When Sites Need to Walk Away

This article explores the phenomenon of URL rot, citing a Pew Research Center report that 26% of web pages from 2013-2023 are no longer accessible. It highlights the Internet Archive's efforts to preserve content, with 16% restored via the Wayback Machine and 56% saved before disappearing. The author uses a case study of a mountain biking trail resource, BendTrails, that plans to shut down, reflecting on the difficulty of walking away from a website. The piece contrasts the maintenance overhead of dynamic platforms like WordPress with simpler static site options, and questions whether relying on the Internet Archive is sufficient for preserving web content.