Kill Archive/ as active concept; use frontmatter status property

Context and Problem Statement

Archive/ folder created an organizational signal (“inactive”) that overlapped with content state. Forced a binary active/inactive decision and required moving files between folders to flip status.

Considered Options

• Replace Archive/ with status frontmatter property; content stays in its semantic location.
• Keep Archive/ folder.
• Use tags (e.g., #archived) instead of frontmatter.

Decision Outcome

Chosen option: “Replace with status frontmatter property”, because lifecycle is a property of an item, not its location. Folder moves to mark status are friction. Frontmatter properties scale and integrate with Bases/Dataview.

Status schemas per content type:

• Project: active, paused, completed, stale
• Person: active, inactive, lost-contact
• Reference: current, outdated
• Device: active, retired, sold, broken, lost

Existing Archive/ contents stay in place pending file-by-file triage to proper new homes (executed in 0013-archive-triaged-and-removed).

Pros and Cons of the Options

Frontmatter status property

• Good, because typed and queryable via Bases/Dataview.
• Good, because lifecycle change is a property edit, not a folder move.

Keep Archive/ folder

• Bad, because status-as-folder is a primitive lifecycle model.

Tags (#archived)

• Bad, because blurs with topical tags.
• Bad, because tags lack typing and structured query semantics.