An Update on Recently Archived Community Content

[David]

Over the past few weeks, we archived a large amount of older content across the ServiceNow Community.

The goal behind this effort was to improve the quality and relevance of search results by reducing outdated content that may no longer reflect the current state of the platform, products, or best practices. As our products evolve, older posts can sometimes create confusion, lead developers to obsolete guidance, or make it harder to find current answers. The archival initiative was intended to help members find more relevant and accurate information more quickly. 

However, it's clear from your feedback that the experience was not what many of you expected.

What we learned

After the archival activity took place, we heard concerns from community members across the Community, SNDevs, and other channels. Many of you told us that valuable content had become difficult to access, that archived pages were still appearing in search results, and that there was not enough communication about what was changing or why. 

While the intent was to improve content quality and findability, we recognize that the rollout created frustration and uncertainty for some members of our community.

What we're doing now

We are actively working with our community platform provider to understand our options for restoring archived content at scale. We know many of you have asked whether archived discussions can be brought back, and that is currently an area we are investigating. 

As soon as we have clarity on what can be restored, how restoration would work, and any associated timelines, we will share an update with the community.

Our commitment going forward

This experience highlighted several important lessons for our team.

Before making future large scale content changes, we will:

• Publish a customer facing announcement before significant archival activities occur.
• Provide a clear explanation of why the change is being made and how it benefits the community.
• Establish and communicate a remediation or recovery plan before executing large scale content changes.
• Gather community feedback earlier in the process when changes may impact member access to historical content.
  
  

Thank you!

The ServiceNow Community exists because of the time, expertise, and generosity of the people who contribute to it every day. We appreciate everyone who took the time to share feedback, raise concerns, and help us understand the impact of this change.

Your feedback is helping us improve both our content strategy and the way we communicate future changes.

We'll continue to share updates as we learn more about restoration options and next steps.

Thank you for your patience and for helping make the ServiceNow Community better for everyone.