6.7Wiki Maintenance: Preventing Documentation Rot

Documentation rot is the gradual accumulation of outdated, inaccurate, and irrelevant content that makes the entire knowledge base untrustworthy.

The Documentation Rot Cycle

New docs written → Team relies on docs → Processes change →
Docs become outdated → Team stops trusting docs →
Team stops reading docs → Team stops writing docs →
Knowledge lives only in heads → New docs written (poorly, hastily)

Breaking the Cycle

Practice	Frequency	Impact
Ownership assignment	Once (update as needed)	Every page has someone responsible
Quarterly review	Every 3 months	Owner verifies accuracy of their pages
New hire validation	With each onboarding	Newcomers flag inaccuracies in real-time
Archive unused pages	Quarterly	Reduce noise; archive pages with no views in 6 months
"Last verified" dates	On every page	Readers know how current the information is
Feedback mechanism	Always active	A simple "Was this helpful? Report an issue" link on every page

The Page Health Checklist

Run this checklist quarterly for every active page:

• Is the information accurate?
• Are all commands and URLs current?
• Are screenshots current?
• Is the page still needed? (Check view counts)
• Does the page have an owner?
• Is the "last verified" date updated?
• Are all links working?