Link rot, explained with just one post
One post, and 45 images. Missing images.
Link rot (also called link death, link breaking, or reference rot) is the phenomenon of hyperlinks inside a web page gradually ceasing to work, because their target file is not at that address anymore.
Today, by pure chance, I noticed again in my bookmarks a page published almost exactly ten years ago. That page, titled “The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2011”(*), is a perfect example of link rot. Here is why:
<u><em><strong>CAPTION:</strong>
<a href="/img/link-rot-from-2011.png" target="_blank">Click for full screenshot. And note that subtitle...</a>
</em></u>
As you can see by yourself from the screenshot taken this year, after ten years only, NONE of those 45 “powerful photos” is visible anymore. In only ten years. Gives a whole new meaning to “anything you put online is forever”, right? Maybe we should replace that rule with:
Anything that ends online will disappear TOO soon, unless someone really cares to KEEP it online. Of course, pictures of yourself naked, stoned or worse will disappear only after they have been seen by everybody who should have never, ever seen them.
(*) note the subtitle of that page of December 2011: “What a year! Here’s to [next year] being a more quiet and less destructive year.”