Use an archive snapshot when a live web page supports a claim that may change

Use an archive snapshot when a live web page supports a claim that may change. A normal URL is useful for current access, but it does not preserve what the page said when the claim was written.

The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine includes Save Page Now for capturing a page as it appears at a point in time. Internet Archive help notes that saving one page does not save future crawls, multiple pages, directories, or an entire site. Perma.cc is similarly used to preserve cited web pages. The practical lesson is that an archive snapshot has a narrow scope: it captures a cited page, not the whole context around it.

A source note should therefore keep both live URL and archive URL. The live URL helps readers see the current page. The archive URL helps readers verify the version relied on. The note should also record capture date, access date, page title, supported claim, and visible limitations such as broken images, missing scripts, cookie banners, or truncated content.

Snapshots are especially useful for policy pages, help-center pages, product feature pages, event pages, pricing pages, public notices, and pages without stable version numbers. They are less necessary when the source is already a fixed PDF with a version number, a DOI record with explicit update status, or a preserved repository release. The decision is not “archive every link.” The decision is whether later readers need to see the cited state of a page that might drift.

Use an archive snapshot when a live web page supports a claim that may change

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