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Fixing dead links

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This is a documentation page about different tools that are currently being used on Wikimedia projects to identify and fix dead external links. (See: Migrate dead external links to archives for current work being done on English WP.)

In the following notes, "Progress" means: How many need to be processed? Is there a backlog? Is the number of fixes keeping up with the number of broken links identified?

Example section

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Please copy this to the bottom of the page, and replace the italics with the details about your wiki.

Important: See the other language sections below, for other useful details and examples that might be relevant at your wiki.

  • Tool: The name of the bot (or tool) which currently fixes these
  • Active: Currently active? Inactive since when?
  • Creator/maintainer: The name of the user who runs the bot
  • Bot contributions: link to w:xx:Special:Contributions/botname
  • Identifies dead links: How does the bot identify deadlinks?
  • Source of archive: Which website does it obtain archived-links from?
  • Fix: Describe what edits the bot makes, with example links
  • Notification: How does the bot notify editors of what it has fixed, if it does?
  • Logs: Link to the logs, if available
  • Citation templates affected: List all relevant templates (or link to an existing list)
  • Other relevant links: Anything else?
  • Examples: Link a few example diffs, showing exactly what the bot does in different situations

English WP

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  • Tool: Cyberbot II
  • Active: Currently active
  • Creator/maintainer: User:Cyberpower678
  • Bot contributions: Contributions/Cyberbot II
  • Identifies dead links: Scans pages that have been marked with Template:Dead link.
  • Source of archive: Sends request to Internet Archive (link) for link to archived page
  • Fix: If there's a cite template, adds archiveurl, deadurl and archivedate parameters. If there's no template, adds Template:Wayback. Removes Template:Dead link. (see below for examples)
  • Notification: Posts message on article talk page: example. Message explains which archive link was changed, and asks humans to review the edit. Offers {{cbignore}} template if the editor doesn't want Cyberbot to fix the link, or {{nobots|deny=Internet ArchiveBot}} if they want to keep Cyberbot off the page. Also adds {{sourcechecked|checked=false}}, and asks editors to switch it to true once the source has been checked. Some of them do get checked, for example: Talk:Pat Morita within 3 days, Talk:Cycling in New York within 2 days, Talk:Thai Air Cargo within a day (although they try to add cbignore on the talk page).
  • Logs: User:Cyberbot II/Dead-Links Log, IAbot hashtag log, Deadlink logging app for Cyberbot
  • Citation templates affected: (Which templates, which parameters?)
    • (Does Cyberbot flip the switch for dead-url to true? Which templates? Is that automated?)
  • Progress: Working on Category:Articles with dead external links. There were 130k in December '15, 111k at the start of Feb '16.

Examples

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French WP

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  • Tool: Liens archives (ArchiveLinks) gadget, Wikiwix
  • Active: Currently active
  • Creator/maintainer: Pmartin, from Linterweb
  • Bot contributions: Not a bot; this is a gadget set by default for all users on fr.wp. The gadget provides [archive] links next to every external link in the References section of article pages. These link to archive pages on archive.wikiwix.com. Another gadget, ExtendedArchiveLinks, provides archive links for every external link on the page, not just in References. ExtendedArchiveLinks is not on by default.
  • Identifies dead links: It doesn't; Wikiwix automatically archives all new external links on Fr.wp en.wp hu.wp.
  • Source of archive: archive.wikiwix.com
  • Notifications: n/a
  • Logs: n/a
  • Citation templates affected: n/a
  • Progress: n/a
  • Relevant links:

German WP

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Flowchart of the German process (WIP)

Italian WP

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Examples

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Spanish WP

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  • Tool: Elvisor (documentation?)
  • Active: Since May 2012 (authorization)
  • Creator/maintainer: UA31
  • Bot contributions: Contribuciones/Elvisor
  • Identifies dead links:
  • Source of archive: Internet Archive
  • Fix: In existing citation templates, adds new fields: urlarchivo=(link with http://web.archive.org/ added)</nowiki>, fechaarchivo=(date of archive) – (example)
  • Notification: Posts message on talk page: Enlaces rotos (Broken links), URL of broken link, signature (example)
  • Citation templates affected: The bot looks indiscriminately at external URLs (see comment). These citation templates will probably be affected.
  • Progress:
  • Relevant links:

See also

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  • DeadlinkChecker - a PHP library for testing whether links are alive or dead
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