[thelist] Checking Link Relevance

Bill Haenel mail at webmarketingworx.com
Fri Mar 21 13:45:08 CST 2003


We operate a news site which after nearly 2 years in operation now contains
over 3,000 stories. Many (probably at least 50%) of the stories have
"related links" at their tail end. When our reporters add a story to the DB,
they also simultaneously add any links to related internal and/or external
information. (duh, right?)

Our news director is concerned (as I am, frankly) that old links may become
either invalid or irrelevant. On the extreme end of this concern is the fact
that the author of one site that we recently linked to suddenly changed from
writing information about an artist we reported on to information about the
author having established a personal relationship with "the Lord". It's not
that we don't want to connect to those who have religion, it's that the
subject is irrelevant and colors the credibility of our news ethic.

We're talking about a lot of links. Our news director first suggested
expiring links so they disappear after a time, but as a site manager I don't
think that this is the best solution. One of the primary principles that the
resource of the web is founded on is of course, linking.

Anyone on thelist had to deal with this one before? If so, how do you handle
old links, both for validity and relevancy?

TIA,
BH




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