User:Jdavidb/Talk archiving

This is the procedure I plan to use in the future for archiving my talk page. I am documenting this procedure both as a reminder to myself and as a potential learning tool or idea generator for other editors.

1. I will perform archives whenever editing my talk page gives me a warning about page length.
2. I will archive by using the page move function to rename the page. The new name will be the old name with "/ArchiveN" appended (where N is the archive number). The reason for the move will be recorded as "archiving."
3. I will then edit the newly moved page to add {{User:Jdavidb/Talkarchive top}} at the top and {{User:Jdavidb/Talkarchive bottom}} at the bottom. These are personal templates I made based on those used for closing an archived discussion of an article for deletion. The curly brace syntax transcludes them, which means their contents get copied verbatim into the page each time it is loaded. They work just like templates, for example, when you insert {{stub}} into an article, the contents of Template:Stub are transcluded into it. These templates color the archive page blue and put warnings at the top and bottom indicating that the page is an archive and should not be edited again, along with a link to post a new comment on my real talk page. Performing this edit also has the advantage of putting the archive pages on my watchlist, so I can hopefully notice if anybody does edit them. The edit summary for this change will be "indicate this is an archive".
4. I will then set up my new talk page by putting in {{User:Jdavidb/Talkheader}}, transcluding another personal template I have set up so my talk page and each of its archive can be the same at the top and have links to all the archives. The edit summary for this edit will be "Set up new talk page".
5. Finally, I will add a link to the new archive into User:Jdavidb/Talkheader, using this format:

   * [[User_talk:Jdavidb/ArchiveN|/ArchiveN]] (~~~~~)

   • "N," of course, will be replaced with the number of the archive. The little-known five-tilde signature puts in a timestamp but no username, so I know when the archiving action occurred.
   • Before I put this into the transcluded template, I was about to make the links much more easily: [[/Archive1]]. Unfortunately, that trick does not work with the template.

6. If a discussion appears to be ongoing, I may copy that discussion onto the new talk page.

In related news, I am undecided as to whether comments on my talk page should be replied to on my talk page or the user's talk page. I am tentatively deciding to respond to registered users on their talk pages and to anons on my talk page, but I am not entirely satisfied with this.