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Validate External Links: Difference between revisions
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==How to fix link issues== | ==How to fix link issues== | ||
Here are the codes that you'll see on problem links in the report. | Here are the codes that you'll see on problem links in the report. | ||
*'''NG''': In most cases, fixing an [[wp:List_of_Japanese_Latin_alphabetic_abbreviations#N|"NG"]] link will mean finding the desired web page in the Internet Archive's [https://archive.org/web/ Wayback Machine] and linking to that archived page instead. In some cases, an NG link will not be | *'''NG''': In most cases, fixing an [[wp:List_of_Japanese_Latin_alphabetic_abbreviations#N|"NG"]] link will mean finding the desired web page in the Internet Archive's [https://archive.org/web/ Wayback Machine] and linking to that archived page instead. In some cases, an NG link will not be salvageable and should be either removed from the page or, if the link was a part of a conversation and it would be confusing for it to be absent, it should be surrounded in nowiki tags [[Special:Diff/16377/26212|like this]] to prevent it from showing up in future reports. | ||
**Val automatically queries the Archive for the latest snapshot of each NG page and will put the returned snapshot URL in its report. Note that you still have to verify this link by clicking on it, as it may not have the correct content. You may have to go further back in the Wayback Machine to find the proper snapshot to use. Sometimes the Archive simply never got around to archiving a given site. In that case, you will need to follow the advice above as to deleting the link or marking it with nowiki tags. | **Val automatically queries the Archive for the latest snapshot of each NG page and will put the returned snapshot URL in its report. Note that you still have to verify this link by clicking on it, as it may not have the correct content. You may have to go further back in the Wayback Machine to find the proper snapshot to use. Sometimes the Archive simply never got around to archiving a given site. In that case, you will need to follow the advice above as to deleting the link or marking it with nowiki tags. | ||
**Note: In a typical weekly run of Val across the 3,000+ links on the wiki, 1-3 sites will simply happen to be offline at the moment. It's best to wait a week for another Val report to make sure that the URL is really dead before performing any of the above fixes. | |||
*'''RD''': The site is redirecting the browser to a new page. The new page should be evaluated, and if it has the content we intended to link to then we should update the link to point to the new location. However, many redirects actually are "soft 404s" and simply redirect the browser to the site's main page. In this case, an RD link needs to be treated like an NG link (see above). | *'''RD''': The site is redirecting the browser to a new page. The new page should be evaluated, and if it has the content we intended to link to then we should update the link to point to the new location. However, many redirects actually are "soft 404s" and simply redirect the browser to the site's main page. In this case, an RD link needs to be treated like an NG link (see above). | ||
*'''EI''': An external link (bare URL) for a page on our own wiki that could simply be an [[Help:Editing#Intrawiki_links|intrawiki link]]. Sometimes an "external internal" may seem to be necessary, but there's a special wiki feature that allows you to avoid it: | *'''EI''': An external link (bare URL) for a page on our own wiki that could simply be an [[Help:Editing#Intrawiki_links|intrawiki link]]. Sometimes an "external internal" may seem to be necessary, but there's a special wiki feature that allows you to avoid it: | ||