If you are a major contributor at wikiHow, eventually your "Talk Page" and "Fan Mail" page become too lengthy to leave in place. The "Discussion Page" of some popular articles also becomes too lengthy over time. This results in pages taking take longer than usual to load, and makes them harder to edit. To avoid this, use archiving of older messages to keep the pages short, and more importantly, under the appropriate file size.

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[edit] Steps

Method One

Do not create an "Archive Page", because all contributions to any page are saved. Contributions may be viewed by clicking on the History tab at the top of any page.
Click on your "User name" at the upper right of any page.
Click on your "Talk Page".
Click on the "Edit" tab at the top of your Talk Page.
Highlight and cut the content you wish to delete.
Click on "Preview", at the base of the page, to review your changes.
Write a note in the Edit Summary, at the base of the page, to clarify your changes.
Click on "Save Page", at the base of the page, to save your changes.
Optional Tip: Copy the URL from the "Search Bar" at the top of any page. Paste the URL onto the "Edit" page of your "Talk Page". Retaining a link provides access to any page.
Optional Tip: Send a message to yourself with information you wish to retain on your "Talk Page".

Method Two

Go to the page you would like to archive. Your "Talk Page" and "Fan Mail" page can be found in the "My Pages" section of the navigation bar on the left of the page, and discussion pages of articles can be reached by clicking the "Discuss" tab at the top of the article.
Copy the URL of the page from the address bar by highlighting all of the characters and pressing Ctrl + C. It would look something like this:
Open a new tab or window in your browser, and paste the URL into the address bar.
Create a new archive page URL based on the URL of the original page, for example:
- In the address bar, type /Archive or something similar at the end of the existing URL.
- Use a numbered system like /Archive1 or just simply /1 if you plan on creating more archives of that page in the future.
Press the "Enter" (or "Return") key on your computer keyboard. Your browser will take you to a blank wikiHow page with the new "Archive" page name that you created.
Return to the original browser tab or window of the page you wish to archive. Press the "Edit" tab at the top of this page.
Highlight all the text in the edit box, then cut it by pressing Ctrl + X. Write "archiving" or something similar in the "Edit Summary" box, and press the "Save Page" button.
Return to the browser tab or window of the new archive page, and press the "Edit" tab at the top. Paste all the text from the original page by pressing Ctrl + V, and write "archiving" or something similar in the "Edit Summary" box, and press the "Save page" button.

Method Three

Go to the page you would like to archive. Your talk page and fan mail page can be found in the "My Pages" section of the Navigation bar on the left of the page, and discussion pages of articles can be reached by clicking the "Discuss" tab at the top of the article.
Press the "Edit" tab at the top, then highlight all the text in the edit box, then cut it by pressing Ctrl + X. Write "archiving" or something similar in the "Edit Summary" box, and press the "Save page" button.

Original text from talk page pasted into a text editor
Open a text editor, like Notepad, and paste all the text from the original page by pressing Ctrl + V.
Create a new archive page URL based on the URL in the address bar of the browser window of the original page, for example:
- In the address bar, type /Archive or something similar at the end of the existing URL.
- Use a numbered system like /Archive1 or just simply /1 if you plan on creating more archives of that page in the future.
Press the Enter (or Return) key on your computer keyboard. Your browser will take you to a blank wikiHow page with the new Archive page name that you created.
Return to the text editor, then highlight all the text and cut it by pressing Ctrl + X.
Return to the browser window of the new archive page, and press the "Edit" tab at the top. Paste all the text from the original page by pressing Ctrl + V, and write "archiving" or something similar in the "Edit Summary" box, and press the "Save page" button.

Method Four

Go to the page you would like to archive. Your talk page and fan mail page can be found in the "My Pages" section of the Navigation bar on the left of the page, and discussion pages of articles can be reached by clicking the "Discuss" tab at the top of the article.
Click the "Edit" button at the top of the page. On the screen that follows, delete everything in the box. Then click on "Save".
Click on "History" and click on the second date you see.
Copy the whole of the URL you see at the top of your browser.
Click on "Talk" or "Discuss" at the top to go back to the empty talk/discussion page. Then click "Edit".
Type this into the box to lead a user to the archive of the page:

[<--paste the URL here--> Archive of this page]

[edit] Tips

On your talk page, provide links to your archives at the top of the page for easy access. You could create a standard template and transclude it into each archive page and on the main talk page.
For clarity on how this can be done, you can review this archive User_kudos:JackHerrick/Archive and the main version of the page that archived it User_kudos:JackHerrick.
All wikiHow editors should feel free to archive discussion pages of articles that are getting too lengthy.
The Archiver might be able to assist you with archiving your messages if you need more help.
When creating "archive" pages in your user space, remember that you can use both the article page and the discussion page for archiving. For talk page messages, it is recommended that you use the User: namespace, as it will prevent people from posting in your archive.