Talk:Internet Archive

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Internet Archive article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1, 2, 3: 12 months

This level-5 vital article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
It is of interest to multiple WikiProjects.

Technology

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Technology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of technology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.TechnologyWikipedia:WikiProject TechnologyTemplate:WikiProject TechnologyTechnology

Companies Low‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Companies, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of companies on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CompaniesWikipedia:WikiProject CompaniesTemplate:WikiProject Companiescompany

Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

WikiProject Companies To-do:

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : Wikipedia:Requested articles/Business and economics/Companies
Assess : Category:Unassessed company articles
Copyedit : Category:Company articles needing attention
Infobox : Category:Company articles needing infoboxes
Maintain : Portal:Companies
Stubs : Help expand stub articles located at Category:Company stubs
Other :
- Tag company articles with the {{portal|Companies}} template
- Tag company talk pages with the {{WikiProject Companies}} project banner
- Answer requests for comments

Internet Top‑importance

	Internet portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Internet, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the Internet on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.InternetWikipedia:WikiProject InternetTemplate:WikiProject InternetInternet
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Computing Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Computing, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of computers, computing, and information technology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ComputingWikipedia:WikiProject ComputingTemplate:WikiProject ComputingComputing
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Internet culture Mid‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Internet culture, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of internet culture on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Internet cultureWikipedia:WikiProject Internet cultureTemplate:WikiProject Internet cultureInternet culture

Mid

This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

WikiProject Internet culture To-do:

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : View all requested internet culture articles
Expand : Pick an article from here or here
Photo : Category:Internet culture articles needing images
Stubs : All stubs are located here
Other : Category:Internet self-classification codes (!?); Try to get YouTube to FA; Tag all articles you find with {{WikiProject Internet culture}}
- See also Category:Internet culture articles needing attention

History Mid‑importance

	History portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject History, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the subject of History on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.HistoryWikipedia:WikiProject HistoryTemplate:WikiProject Historyhistory
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Libraries High‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Libraries, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Libraries on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.LibrariesWikipedia:WikiProject LibrariesTemplate:WikiProject LibrariesLibraries
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Open (inactive)

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Open, a project which is currently considered to be inactive.OpenWikipedia:WikiProject OpenTemplate:WikiProject OpenOpen

Digital Preservation

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Digital Preservation, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of digital preservation on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Digital PreservationWikipedia:WikiProject Digital PreservationTemplate:WikiProject Digital PreservationDigital Preservation

Radio Low‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Radio, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Radio-related subjects on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.RadioWikipedia:WikiProject RadioTemplate:WikiProject RadioRadio

Low

This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

To-do List:

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : Create: Missing years and articles in radio, National Association of Radio Distress-Signalling and Infocommunications (Hungary)
Assess : Unassessed Radio articles; Unknown-importance Radio articles
Cleanup : Radio articles needing attention
Expand : Midweek Politics Bob Crane
Maintain : Portal:Radio
Stubs : Expand: Radio stubs
Verify : Unreferenced BLPs
Other : Collaboration of the Week:
Requests for Radio peer review:

An item related to this article has been nominated to appear on the Main Page in the "In the news" section. You can visit the nomination to take part in the discussion. Editors are encouraged to update the article with information obtained from reliable news sources to include recent events.
Notice date: 10 October 2024. Please remove this template when the nomination process has concluded, replacing it with Template:ITN talk if appropriate.

Number of employees?

On 2024-02-04T10:36:30 User:2001:ee0:4bca:fd50:b50c:773b:1a40:16ba "Updated the statistics", replacing

"Internet Archive – Full text of "Full Filing" for fiscal year ending Dec. 2019". May 9, 2013. Archived from the original on October 30, 2021. Retrieved October 30, 2021 – via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.

with

"Internet Archive – Full text of "Full Filing" for fiscal year ending Dec. 2022". January 31, 2024. Archived from the original on February 4, 2024. Retrieved February 4, 2024 – via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.

