From Vim Tips Wiki

I've been wondering what should be done with essentially deprecated tips. For example, the information in Compiler for perl has been outdated for quite some time because a Perl compiler script comes with the Vim distribution; you can simply type ":compiler perl".

My thinking is that the tip should be clearly marked as deprecated—a template should probably be made for that purpose—with an explanation as to why. Something like: {{deprecated|reason}}

For example on the aforementioned tip page:

{{deprecated|The official Vim distribution—since at least Vim 6.4—comes with a compiler script so you can type <code>:compiler perl</code>}}

Would produce something like:

And the template would add the tip page to [[Category:Deprecated tips]].

Of course, it might be appropriate to just plain delete some of the tips, but that'd break the next/previous tip navigation links.

— Heptite 02:02, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

---

Good idea. I've been wondering what to do with old tips, and a deprecated template would be a good start.

However, I think your specific proposal involves too much work for too little gain. In your example, you have had to enter quite a bit of detail, when the kindest thing would be to just delete the tip altogether.

BTW it's been suggested that I should not post long rants here. Instead, topics like the one you have raised should be on the vim-l mailing list (see Community portal in left pane), or perhaps the vim.org mailing list if it ever recovers.

I'm going to wait for vim.org before getting serious, but now that I've spent a few hours working through some tips, I'm beginning to get worried.

1. 1500 tips is just too many! Too many to maintain, but mainly too many to be of use for a reader.
2. Many tips (like your example) are obsolete or very weak. You could spend an hour polishing them, but the result would still be pathetic.
3. I favour a triage: Do a quick clean of good tips (30%), fully delete obsolete/weak tips (30%), then concentrate efforts on the middle 40% where significant refactoring is required (like merging similar tips).

Re deleting tips: I'm waiting for vim.org mailing list to work again before pursuing this, but we must be able to completely delete a lot of the tips, or we are totally wasting our time here.

JohnBeckett 05:54, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

---

See vim-l archive for my suggestion on deleting tips:
http://lists.wikia.com/pipermail/vim-l/2007-June/thread.html

JohnBeckett 04:12, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Done

I've gone ahead and added the template, and linked it into the {{Template:Tip}} template (just add a deprecated=reason field). I opted for [[Category:Deprecated]] rather than "Deprecated tips".

The template itself could probably use some improvement—I basically copied and pasted the example code I used above.

I think JohnBeckett has a point about just deleting tips altogether, but that's not something I'm willing to do just yet, and I think some tips deserve to remain even though they could be considered deprecated.

-- Heptite 01:06, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

---

This is a good start, but I've been planning another approach (planning not finished yet). What you think of the following?

Make a Removed category and a Removed template ("removed" is kinder than "deleted").

To remove a tip:

• Edit the VimTipNUMBER redirect page.
• Replace the redirect with {{Removed|NUMBER}} (would show wording below).
• Edit the tip page to delete categories from the tip (so the tip won't appear in Category lists).
• Add the Removed category to the tip (so all Removed tips can be listed).

Here is my planned wording for [[Category:Removed]]:

(Normal Navigation template - Previous Tip, Next Tip)

Tip #NUMBER has been removed

It is hard to find helpful information if there are too many tips.

Therefore, we are removing some tips that refer to obsolete versions, or which have been superseded, or which are not particularly useful.

The original tip was at the following location:

[http://www.vim.org/tips/tip.php?tip_id=NUMBER Tip#NUMBER]

This proposal would allow us to effectively remove dubious tips (making the wiki much more manageable and useful). It would be easy to remove a tip, and easy to "unremove" it if people think I've been too enthusiastic removing stuff.

Note that the tip would not be deleted. Later (in several months), we could decide whether some Removed tips could be deleted.

--JohnBeckett 12:17, 4 July 2007 (UTC)