Wayback Machine
The Internet Archive's service for browsing and saving archived snapshots of web pages.
HN commenters value it as a library of the internet worth donating to,123 especially for recovering old sites and personal content that are no longer online.45 The one complaint raised is that it can fail to save some pages,6 such as documentation for proprietary software.7
Why people recommend it
Valuable public service · 3
Commenters call it the library of the internet and say they donate or want to.
“I have a recurring donation, there is so much cool stuff in the archive.”
“They provide an incredibly valuable service and I love the benefit that I get from them”
Show 1 more
“I love the wayback machine, hope everyone pitches in”
Recovering lost content · 2
It let commenters find offline blogs and their own old websites again.
“WM had it stored of course, so I could read through this amazing piece of internet art again.”
“it's all thanks to the Internet Archive storing my little gaming review website from when I was 16”
Easy access · 1
Pages load without JavaScript, CAPTCHAs or geoblocking, unlike archive.ph.
“Works without Javascript, no CAPTCHA, no DDoS, no geoblocking, etc.”
Fixing link rot · 1
One blogger replaces broken links with Wayback Machine links.
“substitute broken URL with links to the Wayback machine”
Caveats and dissent
Failed captures · 1
Saving some proprietary documentation pages fails to capture the actual content.
“it absolutely fails to actually save the content”
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
Data: wayback-machine.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 8
“I have a recurring donation, there is so much cool stuff in the archive.”
“WM had it stored of course, so I could read through this amazing piece of internet art again.”
“They provide an incredibly valuable service and I love the benefit that I get from them”
“it's all thanks to the Internet Archive storing my little gaming review website from when I was 16”
“I love the wayback machine, hope everyone pitches in”
“substitute broken URL with links to the Wayback machine”
“Works without Javascript, no CAPTCHA, no DDoS, no geoblocking, etc.”
“it absolutely fails to actually save the content”