Help:Howto/Move plugin to deprecated
When plugin's development is stopped the information about the plugin is not wiped off the wiki but is kept under Deprecated plugins section on Plugin list page. When a plugin becomes deprecated the following changes should be done:
Plugin list and Download pages
Update Template:PluginInfo
Cut the plugin entry and paste it at the bottom, below this commentary (mind the alphabetical order):
<!-- Dropped/deprecated -->
Add type=dropped and hideDownloadLinks=1 at the end of the plugin entry.
This will remove the plugin from Download pages and move it to Deprecated plugins section on Plugin list pages.
Update Template:PluginDescription/*
The entries for deprecated plugins in these templates are out of use. So to prevent the lists from becoming polluted by those "garbage" entries you may delete the one when a plugin is discontinued.
All PluginDescription templates can be found in Plugin descriptions category.
Editing a page for plugin
It is desirable that some note should be left on the plugin's page explaining the reasons it was discontinued for and what plugin people might use instead. Usually a simple sentence is enough (e.g., Gender), in case of serious changes (like with databases) Template:Warning may be suitable (e.g., Dbx_3x).
You may want to add such an explanation to plugin's pages in all the languages. If you don't know the language, paste the note in English and add Template:Untranslated with the appropriate language parameter e.g., {{Untranslated|fr}} for French.
Updating Template:PluginInfo/Groups
Cut the plugin entry and paste it at the bottom, below this commentary:
<!-- Dropped/deprecated -->
Replace all grp- parameters of the plugin entry with grp-deprecated=1.
Remove the plugin from all groups it belongs to – edit the corresponding group template(s), all of them can be found in Plugin groups category.