wikipedia
- Category:Inactive project pages
- Wikipedia:Missing Wikipedians
- Wikipedia:History of Wikipedia bots
Templates used
editSee also
edit
References
edit
 | This article related to the Wikimedia Foundation is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- ^ "Wikipedia:Project_namespace#Historical_pages". Wikipedia. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
It is generally preferable that inactive WikiProjects not be deleted, but instead be marked as {{WikiProject status|inactive}}, or redirected to a relevant WikiProject, or changed to a task force of a parent WikiProject, unless the WikiProject was incompletely created or is entirely undesirable. See WP:INACTIVEWP for more details.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Wikipedia:Project_namespace#Historical_pages". Wikipedia. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
A historical page or process is one which is no longer in use, or is no longer relevant or consensus has changed about its content. They are kept as a record of past Wikipedia processes of which are outdated that have a noteworthy value in being maintained. These pages are typically marked with the {{historical}}, {{superseded}} or {{dormant}} template. See HISTORICAL for more details.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Wikipedia:Policies_and_guidelines#Demotion". Wikipedia. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
An accepted policy or guideline may become obsolete because of changes in editorial practice or community standards, may become redundant because of improvements to other pages, or may represent unwarranted instruction creep. In such situations editors may propose that a policy be demoted to a guideline, or that a policy or guideline be demoted to a supplement, informational page, essay or historical page. In certain cases, a policy or guideline may be superseded, in which case the old page is marked and retained for historical interest.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)