h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How about something which auto updates/checks links on pages as they are pulled from a server. It could scan the text of an article to add links to newly edited articles and could check existing links and remove broken ones, perhaps with an email sent to the researcher asking if they have a suitable replacement link.

It just seems that it would be a constant and tedious full time job to ensure that the guide remains interlinked when an automated system would be much better.

Traveller in Time linking half the guide
"The Edited entries are there to stay ! So if you link to an edited entry the chances of it becoming a broken link are minsicule.

For the unedited entries there is already something like such system as you suggested. Use , this closed tag generates the subject title of the entry as the active link. If the author deletes the entry or changes the subject you will automagically see the change on your page.

Only the last part; refinding the topic and changing the entry number will be user editing. (You can not define a _good_ entry in any kind of script or program). "

I was thinking more about external links, I've just had to ask them to remove 3 external links from an entry because they are no longer valid.

Also the point was slightly broader than that. It was while suggesting that the author of an article link to other articles that I realised how much easier it would be if that were done automatically, if the first time the word Mersea appeared in each article it linked to the entry A810127

Obviously I've chosen a careful example, something like London would be much more difficult since there isn't one unifying entry on the subject, but maybe these should be linked to searches or categories C86 etc. Then when an entry is written it could be flagged as an auto link entry and the keyword(s) listed so that whenever that keyword appeared it would be linked to, automatically and more importantly in a postdated fasion. Like the smileys, when everyone invents their own in the hope that one day they will exist and will turn into a small green picture of a frog!

Traveller in Time waiting for any entry to stabilise on the WEB
"I more and more get the impression most of the WEB is way too volatile to earn a link. I have just recently got an entry Edited and lready durin the process of writing it I had to change the external references three times.

I do not say it is a bad idea, but how do you think the DNA servers could manage to keep the entire WEB up-to-date ? Indeed any broken link could be reported, but if it returns the next day it would be nonsense. Only by human interaction it is possible to judge if a link is down or if there is a temporary glitch.

Who to inform about a broken link ? The author? (elvished), the Editors? (busy already and not a clue where to look for a 'compatible' link). Best thing we have is our researchers reading the entry and informing the editors via the Editorial Feedback. (saw your posting there the moment I posted my reply here)

Think we already have the best solution possible. (still waiting for the trech team to reinstate the search and perhaps enhance it somewhat) "

Well maybe there should be a link on each article linking to the EF forum so that if someone comes across an error it's v.easy to find out how to fix it.

They wouldn't need to keep the entire web up-to-date, just check that the links to the web are not broken and if they are then flag them up to someone to fix.

It just seems a shame that all that work went into an article and now it lies there with broken and missing links because there isn't an easy way to check and update them.