In response to a previous RfC, which was met with positive feedback but a number of requests to start with a small trial, this is a proposal to address the linkrot problem for external links, starting with a trial of an existing solution on a single category.
Proposal:
- to modify MediaWiki:Common.js for a group of testers so that they will see additional links next to all external links, pointing to archived versions of those webpages.
- to test the implementation currently used on the French Wikipedia, starting with a single article (Lady Antebellum) and a single category (Category:Musical groups established in 2006), asking Wikiwix to store cached versions of all external links in that category.
- to revisit the original proposal (to do something similar for all visitors and all articles) after a month, with this additional information in hand.