Template:Stale/doc

Purpose
The purpose of the "stale" tag is to give a visual hint to readers of talk page items, making it easier to ignore issues that have gone stale. It is hoped that the existence of such a tag will make it easier to find active non-stale items on a page still needing attention.

The "stale" tag is not final and does not close a conversation. If new issues arise, or the item again becomes active, please remove the tag. Thus, the tag also helps clarify situations that might otherwise be ignored because some users thought the issue had faded away, when new activity may again be involved.

Usage
Place the following under the topic heading on a talk page:  

To make an additional comment explaining why the issue has gone stale, and/or to sign so that others know who marked the thread as stale:

This parameter must be given as 1 or reason if any of its content contains the  character.

Do include your signature  when stating obvious facts, such as that a proposal stalled years ago, or when it is obvious from the content or context who placed the template. That would lead to pointless clutter, and defeat the purpose of the template as a simple and easy-to-scan label. include your sig at the end of a 1 comment if the label could be controversial (in which case anyone is free to remove it entirely) or attribution is otherwise actually needed, e.g. because of subjective content in the comment. Any editor may add attribution from page history if they think it is important (or remove it where it seems like a useless distraction).

Example
==Chelonia== Chelonia currently redirects to Turtle, but Chelonia is the monotypic genus containing the Green Sea Turtle. Shouldn't it be Chelonian-->Turtle, and Chelonia-->Green Sea Turtle? --OneUser123 2 July 2010 05:08 (UTC) :There has been no response. I'm marking this "stale" since no one seems to be working on it or to know the answer. --AnotherUser789 00:26, 14 January 2011 (UTC)