Wikipedia:Using the Wayback Machine

From Free net encyclopedia

To cite web pages archived by the Wayback Machine from articles, follow these tips.

Linking to the archive of all versions of a page

If you are linking to all versions of the page, use a URL such as:

http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.wikipedia.org

The template Template:Tl can be used for this as well, taking a single argument (the URL) which does not need a variable declaration (unless the URL has a '=' equal sign in it, in which case you should use site=URL.)

For example, {{wayback|http://www.wikipedia.org}} produces this link: Template:Wayback

Linking to the archive of a specific version of a page

To link to a certain version of the page, use a URL such as:

http://web.archive.org/web/20020930123525/www.wikipedia.org

The template Template:Tl can be used to expedite this process. It takes two arguments: "site" (the URL of the archived site) and "date" (the archive.org date code).

For example, {{waybackdate|site=http://www.wikipedia.org|date=20020930123525}} produces this link: Template:Waybackdate.

Linking to the most recent archive of a page

If you are linking to the most recent versions of the page, use a URL such as

http://web.archive.org/web/2/www.wikipedia.org

The templates Template:Tl and Template:Tl can be used for this; they are specifically designed to replace dead links. They take two arguments, the URL and the link title.

For example, {{dlw-inline|url=http://www.wikipedia.org|title=Wikipedia's most recent archive}} produces this: Template:Dlw-inline