thearchivist.fun
A SOURCE-LED INDEX

Explore the archive.

704 records: sourced internet history, research methods and community contributions, followed by the original art project.

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resource

W3C history: follow the institutions behind web standards

W3C's history page provides an institutional account of the World Wide Web Consortium and links to earlier web material, anniversary resources and news archives. It is useful when a technical feature is described as if i

resource

W3C WAI: make access part of the research workflow

W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative provides introductory material about accessibility, user needs and the components that make the web usable. It is useful before selecting a checklist because it connects technical requi

glossary

WARC

WARC stands for Web ARChive. It is used in web archiving to package captured resources and related records, rather than simply saving a page as a picture. The Library of Congress describes its web archives as stored in W

resource

WAVE: inspect accessibility problems in context

WAVE is a suite of accessibility evaluation tools from WebAIM. It identifies many common issues and presents information that helps people inspect a page in context. The service and browser extensions are useful during d

resource

Wayback Machine: compare a website across time

Use the Wayback Machine when an important link has changed, disappeared, or acquired a different meaning. It is particularly useful for comparing a platform's earlier language with its present description and for recover

glossary

Web snapshot

A snapshot preserves some version of a page or resource, but its completeness depends on the capture method. It may retain text while missing an interactive chart, an externally hosted video, or content loaded only after

resource

Wikimedia Commons: reuse images with their provenance

Wikimedia Commons is useful for finding images whose file pages document a creator, source and reuse terms. The reuse guide explains why those details must travel with the image. It is a strong starting point for an illu

history

Wikimedia frames AI as assistance for human editors

On 30 April 2025, the Wikimedia Foundation published an explanation of its new AI strategy for Wikipedia's editors. The stated goal was to support human contributors rather than replace the community's work with automati

history

Windows Live Messenger is folded into Skype

TechCrunch reported on 15 February 2013 that Microsoft would move Windows Live Messenger users to Skype. For most users the process would begin on 8 April. English-language users went first, the Brazilian Portuguese vers

guide

Write a source-based research brief

A research brief should answer a defined question, show the evidence behind the answer, and make uncertainty easy to locate. Its value comes from selection and reasoning rather than length. Aim for a document someone can

guide

Write research notes you can use a month later

A note such as interesting connection makes sense while a page is open and becomes almost useless later. A reusable note explains what caught your attention, where it came from, and how it connects to a question. It shou

history

Yahoo Answers closes without a public archive

Yahoo Answers closed on 4 May 2021 (Eastern time), when its address began redirecting to the Yahoo homepage. From 20 April no new content could be posted, though existing content stayed readable. Search Engine Journal re

history

Yahoo Groups stops showing its archives

In late 2019 Yahoo announced that it would remove most features from Yahoo Groups, including its archived messages and files. Locus Magazine reported that all groups were to close on 21 October and that archived data was

history

Yahoo Pipes goes read-only after eight years

TechCrunch reported on 4 June 2015 that Yahoo was shutting down Yahoo Pipes, the visual tool for aggregating, mashing up and filtering web data, which had launched in early 2007. Creation of new pipes would stop on 30 Au

history

Yahoo retires its hand-built directory of the Web

On 26 September 2014 Yahoo said it would retire the Yahoo Directory at the end of the year, 31 December. Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land reported that Yahoo gave the news in a short paragraph headed 'Progress Report

history

Yahoo switches off AltaVista

Search Engine Roundtable reported on 1 July 2013 that Yahoo had announced, late the previous Friday, that AltaVista would shut for good on 8 July 2013. Yahoo made the announcement in a Tumblr post titled 'Keeping our foc

history

Yik Yak closes after a small sale to Square

On 28 April 2017 Yik Yak's co-founders posted a farewell note saying they would shut down the anonymous social network that week. TechCrunch reported that, according to an SEC filing from 16 April, Square had agreed to h

history

YouTube adds disclosure for realistic synthetic media

YouTube announced a new Creator Studio disclosure tool on 18 March 2024 for realistic content made or meaningfully changed with synthetic media, including generative AI. The purpose was to give viewers context when a vid

resource

Zotero: keep sources attached to a research question

Zotero helps collect and organize research sources with metadata, notes and attachments. Its quick-start guide explains items, collections, tags and citation workflows. It is useful when a project has grown beyond a list

art project

A Reader’s Invitation

This is not a feed. It does not refresh. It waits. You don’t search for meaning here. You continue reading. The archive remembers where you stopped. You don’t need to. When there is nothing left to retrieve, the archi

art project

Abstract

Meme Archive is not a platform. It is an observation system. It does not predict. It does not promote. It records repetition.