Template:New archival link needed
{{new archival link needed}} is a template used to identify references that are archived using deprecated archival repositories, including (but not limited to) archive.today and archive.is. The template produces the superscripted message [new archival link needed] and is installed with no spaces after a reference that links to a deprecated archival repository.
Background
Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Archive.is RFC 5 was an RFC concerning archive.today, archive.is and related sites. The RFC resulted in deprecation for those sites and removal of links to those sites. This template can be used to highlight where existing archive.today links are present on Wikipedia, or where they have been removed without a replacement archival link. See below for more information on why this is an issue:
The English Wikipedia has decided to stop using archive.today and its related websites. This decision was agreed on after a request for comment with more than 200 participants concluded in February 2026, and is due to multiple concerns, including the site using editors' and readers' computers to run a denial-of-service attack and evidence that the website has tampered with some archived pages.
The addition of these archive links is blocked by the edit filter on English Wikipedia. These links have also been added to the global spam blacklist so additions are blocked on every Wikimedia site. Now we need everyone's help to replace or remove links to these websites. As of February 28[update], 2026, the citation templates in popular use on Wikipedia (WP:CS1 and WP:CS2) will not render Archive.today and affiliated archive URLs.[1]
Note: archive.org, or web.archive.org, run by the Internet Archive and the most-used web archive on Wikipedia, is uninvolved with and entirely separate from archive.today. Please keep using archive.org.
Usage
{{New archival link needed|date=August 2026}}appears as [new archival link needed]{{New archival link needed|date=August 2026|reason=your explanation here}}appears as [new archival link needed]
Sample
Deleting Archive.today
Deleting archive.today links requires care and caution. Do not rely on fully automated search/replace tools.
- Three fields need to be removed:
|archive-url=,|archive-date=, and|url-status=. If any are not removed, the page is added to an error tracking category and other editors will need to return and clean up the incomplete orphaned parameters. - Usurped/Unfit. If a citation has
|url-status=usurpedor|url-status=unfitthat means the primary URL is porn or gambling spam. The|url-status=usurpedhides the primary URL from displaying a clickable blue link, only the|archive-url=is clickable. However, when you delete the|archive-url=, the porn/gambling spam becomes a blue link again ie. in effect you are adding porn and gambling spam back into Wikipedia that had previously been removed. See WP:USURPURL for how to deal with this situation, most of the time you need to completely delete/replace the entire citation when no suitable archive URL is available.
Notes
- The
|date=parameter consists of the full English name of the current month (with initial capital and rest lowercase), a space, and the year. For example, "January 2013" but not "jan13" or "January 23, 2013". Deviation from this rule will place the article in Category:Articles with invalid date parameter in template.- To automatically add the current date, you can use substitution like this:
{{subst:New archival link needed}}.
- To automatically add the current date, you can use substitution like this:
- The
|reason=parameter is for an explanation why you think the material needs a source. It is optional but very helpful. It is displayed as a tooltip in some browsers (hover the mouse here [new archival link needed] to check behaviour of your browser). For example, the following usage might be appropriate if a reference links to archive.today:
{{New archival link needed|reason=This reference links to archive.today, a deprecated archival repository. Please replace it using the instructions found at Help:Archiving a source.|date=February 2026}}- Use only plain text for the
|reason=parameter. It does not support wiki markup like wikilinks, which can mess up the tooltip. - Double quotation marks used within the
|reason=parameter will likewise mess up the tooltip; use single quotes or the HTML code"instead. - If omitted, the tooltip "This claim is referenced, but links to a deprecated archival repository. Please replace it to help prevent link rot." is used by default.
- Use only plain text for the
- The
|bot=parameter should be used when a bot is placing the template like so:{{new archival link needed|bot=<bot name>|date=August 2026}}. - This template should usually be installed directly after a reference that links to a deprecated archival repository.
- Use of this template will place the article into Category:Articles linking to deprecated archival repositories and Category:Articles linking to deprecated archival repositories from August 2026.
- Remove the template when you update the archive link for a reference.
Tracking categories
See also
- Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Deprecating and blacklisting archive.today
- Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Archive.is RFC 5
- Wikipedia:Village pump (idea lab)#Using a bot to apply Template:New archival link needed to references
- Template:Dead link
