When Online Content Disappears
www.pewresearch.org
A quarter of all webpages that existed at one point between 2013 and 2023 are no longer accessible.
  • @RidcullyTheBrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
    61•10 months ago

    54% of Wikipedia pages contain at least one link in their “References” section that points to a page that no longer exists.

    It would be interesting to know how many of these references don’t exist anymore and how many have just moved. Web has come a very long way since 2013 and I bet that websites hosting the references have undergone several iterations altering the URLs in some way.

    • @grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
      27•10 months ago

      That, in and of itself, is also a problem! First of all, because such pages often fail to return a HTTP 301 moved permanently response, and second (but perhaps even more importantly) the reason they move is because the site transitioned from using static, human-readable URLs to some kind of unstable CMS-managed non-descriptive gibberish that breaks caching and linking. It’s an intentional siloing and hoarding of content.

    • GreatAlbatrossEnglish
      7•10 months ago

      And how many are the site completely re-jigging their CMS with no forwarding set up.