I'm concerned that the new 990 no longer matches the number of employees in this article: PartI "5. Total number of individuals employed in calendar year 2019 (Part V, line 2a)" says 169, but the same field on the 990 for 2022 says 0.

That number changed to 0 in the 990, but the number of employees is still listed at 169. The number 169 does not make sense to me, which is why I haven't changed the number in the infobox. However, something is not right here.

Might someone care to suggest what to do about this? Thanks, DavidMCEddy (talk) 00:23, 5 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

One possibility is that the 990 from 2022 that lists 0 employees has been later amended with more accurate numbers, and Nonprofit Explorer doesn't always show amended returns. My suggestion is to revert back to an earlier 990 until this is figured out. Regards, Orange Suede Sofa (talk) 00:59, 5 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Archive.org down?

Not resolving for me. Anyone else experiencing the same? Tuvalkin (talk) 04:59, 28 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Of course, AI did it:

this is our second blast of abusive traffic from an AWS customer today apparently from an AI company harvesting Internet Archive texts at an extreme rate

Tuvalkin (talk) 05:02, 28 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I just learned that they run a Mastodon instance

Why isn't this mentioned anywhere on the article? When they started this? There are references to this on Wikidata. [1] Galzigler (talk) 11:46, 3 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Record labels suing IA now

Inside the $621 Million Legal Battle for the 'Soul of the Internet'. Esowteric + Talk + Breadcrumbs 14:39, 29 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Expalning the History of InternetArchiveBot

on may 10 1996 Brewster Kahle founded the Internet Archive, around that same time he began working on a project called "Alexa Internet" and a web archive called "Wayback Machine" that was later launched to the public in october 2001. on december 9 2015 user Cyberpower678 made an new internet bot named Cyberbot II, it was later rebranded was 'InternetArchiveBot" the following day, on 20 september 2021 the bot was funded by the Internet Archive Itself for like 25 million US dollars, thats was all the explaining. 95.24.0.205 (talk) 17:43, 7 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I know this isn't a forum but this is imprtant

Despite the archive thankfully not being corrupted, there are douchebag hackers that are planning on taking down arguably the most important library since Alexandria. Wikipedia relies on Archive for several sources. So I think we should have a serious discussion on the Archive in general. Wolfquack2 (talk) 03:38, 11 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You are correct that this is important. You're also correct that this is not a forum - it's not the place for an inherently broader discussion of the matter. I just took a look around in the help pages as I don't interact in the formal venues at all, but there is a discussion that's started at the 'village pump' - WP:Village_pump_(miscellaneous)#Internet_Archive_hacked. There's not much there, but it would probably be the best place for further discussion - or to spawn new discussions. cheers. anastrophe, an editor he is. 05:05, 11 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If this is true, that all archives may disappear forever, my existence on Wiki will have been for naught. Kailash29792 (talk) 09:31, 11 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I’ll look into that then. Wolfquack2 (talk) 16:27, 11 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Information about the recent DDoS attack and data breach

