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I was just reading a question that had an answer deleted. It was essentially just a link, so it was deleted on the grounds that a link could -um... die?-.

To minimize this potential problem, should linking to a snapshot on archive.org be encouraged over directly linking to a site?

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    \$\begingroup\$ It is worth pointing out that archive.org fairly regularly culls information too, either by request or because of operational needs. They do keep a pretty cool record, but not all links that they have now will be valid later. \$\endgroup\$
    – AJ Henderson Mod
    Commented Oct 25, 2014 at 17:50
  • \$\begingroup\$ To some degree I would actually advise against linking to archive.org. While in theory it seems like a good idea, if the site is active enough it might be beneficial to keep linking to the original one so comments, updates, and such are kept available. On the other hand, links of any sort are not really the goal of this site, and content that keeps users here truly is. \$\endgroup\$
    – dpollitt
    Commented Dec 31, 2014 at 3:43

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Link only answers are almost always going to get deleted, regardless of where they lead to, though we will usually give some time for registered users to fill in more detail.

The goal here isn't to push people off the site, it's to answer it for them here. On that basis, it's okay to have links to other sites, but there should be sufficient information in the answer such that link rot isn't going to render the answer useless.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Got it. Of course, when I include links in future answers, I'll probably link directly :) \$\endgroup\$
    – JenSCDC
    Commented Oct 23, 2014 at 13:21
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Not necessary in the original post. When I find useful posts that are years old and have dead/broken links I then edit the post with archive.org copies. After all, plenty of sites are religious about not breaking inbound links.

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