Help:Archiving a source

On Wikipedia you can archive sources to prevent link rot. A comprehensive list of sites can be found at (technical documentation) and . Below are some of the most common. See also for more detailed information.

Conifer

Conifer was previously called Webrecorder. When adding https://conifer.rhizome.org/ links, it's recommended to add a {{cbignore}} to keep IABot from removing it.

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T321146

There is some info at Wikipedia:Using Webrecorder.

Ghostarchive.org

Ghostarchive.org uses the Webrecorder technology and is thus able to save dynamic content such as YouTube videos, JavaScript etc. it is a general purpose archive service on demand with no login or usage cap requirements.

Usage instructions:

• For the moment (as of September 2021), it's recommended to add a {{cbignore}} following the citation template using ghostarchive.org to keep IABot from removing it, which it might do automatically until IABot has been programmed to recognize it.
  • Tracked at Phabricator: T291588; marked resolved, but unclear if still problematic: comment: phab:T291588#7980573

• The site has default URL shortening e.g. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/fwAS7 .. this is disallowed on Wikipedia per RfCs and policy to prevent abuse. Use the long form URL instead. The long URL can be found by checking another URL first:

For regular web pages:

• https://ghostarchive.org/longurl/o9UcZ -> https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20210728022510/https://rms-support-letter.github.io/

For video pages eg.YouTube:

• http://ghostarchive.org/vlongurl/UhCiGY75wVw -> https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20100711020000/UhCiGY75wVw

For Instagram pages:

• https://ghostarchive.org/iarchive/instagram/iyogitabihani/2801706102334087488 -> https://ghostarchive.org/iarchive/ilongurl/instagram/iyogitabihani/2801706102334087488 -> https://ghostarchive.org/archive/2021/https://instagram.com/p/CbhqNsiquFA

Thus it is a two step process: determine what the long URL is; add it to Wikipedia.

• To find the earliest and latest archive available use a timestamp of "1990" or "3000" e.g.
  • https://ghostarchive.org/archive/1990/https://rms-support-letter.github.io/will find the earliest archived copy of that webpage, while
  • https://ghostarchive.org/archive/3000/https://rms-support-letter.github.io/will find the latest.

Note: Do not use 1990 or 3000 in Wikipedia it should be the actual timestamp.

Further technical information: Wikipedia:List_of_web_archives_on_Wikipedia#Ghost_Archive