Link Checker

[Mary-Ellen Mort]

On Wed, 11 Sep 1996, Jerry Kuntz wrote:

> Are any of the link checker (or site maintenance) tools--other than 
> "Underpaid Clerical Worker"--intelligent enough to detect links that 
> connect to PAGE HAS MOVED or UPDATE YOUR BOOKMARK messages? If not, 
> should they really be used?

Another element that no auto-link checker can handle:
Does your annotation still match the source?

Let's say your annotation is bold enough to state: this site offers keyword
searching of contents. Is that still the case? (Some auto-link checkers, I
understand, can tell you if the file is larger or smaller than last time
but that isn't really the point.) What if the title or major features of
the site change? 

Manually re-checking every link that has gone up or down in bytes 
makes the task larger not smaller.

I think Underpaid Clerical Worker is the answer & fits so nicely with 
underpaid webwriter, underpaid web researcher, underpaid web master. 
Look--we have a team!

JobSmart is a pretty big site (100 files) and our links are annotated to
note special features. We have what we call a "web technician" checking a
big hunk every week for ten hours. (In our case a new library school
graduate working from home.) We're able to cover the whole site every
month or 6 weeks. Not only does she spot bad links, she can search for the
new link if necessary and check to see the annotation is still correct. 

Mary-Ellen Mort,
JobSmart Project Director
http://jobsmart.org