As discussed here (MarioWiki_talk:Proposals#Proposal_Archives), there have been plans to improve the system we use to archive proposals for years, however they've never fallen through. This changes now.
As you can see, MarioWiki:Proposals/Archive ("MW:P/A" for short) has changed from simply being the latest depository of passed proposals to a directory of all proposals, taking the form of massive colour-coded tables divided by year and made up of countless iterations of this template (Template:PArchive). From now on, when you archive a proposal, you simply put it on the latest numbered archive (right now, that's MarioWiki:Proposals/Archive_33) as you would have put it on MW:P/A; when the archive hits 20 entries, a new archive will be created (i.e. Archive 34), and both the directory at the top of MW:P/A and MarioWiki:Proposals/Archive_Template will be updated to have the new link. You'll also notice that Archive 33 has "{{MarioWiki:Proposals/Archive Template|current=yes}}" at the top, while all the other archives are missing the "current=yes" bit; this slightly changes the wording of the template at the top of the page, and when Archive 33 is replaced by Archive 34, the "current" line must be removed form 33 and included in 34's archive template.
Hopefully this system will prove straightforward and easy to use. The instructions on how to use the templates in the blocks are on the template page itself (Template:PArchive), but if you're still not sure, the easiest thing to do would be to watch another user archive a proposal and copy them. As for the slightly more complex process of switching the current archive (i.e. going from 33 to 34), this will probably be done by admins more often than not (we have to be the ones to update "MarioWiki:Proposals/Archive_Template" and protect the old archive anyway) so it's not something most folks have to worry about, but hopefully the explanation is easy enough to follow for everyone anyway. If you have any questions, by all means, ask away.
Now, this new system is all well and great, but it will take some effort to implement, since we have a lot of old proposals. Last time the admins looked at upgrading the archive system (late 2011 / early 2012), Knife coded all the proposals up until mid-2009. Before that, RAP coded everything until mid-2010, however when RAP was doing it, the plan was to make separate pages for each proposal, and since then we've decided against doing that (all the pages that have been created will be deleted after the more pressing task of updating MW:P/A has been completed); the coding used in the template was also different then than it is now, so all those entries need to be updated.
I plan to pick up where Knife left off and finish the 2009 archives; Glowsquid has already started on the 2013 proposals. However this is by no means an admin-only project: anyone can feel free to give us a hand and code some proposals. Just post here and say which archives you're about to do (i.e. "I'll code everything on Archive 27", etc.), to make sure no one doubles up. Also, if you do a block that's not right before or after another block of archives that's already been done, leave a blank (i.e. if you do Archive 27 and Archive 29 is the next block that's been done, leave a blank between your block and the next group of templates). Also, unless you're working from the start of a year, leave the number field as "#": the actual number can be added later.
Again, if you have any questions, just ask.
As you can see, MarioWiki:Proposals/Archive ("MW:P/A" for short) has changed from simply being the latest depository of passed proposals to a directory of all proposals, taking the form of massive colour-coded tables divided by year and made up of countless iterations of this template (Template:PArchive). From now on, when you archive a proposal, you simply put it on the latest numbered archive (right now, that's MarioWiki:Proposals/Archive_33) as you would have put it on MW:P/A; when the archive hits 20 entries, a new archive will be created (i.e. Archive 34), and both the directory at the top of MW:P/A and MarioWiki:Proposals/Archive_Template will be updated to have the new link. You'll also notice that Archive 33 has "{{MarioWiki:Proposals/Archive Template|current=yes}}" at the top, while all the other archives are missing the "current=yes" bit; this slightly changes the wording of the template at the top of the page, and when Archive 33 is replaced by Archive 34, the "current" line must be removed form 33 and included in 34's archive template.
Hopefully this system will prove straightforward and easy to use. The instructions on how to use the templates in the blocks are on the template page itself (Template:PArchive), but if you're still not sure, the easiest thing to do would be to watch another user archive a proposal and copy them. As for the slightly more complex process of switching the current archive (i.e. going from 33 to 34), this will probably be done by admins more often than not (we have to be the ones to update "MarioWiki:Proposals/Archive_Template" and protect the old archive anyway) so it's not something most folks have to worry about, but hopefully the explanation is easy enough to follow for everyone anyway. If you have any questions, by all means, ask away.
Now, this new system is all well and great, but it will take some effort to implement, since we have a lot of old proposals. Last time the admins looked at upgrading the archive system (late 2011 / early 2012), Knife coded all the proposals up until mid-2009. Before that, RAP coded everything until mid-2010, however when RAP was doing it, the plan was to make separate pages for each proposal, and since then we've decided against doing that (all the pages that have been created will be deleted after the more pressing task of updating MW:P/A has been completed); the coding used in the template was also different then than it is now, so all those entries need to be updated.
I plan to pick up where Knife left off and finish the 2009 archives; Glowsquid has already started on the 2013 proposals. However this is by no means an admin-only project: anyone can feel free to give us a hand and code some proposals. Just post here and say which archives you're about to do (i.e. "I'll code everything on Archive 27", etc.), to make sure no one doubles up. Also, if you do a block that's not right before or after another block of archives that's already been done, leave a blank (i.e. if you do Archive 27 and Archive 29 is the next block that's been done, leave a blank between your block and the next group of templates). Also, unless you're working from the start of a year, leave the number field as "#": the actual number can be added later.
Again, if you have any questions, just ask.
