Archived proposals

Archiving a proposal is not an requirement, but after the content of the proposal page has been copied elsewhere, it is useful to send readers to the latest, potentially updated version of the documentation. It should only be done after the proposal contents (minus proposal-only things like rationale and votes) are available elsewhere and activity after the vote has settled down. There's no clear rule on when exactly to do it, though, and anyone can do it.

If you want to archive a proposal, here's how:

1. Make sure all relevant content should is found elsewhere. Do not move the proposal page, though, as the proposal page history should stay where it is.
2. Open the history tab of the proposal page and click on the version you want to present to an user interested in the proposal. This is usually the latest version before the archiving begins. In the URL, you will see something like "oldid=1158564". The numeric value is what we are looking for.
3. Replace all text on the proposal page (with the exceptions named below) with the "Archived proposal" template. Use the oldid we found in the previous step as its parameter.
4. The proposal page should now contain a link to the current location of the documentation, the proposal infobox, and the "archived proposal" template. Save your changes.

I hope that makes things clearer. :)

Disclaimer: I'm the creator of the proposal archive template. This answer represents my perspective on the topic.