When I get an answer, I will let you know.

A good year ago I e-mailed them about this and they said they do NOT move their sites around!

I find the fact that they do move them around very annoying. The best thing I know to do is go to their main site and use their search engine.

They archive articles as new ones become available, or are updated. This I know for sure.

Also, they just underwent a complete revamping of their website so links did get moved around.

I am in the process of trying to get an answer from the technical staff about permanent redirects and how that can be accomplished.

A year ago, that answer may have been partially correct. I am not trying to defend them just trying to help out with some of the answers...websites evolve, change, and it is frustrating when you can't find what you need. When a large organization is used as a resource, redirects for resource material should be built into their system.

Hi Cherie,
I manage a few large corporate websites so, if they're at all similar in their approach, a very good way to get your feedback to them is here:

http://www.nationalmssociety.org/ContactUs.aspx (there's a specific category for website concerns)

Links deeper within sites (especially informational content, not transactional) do change over time...
Sometimes its part of an overall strategy to keep a site fresh and current.
But it's also used to dissuade perpetuation of info that's outdated or no longer being promoted by the site sponsors.
OR (and this happens a lot) the pages being linked to are no longer in production at their source (through no fault of the NMSS because they can't control/ensure content on other sites) so, the links have to be removed.

Even if a link is still active, a good reason to test a link before sharing it is to determine whether or not the content has been modified. You might not always be sharing the info you thought you were sharing. I says this because it's burned me in the past. (long story involving a pretty tame book review that evolved into something else... wasn't pretty LOL)

Anyway, hopefully you'll get a response from them, this is just what I've picked up about big websites over the years.

Cherie

I received a reply from the web manager at NMSS today regarding your question.

It's a two part reply as with anything it's not a simple question to answer.

I posed the question about broken links and sent the examples you gave me. Part of the problem is that a couple of the articles are on a server that the NMSS no longer has access to. They have changed providers twice since at least one of those articles was written.

They are in the process of upgrading again and the suggestion of adding a redirect for articles and information that is moved or archived has been added to the list of items they want from the new provider. It was a good idea.

In the meantime, they have upgraded and enhanced their search feature on their site which should improve the current capabilities to search for information.

However, that does not help with information that you currently have that is older links. The suggestion was to update your links about every 3 months or so. Or just make sure that if you provide information to advise that person that the exact link may be out of date and just direct them the to Home Page and to use the search feature with the subject.

I said I would find out for you and I did. The person I need to speak to was on vacation and got back to me as soon as possible.

Thanks Cheryl for looking into this. I like the idea that they redirect you to their new site for an article. The problem is here though you cannot go back and edit past posts after a short period of time.

I have gotten to the point of telling people to go the the National MS Society's main page and use their search engine to find information.

Take care.

Thanks so much for looking into this, Cheryl.

So, the articles I sent you (which were just examples) aren't available any more at all then?

I guess if they are changing server providers as often as have been lately, a lot might go by the wayside. If that is the case, then even keeping the name of the article isn't going to help because "searching" won't find them either. I have been doing that actually, and I can't find a lot of them, so I guess this answers why.

I like to link to the NMSS because people have a sense of confidence about the information that is provided by them. I guess the only options would be to post the entire article, so that if the link goes away, at least the information is still there.

Thanks again for checking it out, and putting in the request.

Cherie

Quote your old post and put the new information in the new post thus updating the information.

Cherie

If the NMSS was not the original source of the information, then it should still be available somewhere. If you do a search using the subject, you should still be able to find the article. If it was originally on the old server that is no longer accessible, then yes it's not available with the nmss url link.

The information that I reference from the NMSS is normally based on a study, combined with their interpretation of it. You are right that chances are I'd still be able to AT LEAST get my hands on the study, even if it does not include their interpretation.

The difficulty at this point is that I did not necessarily retain any words from the article/study, just the link. So, if for instance I was talking about "transverse myelits", I just searched for my prior postings on that subject, and that gave me the links I was looking for. I can't recall what the articles/studies said exactly . . . just that it was important to my point.

Live and learn . . .

I used to just keep "notes" on everything I researched, pulling from several sources into a word document/summary on a topic. That didn't work for some forums because then I couldn't remember when I had used direct quotes for some of it, or if it was my own words . . .

I started keeping only links a few years ago, and didn't even keep the words to an article. Some of the forums preferred we didn't post the article, so the link idea seemed to work at the time . . .

I've adapted before, and I will again. Or maybe this is just a sign that it is time for me to find another interest.

Cherie