Help:Deprecation

Deprecation is the discouragement of use of some pages (templates in particular), typically because it has been superseded or is no longer considered efficient or reliable, without completely removing it or prohibiting its use. It may also imply that a page will be removed or discontinued entirely in the future.

Usage

Any level of user can put a page up for deprecation, which would usually result in the page being redirected to its successor.

The {{Deprecated}} should be used on templates that have been replaced by a more efficient or reliable template. In such cases, no new articles should be transcluding from the deprecated template and instead be using the replacement template.

Users that discover a page using a deprecated template are encouraged to replace it with its successor. Once a deprecated template is no longer being transcluded, then a {{deletion}} notice can be placed at the top of the page. If no objections have been raised within the given time, the template may be deleted without further notice.