D&D General Is WotC archive server no more?
- Thread starter darjr
- Start date
Bacon Bits
Hero
Holy cow! I've been looking for that specific article in the first Tweet for 5 years! Every time I dug through archive.org it took me to blank pages or 404 errors.
Also, yes, I've been angry with WotC for their treatment of the pre-5e D&D site since they changed it when 5e released. I understand that you need to change the way your content is served up, but it's not difficult to build a shim that maps URLs.
Also, yes, I've been angry with WotC for their treatment of the pre-5e D&D site since they changed it when 5e released. I understand that you need to change the way your content is served up, but it's not difficult to build a shim that maps URLs.
dave2008
Legend
Well now you have it! Also, can anyone tell me how to use the waybackmachine. I can never seem to find what I am looking for.
Bacon Bits
Hero
In theory, you find a dead link, go to archive.org, paste it in the search box, and then pick a date in the past where the crawler captured the page and view your content. It doesn't work well with modern responsive design, however, so the last 10 years have been difficult to capture.
A general keyword search basically never works.
I've had about a 50% success rate in general.
Bacon Bits
Hero
If someone were operating a permanent archive, copyright allows it. Archives preservation is a valid exception. It's a little more nuanced than that -- you have to archive stuff that you can't reasonably buy a copy of, and it has to be a permanent addition to the archive -- but it's exactly how archive.org works.
DND_Reborn
The High Aldwin
Yeah, me too. I just reread it and think it is basically nonsense anyway... but I'll leave that for another thread.
Alzrius
The EN World kitten
That's incredibly disappointing. I still enjoy older editions, such as the Magic Item Compendium design diary about the "Big Six" magic items, and the fact that WotC pulled the plug on them is sad. I'm just glad the Wayback Machine archives are there.
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Azzy
ᚳᚣᚾᛖᚹᚢᛚᚠ
For those of you interested in making a personal backup, here's a website archiver.
a
archive.org certainly accepts them.
darjr
I crit!
Note it might have been inadvertent. But the results still the same.
Weiley31
Legend
humble minion
Legend
I think everything from wotc’s ‘gleemax’ phase vanished years ago too. The forums were the biggest loss, the devs and designers were quite active on there, and there’s stuff about the history and evolution of 4th Ed that’s just not findable anywhere else, except for bits and pieces pasted into posts on candlekeep etc, alongside long-dead links.
the next Jon Peterson who tries to write a history of the hobby through 3rd Ed and beyond is going to have a nightmarish time researching.
the next Jon Peterson who tries to write a history of the hobby through 3rd Ed and beyond is going to have a nightmarish time researching.
Weiley31
Legend
And after the Eberron post, here's one for 3.5 D&D articles:
As of yesterday, I have clicked on a number of these articles, and they pop up with no probs. May load a little slow, but it's better than nothing.
Original Credit goes to Alzirus for bringing this to my attention via a post on February 22, 2022, in a thread I started. Also some possibility there are exceptions to the rule of every single link working, but so far so good.
As of yesterday, I have clicked on a number of these articles, and they pop up with no probs. May load a little slow, but it's better than nothing.
Original Credit goes to Alzirus for bringing this to my attention via a post on February 22, 2022, in a thread I started. Also some possibility there are exceptions to the rule of every single link working, but so far so good.
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