Information about the recent DDoS attack and data breach is in October 2024 cyberattack and History. I think these sections should be combined and link to the article specifically on this topic Internet Archive cyberattack. Should this information be in History or October 2024 cyberattack? Gideonrmt (talk) 22:40, 15 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Info should be in the history section, with the other DDoS attack mentioned; the "controversies and events" section (of which October 2024 cyberattack is a subsection) was originally meant for events not about the operations of the service itself and rather for legal or other events not immediately affecting the service; the "Internet Archive cyberattack" article, or the fact that it exists, is a result of WP:RECENTISM and perceived greater notability from the disproportionate impact it has had on Wikipedia; (see also this [2] explanatory comment at the ITN nom) it should be redirected back here unless a good reason for the article's existence is given. Flemmish Nietzsche (talk) 22:58, 15 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Okay thanks for your response. Should the history section be split into subsections to make it more clear and allow for a redirect from Internet Archive cyberattack to go to a section specifically about the cyberattacks? Gideonrmt (talk) 23:08, 15 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Making a subsection just for the recent attack may introduce problems with undue weight; linking to the content on the attack can be done with a simple {{anchor}}, which is invisible to the reader. Flemmish Nietzsche (talk) 23:14, 15 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Okay thank you for your help! Gideonrmt (talk) 23:16, 15 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@MountainDew20 This is the discussion; the article was rightly redirected as it has not proven to be more notable than the countless other data breaches that frequently happen but do not as directly affect Wikipedia and as a result do not have their own articles. See my above comment as well. Flemmish Nietzsche (talk) 03:02, 16 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Flemmish Nietzsche: I'm not privy to the conversation that lead to this comment, but I don't think that's the right test. It doesn't matter if there are more or less subjectively notable data breaches. The main thing that matters is still significant coverage in reliable sources, which the IA breach definitely has. The event-specific criteria do mention that crimes often aren't notable, but they also say events with a "widespread (national or international) impact" are more likely to be notable. Taking down IA for this long is definitely not just notable for Wikipedians; it's a global outage of a widely-used, global resource, and it's been ongoing for a week at this point. A Google Search breach that took down the service for a week (is a more severe example, but still) would absolutely be notable under the same conditions, so why not IA? lethargilistic (talk) 06:06, 16 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

October 23, 2024

The Internet Archive is back, but the Login is not working. The message says: "We're sorry. Login is not allowed at this time. The latest updates can be found on X / Twitter, Bluesky, and Mastodon." 2804:214:8779:B3FC:741A:1C95:6903:F9E6 (talk) 02:12, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Added this edit. Thanks! Gideonrmt (talk) 12:26, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think the 'cyberattacks' section needs to be moved out of the history section, and replace with a 30,000 ft overview. As it stands, it's an entire section in 'history' that covers May 27, 2024 to current, which suffers a bad case of recentism; not really a historical overview by any stretch. cheers. anastrophe, an editor he is. 14:59, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

True but I think it would be easier to do that once the dust settles on this. There are still changes happening every day. Gideonrmt (talk) 15:46, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sure, but that only bolsters the argument: it's detailing small near-daily matters, which in the scheme of history...aren't! cheers. anastrophe, an editor he is. 16:41, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, I just mean its difficult to know which details will be important and which just suffer from WP:Recentism. Also not including that on October 23 archive.org was back online with limited features could make it seem like archive.org is still unavailable. I do think cyberattacks should remain in history and be shortened to only include an overview of events. I also think the heading for cyberattacks should be removed and replaced with an wp:anchor instead. Gideonrmt (talk) 18:50, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Agree on all points, for sure. cheers. anastrophe, an editor he is. 19:18, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hosting purl.org

According to Persistent_uniform_resource_locator that "on 27 September 2016 OCLC announced a cooperation with Internet Archive". I believe the result is that IA is hosting `purl.org` (and related redirection services). However, the IA page currently doesn't list Purl (or "purl.org") as a service run by IA. Should this be added? Cheers, FnordMan (talk) 15:13, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

We should wait until IA has updated their page to indicate 'all services are now restored' - as there's no way to check the purl stuff until they're back up. I've verified that the in-addr.arpa for 'purl.org' maps onto ux-haproxy1.us.archive.org, so we know that at least that much does exist; whether they still propagate results remains to be seen. Purl doesn't appear to have garnered much attention or use though, based merely on the dearth of mentions found on the web. Had never heard of it before you provided the article link. cheers. anastrophe, an editor he is. 19:26, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"インターネット・アーカイブ" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect インターネット・アーカイブ has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2024 October 29 § インターネット・アーカイブ until a consensus is reached. Dominicmgm (talk) 05:50, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Page move Internet Archive to Website Archive

@GoTV439 You moved page Internet Archive to Website Archive without discussion. I undid your bold move because it was not discussed and I believe many people, including myself, would disagree with the move. The organization this article is about is called Internet Archive. Thanks, Gideonrmt (talk) 01:35, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]