In Multisite "Sites" list, what do "deactivate" and "archive" really do?

Question

On the Super Admin's "Sites" page, each site has the following options:

Edit | Dashboard | Deactivate | Archive | Spam | Delete | Visit

What do Deactivate and Archive really do?

(I am interested in whether I can take some sites out of commission, in so far as not weighing down the network, being subject to any plugin processes, database queries etc, without fully deleting them. Maybe deactivate and archive won't satisfy that, but I'd still like to know what they really do).

Answer 1

I wondered the same thing. Here's my breakdown:

Deactivate

• Super admin
  • Says “deleted” even though you deactivated it
  • Pink highlight in network sites list
  • Can see as normal
  • Can reactivate and things go back to normal
  • Media Files are still there (uploads>sites>site ID)
• Site admin/others
  • Non super admins see “This site is no longer available.”
  • No longer shows up in user’s sites list

Archive

• Super admin

  • Says “archived”
  • Pink highlight in networks sites list
  • Can see as normal
  • Can unarchive and things go back to normal
  • Media Files are still there (uploads>sites>site ID)

• Site admin/others

  • Non super admins see “This site has been archived or suspended.
  • No longer shows up in user’s sites list

Spam

• Super admin
  • Says “spam”
  • Yellow highlight in networks sites list
  • Can see as normal
  • Can unspam and things go back to normal
  • Media Files are still there (uploads>sites>site ID)
• Site admin/others
  • Non super-admins see “This site has been archived or suspended.”
  • No longer shows up in user’s sites list

Delete

• Super admin
  • No longer in sites list
  • Media Files are gone but folders are there (uploads>sites>site ID)
  • Database tables are gone
  • Can't undo this
• Site admin/others
  • Attempts to redirect to something on the main page
  • No longer shows up in user’s sites list