Repairing Hyperlinks
(Fixing Links)

One of the greatest services you can offer a Webmaster is to point out broken hyperlinks and then to offer a replacement that is working.

This can be done for any website. It doesn't have to be FACTNet. Websites that are involved in the same activities as FACTNet are often run on a shoestring. Many of them are maintained by one person. And there never is enough time in the day to get to everything. So they will be grateful for any assistance you may provide.

What is talked about below does not imply complete access and control to any given website. Almost no one will give you this kind of access unless they trusted you totally. But it does provide enormous aid to websites.

At the end of any exercise you would send the Webmaster an email that said:
Non-functional Hyperlink = http://www.*****.com/
Equivalent Replacement = http://www.####.com/

And if you were being really helpful you would also add:
The Broken (Non-functional) Hyperlink is found on your websites at http://www.~~~~.com/+++/^^^^.htm

Checking hyperlinks:

1/ Download http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html 
2/ With this tool you can check both internal and external hyperlinks.
4/ Set it to check both
5/ When you find a broken hyperlink the first task is to find out how the hyperlink is described. So go to the page on which the hyperlink occurs. 
6/ Copy the text used to describe the hyperlink and search in Google to see if there are any similar articles on the net. (See Example [a])
7/ If this doesn't work then paste the actual hyperlink into the WayBack Machine at http://webdev.archive.org/index.php 
8/ If the website has been archived then copy some pertinent text from the archived version and search Google as in step (6)
9/ If you cannot find anything in Google but you do find it in the WayBack Machine then the replacement hyperlink becomes the actual archived version in the WayBack Machine (See Example [b])
10/ If you cannot find anything in Google or the WayBack Machine then grab the tail end of the Broken Hyperlink and search Google for it. You will then often see alternatives that will make sense. (See Example [c])

Example [a]
1/ At http://www.factnet.org/ScientologyInternationalNews.html we find broken hyperlink http://www.marketing.haynet.com/news/n010913/cofe.html which now bouncing to http://www.brandrepublic.com/magazines/marketing/index.cfm
2/ We search the relevant text -- The Church of England has attacked the Church of Scientology over adverts claiming that it has "salvaged" 250,000 lives from drugs. The C of E told the Advertising Standards Authority the claim is "unsubstantiated". -- in Google. 
3/ The only link that makes sense is http://www.rickross.com/reference/scientology/britain/britain2.html . This is because Rick Ross has archived the article. Which is good news for FACTNet since we can now change the hyperlink.

Example [b]
1/ At http://w4u.eexi.gr/~antbos/MARINA.HTM we find this broken hyperlink http://scn.martinobrien.com/ABUSE/KRASEL/COS/ars.FAQ2.html
2/ Checking the WayBack Machine Brings up this message: "Blocked Site Error". (This means that due to some kind of pressure the WayBack Machine is censoring that site.
3/ But in the original description for the hyperlink we find that it was called "A.R.S. FAQ [Martin Hunt]" . So we search for that phrase in Google and find that an alternative hyperlink is http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~av282/faq.htm
4/ We then search the WayBack Machine for http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~av282/faq.htm
and lo we find some data at http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~av282/faq.htm  . 
5/ Which means that we can set a replacement hyperlink at http://web.archive.org/web/20010409043539/http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~av282/faq.htm 

or...
6/ If we then copy some text from the archived version at the WayBack Machine and search Google we can come up with a better hyperlink at http://www.religio.de/publik/faq.html 

Example [c]
1/ At http://w4u.eexi.gr/~antbos/MARINA.HTM  we find this broken hyperlink http://scn.martinobrien.com/ABUSE/KRASEL/COS/clam.FAQ.html
2/ We know from the above example that < http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/ > is a blocked site.
3/ We then search Google for clam.FAQ.html (the actual file we are looking for):
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=clam.FAQ.html&btnG=Google+Search 
This gives us a result that is:
http://censored.firehead.org:1984/scientology/wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/%257Ekrasel/CoS/ 
Which leads to:
http://censored.firehead.org:1984/scientology/wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/%257Ekrasel/CoS/clam.FAQ.html 
4/ And we know that this correct since the URL is very similar. It looks like a Mirror site of Cornelius Krasel's original site. That is now missing from the Net

All of the above should also make one aware of how important it is to be involved in creating Archives or Mirrors. Most people involved in Human Rights issues are only too glad to have their sites mirrored since it ensures that the data will be preserved on the net and is saved for future generations. (The sites are not in competition with each other. Just give credit where credit is due.)

The most important type of archival work is that of storing Newspaper Articles. Many Newspaper articles disappear into the newspaper archives after a time. The newspapers then charge money to view them. But if one is involved in educational or non-profit work then one can make use of "Fair Use" extracts. ( See http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/copypol2.htm )

A cheap way to monitor the news is to use the hyperlinks below:
They do not cover 100% of the news. But they are pretty close. (If there is a big story then FACTNet will monitor about 100 different news sources. You can have fun discovering others.)

Save these hyperlinks as bookmarks after you have substituted the word "scientology" with whatever specialty you have decided on.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&scoring=d&q=scientology&btnG=Google+Search
http://www.ask.com/news/news-results.asp?ask=scientology&o=0&qsrc=0&meta=1&IMAGE1.x=27&IMAGE1.y=9
http://cgi.wn.com/?template=worldnews%2Fsearch.txt&action=search&first=0&SearchString=scientology
&Language=Any+Language&mode=and&SortBy=Date_Newest&SearchSize=25&x=20&y=18
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NewsNow/NewsNow.htm?Search=scientology&Section=Search
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=scientology&c=

Who needs the news?
Once one has chosen a specialty and is monitoring something specific in the news then one can spread the news.
1/ Website owners often need to be kept up-to-date (Always remember to quote the original URL that you found the news at)
2/ Newsgroups ( alt.religion.scientology would be an example of a newsgroup. Just remember to observe before posting so that you know what to expect. And develop a thick skin.)
3/ Chat rooms
4/ Your own Newsletter
5/ Local Newspapers that might not have picked up on a breaking hot story.
6/ Local Radio talk shows that might not have picked up on a breaking hot story
7/ Your own website. If you have one.