suggestion for site improvement

Anyone who has been on Permies for a while knows there are a bunch of broken links.  Especially on older stuff.  Fixing all of them manually would range from huge man hours to impossible.  But can an AI bot be taught to find the links and check the internet way back machine site for the post closest in time to when the post was made.  Will probably still require some human checking work product.  Maybe add a simple notice with any such link replaced, what was done saying the link was broken and asking if the new link seems to make sense with the post.  If 5 people respond yes with no more than say 2 no votes then the people actually reading could help filter it.  After all if the link is long term broken, even a bad link is very little worse and a simple yes no check box added to the code when a replacement link if put in would let humans serve as a verifier without costing much of the users time.

Second part of same thinking.  On all new posts create a database of links to this as a backup so it is possible to check the link quickly for change.  Would serve as a later verifier and allow easily replacing broken links into the future with very little cost in storage space.

I'm going to let other people who know more than I do respond to the meat of your post (though I'll say I don't think that's as easy as you might), but wanted to pop in to suggest that when you find dead links, please feel free to report the post with a brief explanation.

Maybe a simple solution wold be to hit the report button when a broken or bad link is found.

My rule of thumb is to not click old links. Actually, I just don't click links at all.

When I find a link of interest, I ask Mr. Google for his opinion on that subject.

Mr Google tells me that already exists and is call RaptorScan.

And I agree with Christopher about letting others with more knowledge respond.

Can you give me an example of what you describe as a broken link so we are on the same page?