Link rot: Dead links and the Wayback Machine

[yvanzo]

@aerozol

If we can mark the relationship as ‘ended’ then it should definitely only link to the archived snapshot (if possible), no need to link to the old URL.

@August_Janse

Why not? I think it would be incorrect to remove the URL that has actually expired. I also think it would be technically incorrect to link snapshots as homepages, which is why I propose the new relationship, but for the while both should be kept.

There is no need to keep both, because the original URL is available from the snapshot URL.

@August_Janse

What are your thoughts on these proposed changes?

They somehow duplicate the efforts of the Internet Archive Wayback Machine rather than taking advantage of it.

Here comes another proposal that does not require to change the database schema:

• Style change: If an URL expired, it would be recommended to replace it by the last relevant snapshot URL. If no relevant snapshot exists, just use the Wayback Machine “history” (wildcard) URL.
• Display change: Link to snapshots would be automatically detected and displayed differently by appending a special notice at the end of the title, and by changing the icon (ideally using half of the original icon and half of the Internet Archive icon).

Real examples:

1. With archives: The label Active Suspension had an official website which is now discontinued (and replaced by irrelevant ads). I simply replaced it by its last archived version. Currently, it is erroneously linked as “Official homepage”. But with the proposed change, it would be automatically linked as “Official homepage (archived 2009)”.
2. With no archive: The band O.Lamm had an official website which unfortunately has never been archived due to robots.txt policy. With the proposed change the “history browser” URL Wayback Machine could be added and automatically linked as “Official homepage (ended)”.