improve FAQ 5.6, thank Cody for finding broken links

The question for FAQ 5.6 was improved to be more compact
while addressing both broken and wrong web links.

Removed any direct reference to drugs in an effort to
avoid problems from those who are humor impaired,
as well as "bots" to might flag the site as connected to drugs.

Moved the reference to the tool used by Cory to find
broken links to the thanks page.
This commit is contained in:
Landon Curt Noll committed 2023-12-16 21:01:03 -08:00
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@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ other inconsistencies with the original entry?](#faq4_3)
- [5.3 - How may I report an IOCCC web site problem?](#faq5_3)
- [5.4 - How may I submit a fix to the IOCCC web site?](#faq5_4)
- [5.5 - How may I correct or update IOCCC author information?](#faq5_5)
- [5.6 - I found a dead or invalid link. What should I do?](#faq5_6)
- [5.6 - What should I do if I find a broken or wrong web link?](#faq5_6)
## Section 6 - [Miscellaneous IOCCC](#faq6)
- [6.0 - How did an entry that breaks the size rule 2 win the IOCCC?](#faq6_0)
@@ -1906,11 +1906,11 @@ against the master [branch](https://github.com/ioccc-src/winner/branches)
of the [ioccc-src/winner repo](https://github.com/ioccc-src/winner).
## <a name="faq5_6"></a><a name="fix_link"></a>FAQ 5.6: I found a dead or invalid link. What should I do?
## <a name="faq5_6"></a><a name="fix_link"></a>FAQ 5.6: What should I do if I find a broken or wrong web link?
If you just wish to report the issue, see [FAQ 5.3](#faq5_3).
If however you wish to fix it you may open a GitHub pull request as described in
We would appreciate if you try to fix the broken (the link goes nowhere) or wrong
(the link goes to something that clearly is not the original intent) web link.
If wish to fix such links, you may open a GitHub pull request as described in
[FAQ 5.4](#faq5_4). In the case of dead links or invalid links it doesn't matter
if it's a specific winner or not; the procedure is the same: open a pull request
to fix the problem.
@@ -1918,36 +1918,39 @@ to fix the problem.
As far as how to find the updated link you can try using the [Internet Wayback
Machine](https://web.archive.org) and see if you can find the last non 4xx non
3xx page. Note, however, that just because it redirects, does not mean it's not
valuable. Some links were changed to more recent URLs by doing this exact same
thing. Other times you might find it with a web search. It isn't always the same
process.
valuable. Other times you might find it with a web search.
Some links were changed to more recent URLs by doing this exact
same thing. Some links, while they real a valid web page, no longer
reach the intended web page (for example when the domain is sold
and the new domain owner's content no longer provides the content
that was originally intended. And while the content of the web
page may be humorous to some, the original content may have literally
gone "up in smoke".
In cases where the original content is lost, try searching for it on
the [Internet Wayback Machine](https://web.archive.org). When searching
look back for dates that are around the year of given IOCCC contest.
If you do find the original content in Internet archive history,
please consider submitting a change to replace the link accordingly.
If there is no alternative that you can find you might want to remove the link
instead.
instead by replacing the link with just phrase of text. For example,
if the text in some `README.md` file was:
Once the update is in place you can then open a pull request as described
earlier.
```
See the [author's description of the program](https://example.com) for more information.
```
Assuming that the author's description cannot be found in the
[Internet Wayback Machine](https://web.archive.org) archive, then
replace that text with:
### What is an invalid link?
```
See the **author's description of the program** (sorry the content is no longer available) for more information.
```
A classic example is that of Stephen Sykes's domain which had expired and then
bought again by a drug dispensary company. If you're more curious than that (or
maybe want a laugh :-) ) see commit b4e480a7cf6ef5e3c072f00d59daf12a394faede. In
any case obviously this had to be fixed and this is an example of an invalid
link albeit an extreme one.
### A general note about fixing links
It should be noted that although many links have been fixed, many will not be
fixed. Cody Boone Ferguson created a script that detected many dead links but
it's not perfect and there are just too many to go through, especially as it is
a very laborious task to copy and paste all the links into the Internet Wayback
Machine and even more so because even if it appears okay it does not mean it
is okay so every link would still have to be checked (an example of why this is
is given above). It is more useful to fix links to pages/files in the IOCCC
website itself.
If you just wish to report the bad link issue, see [FAQ 5.3](#faq5_3).
## <a name="faq6"></a>Section 6: Miscellaneous IOCCC
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@@ -4399,6 +4399,16 @@ typo/consistency fixes, improving **ALL _Makefiles_** and writing
for your extensive efforts in helping improve the IOCCC presentation of past
IOCCC winners and fixing almost all past entries for modern systems!
Cody Boone Ferguson also used one of his own tools to detect many
dead links. While the tool was not perfect it went a long way
to uncover a good number of bad, broken or otherwise invalid links.
It was a very laborious task to copy and paste problematic links
into the Internet Wayback Machine in an effort to try and find
otherwise lost content. A good number of links that now refer to
something in the [Internet Wayback Machine](https://web.archive.org)
archive replaced bad, broken, or otherwise invalid links thanks to
Cody's efforts!
### <a name="yusuke"></a>Yusuke