The question at hand is what to do with the Archive.is links that have been added to Wikipedia, mostly by a set of unapproved bots. Removing the links has significant potential to increase problems with
WP:LINKROT. But many concerns were raised about the ethics of those who run Archive.is (mainly bypassing our procedures and the likelihood that the IPs used were used illegally) and how those actions reduce trust and increase concerns about future abuse by Archive.is. Worries about malware and advertising were the primary issues raised (though there was a sense that advertising could be acceptable).
There is clear consensus to remove these links. Blacklisting the site is less clear as a number of folks who supported the removal of the links opposed the blacklist. But blacklisting seems to have a weak consensus, especially if the IP and SPA are discounted (which seems reasonable).
That said, I'd urge the folks at Archive.is to come forward, apologize for policy violations carried out thus far, and work within the system to see if the community would be interested in having using Archive.is in the future. It seems likely this service could be valuable to the community, but actions taken thus far have created a great deal of distrust so the barrier to being accepted is quite high, but perhaps not insurmountable. I'd suggest starting a new page for discussion, notifying all those that participated here as well as dropping a note at a few other places. If you address the problems, consensus might be found to remove Archive.is from the blacklist.
To those removing Archive.is from articles, please be sure to make very clear A) why the community made this decision and B) what alternatives are available to them to deal with rotlink. Ideally someone would create a page explaining the situation and options and link to it in the edit summaries... Hobit (talk) 13:59, 31 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I was asked to clarify this closing statement.
- There is a clear consensus for a complete removal of all Archive.is links.
- There is a consensus (though weaker) to blacklist Archive.is.
I also suggested that the removal of Archive.is links be done with care and clear explanation to editors and suggested the folks at Archive.is work with the community to find a way forward. Please let me know if anything remains unclear.
Hobit (
talk)
15:49, 1 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]