Archive.org
Here at WikiIndex, we use the WaybackMachine from the 'Internet Archive', located at web.Archive.org, to provide a service for archived URL links of a former wiki site that is no longer online. Archive.org is the eternal sunshine of the wiki world, the online world, and is arguably the de-facto primary web archiving website (though not the only web archiving service we use).
The 'Internet Archive' is an expansive repository of archived screen scrapes from all types of websites, including wiki sites. Wikis frequently go down (dead) when their founder and / or owners die, or are otherwise incapacitated, are not able to pay the server and / or hosting bills; or when they give up because they find they are unable a cultivate a vibrant community, or are not equal to the task of coping with spam and vandalism, technical bug fixes, software updates, or other problems. The Internet Archive then becomes one of the only ways to get the content, since most wiki owners do not share the wiki content database dump files with the general public.
However, the WaybackMachine at the Internet Archive does not always make the raw wikitext available for those who may have wanted to import it into their own wikis. This is not an issue for Wikia, which is apparently happy to host an ever-increasing number of abandoned ghost wikis. Many wikis set robot policies that prevent some or all of their content from being archived; for example, the English Wikipedia excludes deletion debates from being archived.[1] Also, sometimes when sites go down, the new domain owner sets a robot policy that prevents archives of the old content from being viewed.[citation requested]
- See also
- archive.is — a similar site from Europe, with slightly differing and lesser features
- Ghostarchive — used for archiving a webpage for scholarly or research purposes
- FreezePage — a site to 'freeze any page' on a website
- WikiTeam — a dedicated group of wiki enthusiasts who actively archive database dumps of hundreds of thousands of wiki sites
- External links
- Archive.org — homepage of the Internet Archive, host of the 'WaybackMachine'
- Manual: Internet Archive — at MediaWiki.org
- Internet Archive's Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and Copyright Policy