What can we (normal users) can do with an accepted answer that contains dead links?

Question

I came across this post: How can I move files and view the progress (e.g. with a progress bar)?

I think its a very interesting question, and the OP criteria for marking the accepted answer makes perfect sense to me, with the exception that the link is dead by now, and nobody has been able to find a working link to a similar, let alone the same, resource. And, as you can see, the whole answer depends on that, now dead, link.

Is there any way to request that an answer could be marked as something like "not usable in it's current state", if you don't want that post deleted?.

Answer 1

In looking at that answer, someone has already tended to it by linking to the Wayback Machine's website where a backup of the original page is being maintained, so I don't see what the issue is there.

In general

Moderators do not possess the ability to unmark an accepted answer.

The best I can think of is to edit the answer and put a message at the top, mentioning that the link is broken and no alternative could be found. I would also do something like:

<strike>...link...</strike>

on the link so that it's obvious the link is no longer functioning.

NOTE: Before doing the above, I would exhaust every option first. I typically will find alternative material through Google's Cache or the Wayback Machine, as someone else has done here.

Answer 2

Step 2 ...

... is to take the content of the page in the Wayback Machine and search for it (e.g., in Google or whatever other search engine you prefer).  Often you can find a new site that has taken over hosting the desired content.  By searching for "Advanced Copy is a mod for the GNU cp and GNU mv tools" in Google, I found

• SlackBuilds Repository - advcopy — https://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.1/system/advcopy
• ArchLinux User Repository - advcopy — https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/advcopy
• GitHub - atdt/advcpmv: A patch for cp / mv to add progress bars — https://github.com/atdt/advcpmv
• pkgs.org - advcopy-0.5-i486-1_slack.txz Slackware 14.1 Download — https://pkgs.org/slackware-14.1/slackonly-i486/advcopy-0.5-i486-1_slack.txz.html

None of these is an exact duplicate of the originally referenced page (as represented in the Wayback Machine), and I can't tell which one is most current, so I'm not adding any of them to fschmitt's answer — but anybody who reads this should feel free to do so.

Answer 3

In general, if an answer fundamentally depends on an external link and is completely unusable if the link dies, this is not a proper answer and it should be deleted. This is a question and answer site, not a link collection. This goes whether the link is already dead or not.

That being said, many legitimate answers on this site say “use this software”, and don't make sense if the software can't be obtained. When you write “use this software” in an answer, please make it clear what software you're refering to: don't just write use [this program](http://www.example.com/djadji), write use [Frobozz Friskish Frobnicator](http://www.example.com/djadji). Case in point: “patches at this page” doesn't convey any useful information.

Here, the harm is done, but fortunately Scott has tracked the software in question or a derivative. The answer should be edited to indicate one that matches the answer (which I'm not going to do today).