How can it be automated in a reliable way? Archive links don't necessarily take ...

ignoramous · on July 19, 2023

Not sure if the Wayback Machine supports API-based on-demand archival, but they do partner with firms like Cloudflare to auto archive websites: https://archive.is/O9SAO

There's availability API but it won't tell us if the archived webpage does indeed display content (say, if it was behind a paywall or cookie banner): https://archive.org/help/wayback_api.php

archive.is, which breaks past some of the paywalls, apparently (haven't tried it myself) supports the Memento protocol: https://github.com/palewire/archiveis/blob/master/archiveis/...

dang · on July 19, 2023

Thanks, that's interesting!

> There's availability API but it won't tell us if the archived webpage does indeed display content (say, if it was behind a paywall or cookie banner

Right - that's the problem. It takes a human to tell if the archive link is worth anything.

I do want to do something better with this someday (someyear?) - most likely a way for community members to submit and vet archive links, and then (if so) an "archive" button in the detail bar to point to it.