Mastodawn

internetarchive

We've teamed up with Automattic to fight link rot on the open web. Check out the new Internet Archive Wayback Machine Link Fixer for WordPress. The free plugin preserves pages, redirects broken links to archived versions, and helps ensure the web keeps its memory.

“It’s very important that websites have a memory," said Alexander Rose of Automattic. "When links go dead, in effect, the truth goes dead—especially in the age of AI,”

Learn more ➡️ https://blog.archive.org/2026/02/04/inside-the-new-wayback-machine-plugin-for-wordpress/

Ashley Blewer Feb 4

@internetarchive grosss

Joe Ortiz Feb 4

@ashley @internetarchive Yeah, It's going to blow up in their faces later I'm sure plus all the ethical issues...

CalvinBall Feb 4

@joeo10 @ashley @internetarchive wait I just read through the article and it seems pretty great to me? What am I missing?

Luna Lactea Feb 5

@calvinball @joeo10 @ashley @internetarchive Automattic & Matt Mullenweg are very very anti LGBT.

Ashley Blewer Feb 5

@calvinball @joeo10 @internetarchive @jackemled ya I can't speak for anyone else but Automattic/Matt sux

CalvinBall Feb 5

@ashley @joeo10 @internetarchive @jackemled oh no, I had no idea :( that's so ass, the idea here is great, why did it have to be marred by working with bad partners

CalvinBall Feb 5

@ashley @joeo10 @internetarchive @jackemled okay I wanted to know more about this so I read up on a bunch of stuff. I went through Matt Mullenweg's wiki page, the TechCrunch articles about the WP Engine drama, news posts about his transphobia while he was on sabbatical, the statement made by the trans staff from Tumblr/Automattic. The whole shebang.

First off, jaysus what a mess. Second, I do want to see this Archive.org/Automattic Collab in a positive light, still. (1/2)

CalvinBall Feb 5

@ashley @joeo10 @internetarchive @jackemled Even though Automattic needs better leadership, I always try to see the rest of the company as distinct from it's CEO. Automattic is filled with well-meaning passionate employees that work towards improving the open web. This link rot fixer is a really important step, it solves a huge issue that is threatening the web currently! And now it's easy to implement on open source sites used by millions of people.

You can not like Matt and still like this.

@calvinball
No one said anything about the company's rank and file employees. I hope people stop working with the US govt bc we have bad leadership right now and working with us will mean perpetuating harm to a lot of people. Don't wanna cause harm, then don't team up with people who have a record of harm.

We don't have to work with organizations that have bad leadership. We can simply choose to work with companies that have good leadership.

@ashley @joeo10 @internetarchive @jackemled

Ashley Blewer Feb 5

@joeo10 @internetarchive @jackemled @calvinball appreciate your thoroughness in thinking through this and the overall benefits, speaking just for me I have direct personal experience to Automattic's bullshit and I hold a grudge to the grave

Ashley Blewer Feb 5

@joeo10 @internetarchive @jackemled @calvinball this includes especially his demands that everyone in the company be 100% aligned to this losers dumb fasc ass or quit/be fired if not

CalvinBall Feb 5

@ashley @joeo10 @internetarchive @jackemled yeesh 😵‍💫 thank you for sharing your experience! I honestly don't know enough and don't want to pass judgment, but I'm glad I'm learning more about the inside workings of tech companies like Automattic.

@internetarchive I was so fucking afraid that it was an acquisition post

disaster2life Feb 4

@internetarchive did it really have to be automattic? could nobody step in to help bring this about?

Joe Ortiz Feb 4

@disaster2life @internetarchive Sadly, almost every major entity hates the Internet Archive these days not to mention that Automattic has a monopolized space.

Hate this move.

disaster2life Feb 5

@joeo10 @internetarchive /sigh, its a hard world right now, but cant reallyexpunge the records of the CEOs bigotry from my head whenever I hear the name

@joeo10
Yeah but it also looks like there was 0 critical thinking in this decision. No landscape review of options, no RFP or Q to solicit ideas from vendors, just a call from automattic to brewster and a "yes" on the other end. And IA *does* have control over that. If it went down any other way it'd be great to hear more publicly.

@disaster2life @internetarchive

Aral Balkan Feb 4

@disaster2life @internetarchive Well, there’s a tiny Small Web app that aims to do a similar thing for personal web sites, etc., that I made a little while ago:

https://look-over-there.small-web.org/

Look Over There!⁠

disaster2life Feb 5

@aral @internetarchive ah that looks nice, thanks

@internetarchive unfortunate given the high-profile poor behavior of mullenweg/automattic regarding access to wordpress resources (among other lawsuits)

RealGene ☣️Feb 4

@internetarchive
Well, don't expect a donation from me in 2026.

Luna Lactea Feb 4

@internetarchive Automattic is the fifth last (after Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, & Google) company you should ever consider teaming up with. Have things really gotten that bad? Is there not a way for people to sign up to have their website crawled periodically by archive.org so they don't need to rely on a plugin from a horrifically anti LGBT company? What justifies associating with a company that has this reputation?

Luna Lactea Feb 4

@internetarchive how do I dislike a fediverse post🗿

o ifrit caduco 🦔🫚🪾⛈️🐌🌰🍛Feb 4

@jackemled
Using Misskey (or any of its forks)

@internetarchive

Luna Lactea Feb 4

@ifrit @internetarchive Misskey doesn't have a dislike button.

o ifrit caduco 🦔🫚🪾⛈️🐌🌰🍛Feb 5

@jackemled
But has reactions

@internetarchive

Luna Lactea Feb 5

@ifrit @internetarchive Yes, that only Misskey & one or two other things can see. It's not a dislike button.

gabboman the wafrn dev Feb 5

Get 🔧reacted

#Lack-of-emojireacts-is-a-mastodon-issue

Luna Lactea Feb 5

@gabboman @internetarchive @ifrit I really wish there was a dedicated dislike button, because Misskey emote reacts federate to Mastodon as a favorites.

gabboman the wafrn dev Feb 5

I dislike that decision but it was a compromise.
But also: just one emoji react per post that sucks

Luna Lactea Feb 5

@gabboman @internetarchive @ifrit Multiple reactions is the only good thing about Discord (not counting moderation features because that's not the current subject). You can spell words with it. You can "🔧WRENCH🛠️" react someone.

gabboman the wafrn dev Feb 5

Akko and waf allow multiple because we send just an empjireact activity instead of a like with extras

#So-you-can-tappity-tap-all-the-buttons-you-can

Friendica does

Jargoggles Feb 5

@jackemled @internetarchive
Stare at it angrily.

Wasn't aware that they were a bad company, but considering how much of the internet seems to rely on them, I'm constantly running into blogs and sites built with WordPress (they also own Tumblr), it seems to me that this isn't a bad thing as it'll preserve a large chunk of the web when they go down.

Luna Lactea Feb 5

@chuff @internetarchive Yeah, the Automattic acquisition of Tumblr resulted in pretty much every transgender person being banned from it. People only use WordPress because there isn't much else with its feature set or ecosystem, it has no competition.

@internetarchive Very nice!