When Sites Need to Walk Away

The Internet Archive has a new book: VANISHING CULTURE. (Digital copy is free.) According to a Pew Research Center report, 26% of pages from 2013-2023 are no longer accessible. But that’s not the whole story. In a new study published in Internet Archive’s book, VANISHING CULTURE, data scientists working with the Wayback Machine have found: 16% have been restored through the Wayback Machine. 56% are preserved before they disappear. A quarter of pages from the last slightly-more-than-a-decade gone. I guess that’s about what I would have guessed. I don’t love it, but it seems like the level of URL rot just happens on the web. Maybe even feels a little low? 😬. Kinda cool the Internet Archive saves about half of it. This resonated a little extra this week as a local mountain biking trail resource said they were closing: When I see stuff like this, my brain thinks: OK fine, thanks for letting us know. But, like, you’re not going to just turn off the site, right?! No, they are: Will The…