Talk:Shelf life

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Not moved. Consensus is against moving. (non-admin closure) Natg 19 (talk) 05:08, 21 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Shelf life → Product expiration – "Product expiration" is a similar, more general concept. There are several distinct concepts about the lives of products, including "shelf life", "product expiration", "expiration date", and "product freshness". I compiled a list of existing Wikipedia articles at Category:Product expiration to think about what articles go in this family. I included a range of concepts in that category, including several articles about food decay, some articles about other physical products ceasing to work because of age, and also some products which cease to work after a certain date for other reasons. I want for Wikipedia to be able to have both broad coverage of the general idea of product end of life, and also for there to be opportunities for anyone to develop articles about the end of life for specific products. I started thinking about this more when I established the drug expiration article. In looking at this article, I imagined that if it were named "product expiration", then it could be the top-level concept for navigating to whatever subtopics exist. What do others think? Does anyone have other ideas for the name of the concept describing a product's end of life, or how Wikipedia should address this concept? Blue Rasberry (talk) 20:26, 6 July 2017 (UTC) --Relisting.  — Amakuru (talk) 12:17, 14 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

• The term "Shelf Life" is well established in the literature and should remain the name of this article. Pkgx (talk) 20:53, 6 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Pkgx: What do you think about the suggest below to create new Wikipedia articles for "expiry date" and "production date"? Also, how would you feel about a new Wikipedia article titled "product expiration"? I think that all of these terms are established in the literature and meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines. I am just not sure what goes where. Blue Rasberry (talk) 18:23, 7 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Bluerasberry: We have a draft underway at Draft:Expiration date, which, when more fully developed, will tease out this distinction. It will be moved to mainspace as soon as the redirect currently sitting at Expiration date can be deleted to make way. Cheers! bd2412 T 02:47, 15 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

• This article covers Shelf Life which is, or should be, the same as the expiration date. Of course there are some differences in reality. The date stamped on the package of food or drugs is a matter of regulation in each country. In the US, the FDA and the USDA have authority; other regions or countries have their similar regulators. Trying to separate Shelf Life and expiration date into different Wikipedia articles is not productive. This is clearly an attempted Content Fork WP:REDUNDANTFORK. There would be heavy duplication of effort, probably resulting in a future merger. We should not do this. Pkgx (talk) 13:41, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

• The terms Shelf life and Expiry Date are similar but not the same. A product can have a shelf-life of 90 days but it can expire next week if it was produced 83 days ago. Rather than moving the page I propose to complete the subject by adding/linking pages on Expiry Date and Production Date. 81.184.6.139 (talk) 08:42, 7 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Are you proposing that there should be three separate Wikipedia articles, "Shelf life", "Expiry date", and "Production date"? Blue Rasberry (talk) 18:23, 7 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

• Oppose. Shelf life and expiry date are related but completely different concepts. We need articles on both, and product expiration (an uncommon term) should redirect to expiry date. Andrewa (talk) 01:50, 13 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
• Oppose. Rather, move Draft:Expiration date to Expiration date, and point Expiry date and Product expiration there. bd2412 T 02:49, 15 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I support this plan. More comment below Legacypac (talk) 13:43, 15 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

• Oppose. Do nothing. Do not move the draft NOTDICT violation to mainspace. "Product expiration" is jarring, technical but not commonly used, and is best covered under the commonly used, broadly used, "shelf life". --SmokeyJoe (talk) 04:56, 15 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

• Oppose Draft:Expiration date is a distinctly different concept than shelf life as explained in the Draft. In Canada [1] for example Expiration date is a legal requirement on certain products, while shelf life is a suggestion for packaged goods made by the manufacturer. Items like car seats and credit cards have clear expiration dates but the term "shelf life" is meaningless. Legacypac (talk) 13:40, 15 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
• Oppose: Distinct concepts; expiry date is a regulatory matter; shelf-life is a fact about when a product goes bad. There are similar related concepts, like planned obsolescence (making a product go bad by an approximate date), etc. Use article text to distinguish them.  — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽^ʌⱷ҅_ᴥⱷ^ʌ≼  23:33, 15 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
• Oppose: the two terms are quite different. —MRD2014 02:32, 17 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
• Oppose: 'shelf life' is used to mean other things (such as 'it is no longer available'). Plenty of people will never have heard of 'product expiration'. Do not do things which will confuse. –Sb2001 ^{talk page} 14:21, 19 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.