17
\$\begingroup\$

The link structure in the wizards site has changed.

It has gone from

http://dnd.wizards.com/go/we/20060327a

too

http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060327a

There are dozens of broken links in our site right now. Can we get someone at the StackExchange team to cast Database Regex Fixup and mend them?

\$\endgroup\$
4
  • 3
    \$\begingroup\$ Related: How can I continue to access Wizards of the Coast's D&D 3.5 Web articles? \$\endgroup\$
    – doppelgreener Mod
    Commented Oct 22, 2017 at 15:28
  • 6
    \$\begingroup\$ Note that, in many cases, this won't actually mend them - a lot of stuff is gone, not just restructured. \$\endgroup\$
    – Miniman
    Commented Oct 22, 2017 at 21:08
  • 3
    \$\begingroup\$ In many cases it won't, but in many cases it will. The real questions are "how much effort for how many fixes?" and "will it break any links that were working?" \$\endgroup\$
    – Ben Barden
    Commented Oct 23, 2017 at 20:03
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ Anyone asked Wizards to update their url rewrite to handle this? \$\endgroup\$
    – okeefe
    Commented Oct 26, 2017 at 20:17

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
18
\$\begingroup\$

Five years later, and even the archive.wizards.com links are down. I've searched high and low for the content, but it's nowhere to be found (at least not in official places). This mostly affects Dungeons & Dragons material; some Magic: The Gathering articles like http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/259 are now hosted here: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/twenty-things-were-going-kill-magic-2013-08-05).

I've set up a script which examines posts for these URLs, checks the Wayback Machine for the latest snapshot and making an edit (on average one per day, in order to avoid flooding the homepage) if it was archived.

\$\endgroup\$
10
  • 7
    \$\begingroup\$ Thank you for assembling this script. The way Wizards manages old content is pretty disappointing. 😢 \$\endgroup\$
    – doppelgreener
    Commented May 26, 2022 at 13:22
  • 6
    \$\begingroup\$ +1 Epic-level algorithmancy spell. Also, the necromancy of the old meta post. \$\endgroup\$
    – Mindwin Remember Monica
    Commented May 26, 2022 at 14:07
  • \$\begingroup\$ @doppelgreener for WotC, there never was a 4th edition. apparently \$\endgroup\$
    – Trish
    Commented May 28, 2022 at 11:36
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ You could do once per day and no one would get upset tbh. \$\endgroup\$
    – Thomas Markov
    Commented Jun 2, 2022 at 17:13
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Is it possible to have your script prioritize open questions? \$\endgroup\$
    – Thomas Markov
    Commented Aug 22, 2022 at 12:14
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ThomasMarkov it shouldn't be too hard to make it skip closed questions (and answers to them) for now, and repair those later. OTOH, I don't know how much that would speed up the progress? \$\endgroup\$
    – Glorfindel
    Commented Aug 22, 2022 at 12:18
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ I just think there more value in fixing open questions than closed. \$\endgroup\$
    – Thomas Markov
    Commented Aug 22, 2022 at 12:20
  • \$\begingroup\$ Can you have the script check for other posts on a Q&A that should be updated whenever it hits one? It seems the answers on this question were update a few days apart, I think it would be ideal to tidy up all the posts of a Q&A at the same time. \$\endgroup\$
    – Thomas Markov
    Commented Nov 21, 2022 at 16:10
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @ThomasMarkov actually, that functionality is already present. I have no idea why it didn't work this time, but I will have a look. Thanks for the ping! \$\endgroup\$
    – Glorfindel
    Commented Nov 21, 2022 at 16:35
  • \$\begingroup\$ If you can, I would support even one edit every 12 hours due to the sheer amount of links that need updating \$\endgroup\$
    – Trish
    Commented Mar 30, 2023 at 12:06

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .