Wikipedia:Using the Wayback Machine
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To cite web pages archived by the Wayback Machine in articles, follow these tips.
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[edit] Linking to the archive of all versions of a page
If you are linking to all versions of the page, use a URL such as:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.wikipedia.org
The template {{wayback}} can be used for this as well, taking a single argument (the URL) which does not need a variable declaration (unless the URL has a '=' equal sign in it, in which case you should use site=URL.)
For example, {{wayback|http://www.wikipedia.org}} produces this link: Archive copy at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine
[edit] Linking to the archive of a specific version of a page
To link to a certain version of the page, use a URL such as:
http://web.archive.org/web/20020930123525/www.wikipedia.org
The template {{waybackdate}} can be used to expedite this process. It takes two arguments: "site" (the URL of the archived site) and "date" (the archive.org date code).
For example, {{waybackdate|site=http://www.wikipedia.org|date=20020930123525}} produces this link: Archive copy at the Internet Archive.
[edit] Linking to the most recent archive of a page
Note: this is considered by some Wikipedians to be a very bad idea, because the most recent archive of a page may in future turn into an irrelevant advertising page, due to a domain name warehouse or other advertiser taking over the domain name. Consider instead linking to a specific version which you know to be a good version - that version should not change, obviously, because of the nature of an archive.
If you are linking to the most recent versions of the page, use a URL such as
http://web.archive.org/web/2/www.wikipedia.org
The templates {{dlw-inline}} and {{dlw}} can be used for this; they are specifically designed to replace dead links. They take two arguments, the URL and the link title.
For example, {{dlw-inline|url=http://www.wikipedia.org|title=Wikipedia's most recent archive}} produces this: Wikipedia's most recent archive [dead link – history]
