On 5/16/07, David Goodman dgoodmanny@gmail.com wrote:
The objection of it being a subscription site is of course wrong, but it seems a little more complicated:
Some or all of the links reverted were to a dead site. This is a different problem. I really do not see a how a link to a site that cannot be reached by anyone at all is a reference. The only way to go would be to find it in a old file somewhere--or to have made a permanent link by one of the available methods in the first place, or to have an equivalent print link.
Do we agree that: a) A non-subscription reference is better than an equivalent subscription reference b) A subscription reference is better than no reference
Also that: c) A dead link is better than no reference unless there is no hope whatsoever that the link could be used to retrieve the source in the future.
The problem arose at [[Smile (band)]] where an excellent source just disappeared off the web. Archive.org had some of the text, but was missing the scan of a crucial letter-to-the-editor. I wanted to keep the link on the basis that it might eventually come back, or serve as some kind of trail to find the thing again. Not sure whether someone else killed it.
Steve