containsforarchive

ContainsForArchive is a content tagging system, used by internet archiving projects, particularly the Internet Archive. It is a method for indicating that specific webpage content is suitable for archiving. The system involves including a specific meta tag in a webpage's HTML, instructing the archiving software what to capture and what to leave out.

By appending this tag to a webpage's meta section, the webpage's owner or administrator can specify a warning, hint, or other information about the webpage's content. This notification is used by archivers, like the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, to determine what aspects of the webpage to capture during the archiving process.

The primary purpose of ContainsForArchive is to accommodate web pages that evolve over time or change frequently. This might involve adding, modifying, or removing content. By providing a message to the archiving software, websites that include this meta tag can alert the archiver about sections of their website they do not want to archive, like login pages, per-session content, or other limited-access areas.

This digital preservation method supports the continued availability of information from online sources through the Internet Archive and other archiving services. While primarily used for archiving, the method serves the functional purpose of cautioning against the preservation of digital resources that are meant to be dynamic or contain sensitive data. Webpages incorporating this tag promote control over online legacy materials, indicate intent for content presence and absence in an archived snapshot, and exercise content-sensitive preservation and storage decision-making.