Flow/Converting LiquidThreads


 * This is a long process, there will be plenty of warning.

On the wikis and pages listed at Flow/Comparison with LiquidThreads, we will convert existing LiquidThreads pages to Flow boards and remove Extension:LiquidThreads.

The first wiki where we do this is "officewiki", the WMF internal wiki.

What happens in conversion

 * rename existing LQT pages to LQT page name/Archive (/ArchiveN+1 if there are existing archive pages)

Run the conversion script.
 * the regular wikitext on the LQT page (not threads and replies) becomes the Flow board header
 * Most edits are attributed to the actual users that worked on the LQT page. Edits that should not be attributed to them are made by a bot user whose name is given by the 'flow-talk-username' message (defaults to "Flow talk page manager").
 * You can consult the history of the /Archive page to get the history of the LQT page, see below
 * removes the  from the Flow board header.


 * each LQT thread becomes a Flow topic
 * the most recent thread title is the topic title
 * thread title history is lost because the LQT API doesn't report 'Changed subject from "old name" to "new name"' actions.
 * thread summary (if any) is the topic summary
 * summary edit history is preserved (?)
 * each reply becomes a Flow post
 * the history of reply edits is preserved
 * Thread: URLs redirect to the new corresponding Topic: page (implementation under review).

The timestamps of the LQT changes are reflected in the timestamps of the Flow posts (and are part of their UUIDs), so RecentChanges and Special:Contributions are not flooded.

Conversion generates a log of mappings:
 * old thread -> new topic UUID

The archive page
The archive page's primary use is to see the history of any edits to the LQT page – not the history of LQT threads added and replied, but the  on the page. On most wikis, LQT pages have little content apart from, but there can be content on the page, and there may be a lot of page text before LQT was enabled.

When LQT is disabled
Once LQT is disabled on the wiki, the archive page will not show LQT threads, since  is no longer present.

Thread: and Summary: namespaces go away.