Editorial draft available to read. Factual and language review is pending. Examples are illustrative.
Decision and scope
Retiring a source from active use does not require erasing its history. Identify its index entries, links, saved answers and exports. Decide whether it is replaced or restricted, and preserve the reason and effective date. This allows an earlier response to be explained without treating it as current information.
Illustrative example
Illustrative example: a superseded price list appears in search. Mark that version as retired and direct current-price questions to the replacement. An explicit request about a past period may use the protected historical reference, provided the answer clearly explains that those conditions are no longer current.
Acceptance check
Test the old title, direct links and questions without dates. Check caches and source selection without removing necessary evidence. Accept the change when new responses cannot present the retired document as current and historical references retain an understandable explanation of their original context.
Key takeaways
- Accept the change when new responses cannot present the retired document as current and historical references retain an understandable explanation of their original context.