Fans of the permalink unite

Sometimes forgetting is useful and necessary, but in web publishing the default option should be “never forget”. Unfortunately lots of big and resourceful organizations such as newspapers and public sector agencies rate among the worst when it comes to allowing link rot. So I was glad to see that at least The Guardian knows the value of the everlasting permalink. I know there are others on our side out there, such as The New York Times and Spiegel. In fact, all those could help the cause of the permalink by explaining what they gain financially from their open web archives. What is most difficult to understand about link rot is that it reduces the value of those archives. Who would want that?

In the meantime, we just have to conclude that it’s fairly simple to keep links working when switching systems, even simple bloggers can manage with a little help from their friends (link in Norwegian).