Table of Contents
Understanding Stale
Use Stale marking to flag outdated articles needing review. A soft reminder system that tracks content drift, prevents gaps between product and docs, and sends weekly freshness reports.
Table of Contents
Ever feel like your documentation is playing catch-up with your product updates? The Stale feature in HelpDocs helps you stay on top of outdated content, even when you don't have all the details for updates right away.
This smart tracking system keeps your Knowledge Base reliable for users searching for accurate information.
Understanding Stale
A Stale article is a soft flag indicating content needs review or updating. It's not a punishment - just a helpful reminder system.
The feature exists to help teams track outdated content and prevent drift between your product and documentation. When information becomes incorrect or incomplete, marking it stale ensures nothing falls through the cracks.
When and Who Should Use Stale
Team | When to Mark as Stale |
Support | Customer reports outdated information |
Engineering | Features mentioned in articles get updated or removed |
Content Teams | Scheduling content reviews in upcoming sprints |
Anyone | Spotting outdated info without having update details ready |
Spotting Stale Content
A Stale badge will appear on the article row. If your article has a Stale reason, hover over the badge to read it.
When your article is currently Stale, the Stale will be bright yellow in the top right 
.
If the article is due to go Stale in a set amount of time in the future, the button will display the time until the article goes Stale.
Weekly Email Reports
Automated email reports help you maintain content freshness without constant manual checking. Each weekly report shows:
- Total count of stale articles
- Articles that became stale during the past week
To enable weekly reports:
- Head to Profile (or click here)
- Toggle on Send me weekly Stale emails
- Hit Save Changes
Next Steps
Once you've identified and updated stale content, you'll want to mark your articles as Fresh to clear the flag.
Learn how to mark articles as Stale to start tracking outdated content.
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Marking Articles as Stale
