Should Dead Internet Links Be Deleted?

Question

In cleaning up profiles, I often find that Internet links in sources are dead.  I have been routinely deleting them, then I realized that the links show where the info came from, even if you can't use them to actually get to the source.  Should the dead links be deleted?

Answer 1

1. Plug the link into the Archive.org Wayback Machine (http://archive.org/web/web.php) to see if they have cached a version of that page. Add the link to the cached page in the sources, with a note of when it was accessed, and cite that it was cached by archive.org.

2. If it isn't available on Wayback Machine, leave the link, with as much information about the source as possible. Make a note of the date you accessed it on, and that the site is no longer operational.

Comments

Google also has a 'cached version' under URL preview after searching results, which should be substituted for the dead link if it exists.

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With the caveat that you should only do this if there is no other information, or real source, available to substantiate the information. In my big month on here I have found that the links are 99% garbage - either dead or pointing to garbage trees on Ancestry and you can find better info just by plugging the data on the Wiki page into Ancestry and pulling out actual citations and information.

Answer 2

Yes. ;-)

 

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