Thanks for bringing this up! Some comments below.
On Wed, 2023-05-31 at 12:11 +0200, Derk-Jan Hartman wrote:
I'm proposing we introduce a new namespace on mediawiki.org.
The namespace name will be Archived (numerical id to be determined) and its purpose will be to hold pages like "Subversion" that have the template "historical" applied to it. These pages would move info that namespace and you would get Archived:Subversion, Archived:Manual:Small padlock icon, Archived:Help:Extension:WebFonts etc.
This will give us a place outside of the main content namespaces to keep information about configurations, manuals, extensions and skins that we want to keep, but where it will no longer pollute our set of currently relevant information. The namespace will not be part of $wgContentNamespaces and $wgNamespacesToBeSearchedDefault namespaces. Hopefully this will allow for a more searchable and better functioning mediawiki.org when it comes to documentation for new users, while preserving history in the spirit of wikis.
I've discussed this with various people at various points in time who all seemed to think this was a good idea, but we've never really had an open discussion about it that could result into action.
It is sometimes hard for me to find relevant information. Thus a while ago I asked for deboosting search results on mediawiki.org that include "Template:Historical": https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T274082
Still I'd love to have a way to exclude such pages by default. As time passes by the percentage of obsolete pages will increase. Thus relevant information become harder to find. I consider this a problem.
FYI, wikitech.wikimedia.org does have an "Obsolete" namespace (id 110; talk id: 111). Though I do not know how it came to existence and how regularly it is used (as moving pages requires special permissions).
IMHO a related issue is that authors and editors need to be more aware of time. I've come across many pages stating "currently" or "next July". Without going to the page history, readers cannot realize that these strings were added years ago and that the page *is* outdated.
It may also make sense to show more visibly when a wiki page was last edited and/or that there is a bigger chance that it might be outdated. See https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T247987 for a vague idea.
Cheers, andre