link rot sucks so much

[ratcreature]

For the first time in some years I checked my rec pages to see how many links don't work any more (trying to gauge how horrible it would be if I decided to update again -- answer: very horrible), and so many stories have moved or worse vanished. A few of the vanished ones can still be found through archive.org, but many seem gone entirely. Depressing.

OTOH thanks to the import of 852 Prospect to AO3, I didn't just come across many moved URLs, but also rediscovered some authors whom I really liked in TS in the late 90s, then lost track of, only to see that they are actually still writing fanfic and posting new stuff to AO3.

Comments

[bluemeridian]

I can't imagine how many links are broken even on my Star Trek rec pages of a few years back, let alone anything older. But rediscovering old authors is some pretty good serendipity!

[princessofgeeks]

This happened to me, and I was abjectly grateful when someone volunteered to update all my links (my list is Gateverse). It was so nice to see how many people were indeed on AO3. A few had gafiated or deleted, but the list was pretty much salvageable.