Fight Link Rot!

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This entry was published at least two years ago (originally posted on November 17, 2003). Since that time the information may have become outdated or my beliefs may have changed (in general, assume a more open and liberal current viewpoint). A fuller disclaimer is available.

link rot n.

The natural decay of web links as the sites they’re connected to change or die.

Calpundit has an excellent summary posted on how to link to New York Times articles without having the links succumb to link rot. This should be required reading for all bloggers, IMNSHO — citing sources is important, and it’s best if the sources don’t later disappear.

Update: Even better than Calpundit’s method (as good as it is) is the New York Times Link Generator! Just feed it the URL of a NYT story, and it will generate the link rot proof version of the URL for use in your weblog. Thanks to Aaron Swartz for providing this, and to Jason Kottke for pointing it out in Calpundit’s comment thread.

Calpundit also breaks down the most archive-friendly (i.e., least susceptible to link rot) sources:

  1. Tier 1: CNN, the Guardian, and the BBC all have permanent archives that never disappear.
  2. Tier 2: The Washington Post places old articles behind an archive wall, but previously existing links to the articles work forever. The New York Times makes permanent links possible, even if they’re a bit of a pain.
  3. Tier 3: The LA Times places all its content behind an archive wall after a few days and breaks any existing links.
  4. Purgatory: The Wall Street Journal is in a class by itself, since their content is never accessible free of charge on the Web.