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Archiving public surplus auction links


Orion6025
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Would it be possible to make it a strong recommendation or something for editors to archive all Public Surplus vehicle auctions linked into the wiki? After the auction closes, for nearly all agencies on public surplus, the information disappears and becomes hidden behind a login screen. If the auction is archived though (On http://web.archive.org or the various alternatives), such information is retained. Essentially, there is no point in pasting a public surplus link into the wiki unless the auction is archived; it is no different than something like this page where the auctions aren't linked. I'm not trying to say that it's really a bad thing if a "dead" link (or no link) is attached to an auction note in a Status/Disposal box, but I think it would be better if a working one is attached.

For an example of the issue of a non-functional/expired public surplus auction, please see this link:

https://publicsurplus.com/sms/auction/view?auc=2707301

The same link, but archived via the web archive:

https://web.archive.org/web/20210108233811/https://publicsurplus.com/sms/auction/view?auc=2707301

I understand that auctioning links can take time and perhaps that it isn't worth the extra minute (per auction) to save the couple crummy images that are on the page since the website name and the year/month of the auction might be enough information for the wiki. That said, I feel it is a better practice to leave a functional auction link for reference in case anyone wants to click through to it, and as I have pointed out, archiving is the only way to achieve that when it comes to public surplus auctions.

A couple disclaimers - 

1. I admit that the editor who "taught" me the wiki places a very heavy emphasis on the importance of linking auctions as well as the importance of archiving links so naturally his bias has been passed down into me, perhaps this isn't a terribly important issue for most editors though.

2. This is not an issue at all for any of the other major auction sites that I am aware of (aarbids, govdeals, purplewave, auctions international, etc.). Because of this, I've decided not to include said websites above, but I would still at least lightly suggest that such auctions should be archived in case they  someday start taking down old auctions (I think govdeals sort of does this already, but that may just be by vendor decision, and I have not come across it that frequently..).

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  • 1 year later...
On 7/1/2022 at 11:51 AM, j.p said:

This has been a trend since 2019, hence why we recommend archiving nearly all external links when possible,

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https://cptdb.ca/topic/20027-archiving-public-surplus-auction-links/#comment-943739
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