[seqfan] Re: Correcting Broken Links - Some Choices

[P. Michael Hutchins]

Thnkk you, Neil.

one more complication:

The nice big graphic of stage 50 is present in the remaining page at Boise,
but not in the archived one.

We can't fix the archived page, whose URL I replaced the (one) bad one with.

The obvious solution is to replace the newly-replaced link with the one to
the active Boise page.

Ironically, the two pages are - strictly speaking - *not* the same (which
is the requirement for replacing a bad link):  The current (although moved)
one is the better.

I should replace the link that I replaced "yesterday" with the current
Boise one.

OK?

(sorry for all the OEIS-principals' time this has taken)


  -- M.

On Sat, Mar 3, 2018 at 10:38 AM, Neil Sloane <njasloane at gmail.com> wrote:

> Let me reply to PMH's message. He said: *[My answers in bold]*
>
> I'm working on fixing some links in A139250.  .
>
> Neil was good enough to lay out for me the basics of how to do this in the
> OEIS, but I've run across a couple of questions that I don't have answers
> for, not knowing the "personality" of OEIS well enough.
>
>
>    - Old links can be accessed via the WayBack Machine, web.archive.org.
>    But should we assume that OEIS users can use that for themselves, or
> should
>    we do that for them? * [Please do it for them, if you can! It is better
> if we have the retrieved link there in the sequence, rather than leaving it
> to the user to do the work.  And this way it only has to be done once ]*
>
>
>
>    - I would guess that we shouldn't use any of the URL-shortening
> services. [*Correct, that just adds*
>
> *one more level of complexity, one more thing that will break sooner or
> later]*
>
>
>    - Culling - or just failing to update - links that seem to be of only
>    marginal utility. *[Please don't do any culling]*
>
> Obviously people can't be going around will'e nil'e judging referenced
> items to be not good enough - but there's a cost to fixing broken links
> (including whether people are inclined in general to fix them)
>
> Here's the example at hand:
>
> Thr set of references that I've been considering includes 4 pictures of a
> classroom working on the toothpick problem.
>
> eg:
> http://web.archive.org/web/20171110234732/http://i2.wp.
> com/boisemathcircles.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/IMG_0003.jpg
> :
>
>
>
> They're darling and all, but are they worth updating?  should they even
> have been in there in the first place? *[ YES   I put those links there.
> This was in connection with a project we were (and are) involved in to get
> school teachers aware of the usefulness of the OEIS for teaching math in
> schools. Those links are important.  You probably did not know about this
> initiative, but there was a conference at Bamf in Canada a couple of years
> ago involving teachers and OEIS folks. ]*
>
>
> Best regards
> Neil
>
> Neil J. A. Sloane, President, OEIS Foundation.
> 11 South Adelaide Avenue, Highland Park, NJ 08904, USA.
> Also Visiting Scientist, Math. Dept., Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ.
> Phone: 732 828 6098; home page: http://NeilSloane.com
> Email: njasloane at gmail.com
>
>
> On Sat, Mar 3, 2018 at 6:43 AM, P. Michael Hutchins <pmh232 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > I'm working on fixing some links in A139250.  .
> >
> > Neil was good enough to lay out for me the basics of how to do this in
> the
> > OEIS, but I've run across a couple of questions that I don't have answers
> > for, not knowing the "personality" of OEIS well enough.
> >
> >
> >    - Old links can be accessed via the WayBack Machine, web.archive.org.
> >    But should we assume that OEIS users can use that for themselves, or
> > should
> >    we do that for them?
> >
> >
> >
> >    - I would guess that we shouldn't use any of the URL-shortening
> > services.
> >
> >
> >
> >    - Culling - or just failing to update - links that seem to be of only
> >    marginal utility.
> >
> > Obviously people can't be going around will'e nil'e judging referenced
> > items to be not good enough - but there's a cost to fixing broken links
> > (including whether people are inclined in general to fix them)
> >
> > Here's the example at hand:
> >
> > Thr set of references that I've been considering includes 4 pictures of a
> > classroom working on the toothpick problem.
> >
> > eg:
> > http://web.archive.org/web/20171110234732/http://i2.wp.
> > com/boisemathcircles.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/IMG_0003.jpg
> > :
> >
> >
> >
> > They're darling and all, but are they worth updating?  should they even
> > have been in there in the first place?
> >
> > I don't know.
> >
> > Sorry if I was too blunt.
> >
> > --
> > Seqfan Mailing list - http://list.seqfan.eu/
> >
>
> --
> Seqfan Mailing list - http://list.seqfan.eu/
>