Help needed: Found a suspicious website but archive.is doesn't seem to archive the complete pages - what am I doing wrong? ( pizzagate )

submitted by sensitive

A user pointed out a suspicious website to me, and I found these suspicions to be valid (at least for the time being). We plan to do a post, but of course I want to archive first. Two problems:

When I submit the URLs I want to archive, archive.is doesn't archive all items on any given page. Pics for example are missing. I am not very experienced with archive.is, but submitting a single page URL at a time should do the trick? Well, it doesn't for me - the archived page is nowhere like the original page. See here screenshot cuts of before and after archiving: http://imgur.com/a/qtEe4

Second problem: Even if I decided to give the URL here for someone else to archive, we could not archive everything as there are also pages which can only be accessed if you are registered. I won't give away my login data, and I would not want more people to register there as the site seems a small organization, and more registrants in a short timeframe would be suspicious.

So I hope to get help with archiving! Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

IShallNotFear

As far as screenshots go, maybe you could try the free preview at https://urlbox.io The screenshots there come with a URL that includes the original.

sensitive

This is unbelievable. I am logged in and can see the children "for sale" there (they are not described as that, of course). But when I take a screenshot with this tool, it captures the login area ... Let's give up. I will take screenshots manually and upload them to imgur. And: thanks again!

IShallNotFear

Ok, I agree. At this point, getting the info out there is the most important.

IShallNotFear

Maybe if you can view the webpage through another website. The only one I could think of was google translate. In the test below I put a voat thread in google translate, archived it, translated the archive back into English, and archived it again. It might not be the answer but it's worth a shot.

Original: https://voat.co/v/pizzagate/1888867

Google Translate: https://translate.google.nl/translate?hl=nl&sl=en&u=https://voat.co/v/pizzagate/1888867&prev=search

Archived translation: http://archive.is/bD8fz

Google Translate of Archive: https://translate.google.nl/translate?hl=nl&sl=nl&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Farchive.is%2FbD8fz

Final Archive: http://archive.is/YmuHO

sensitive

Anyhow, I tried it - same result. Only a few items get translated, just like before.

sensitive

You are awesome - don't give up that easily, right? I love that! Thing is, the items that won't archive are images, and I won't be able to get them through Google translate, right?

IShallNotFear

While there are many tools for capturing screenshots of web pages, the image created with https://snapito.com has a URL link to the screenshot that includes the original web address in it. From there you can archive it on all three major archiving sites. It takes a while to load, and there might be a better site out there, but it is better than nothing.

For example, I tested with one of the front page articles on pizzagate today:

Original link: https://voat.co/v/pizzagate/1881782

Screenshot: https://shrinktheweb.snapito.io/v2/webshot/spu-ea68c8-ogi2-3cwn3bmfojjlb56e?size=800x0&screen=1024x768&url=https%3A%2F%2Fvoat.co%2Fv%2Fpizzagate%2F1881782

archive.is link: http://archive.is/fFvNG

archive.org link: https://web.archive.org/web/20170523034048/https://shrinktheweb.snapito.io/v2/webshot/spu-ea68c8-ogi2-3cwn3bmfojjlb56e?size=800x0&screen=1024x768&url=https%3A%2F%2Fvoat.co%2Fv%2Fpizzagate%2F1881782

megalodon.jp link: https://megalodon.jp/2017-0523-1240-56/https://shrinktheweb.snapito.io:443/v2/webshot/spu-ea68c8-ogi2-3cwn3bmfojjlb56e?size=800x0&screen=1024x768&url=https%3A%2F%2Fvoat.co%2Fv%2Fpizzagate%2F1881782

sensitive

Good thing I haven't screenshot much yet - I will definitely try this as it will save a lot of time. Muchas gracias de nuevo!

IShallNotFear

I think this might be a better solution than I originally thought. The archive.is and archive.org pages include the dates that they were archived. Since snapito already includes the original URL, I think you have your bases covered. One of the main things with archiving web pages is that you don't want people to argue that it was faked. By having the URL and date on the web page, no one will be able to dispute its validity. Let me know if this method ultimately works for you. If it does, we should share it with the rest of pizzagate as this may be useful for archiving other sites.

sensitive

I don't believe it - this does not work either! The screenshot looks exactly the same as when doing it with archive.is. Hell, what is wrong with this website? I can make a screenshot with my computer, but not with this software? Damn!

IShallNotFear

just read an article about a tool called "wget" Maybe that could help you. Apparently you can download files from websites quickly. The article said it was used by a leaker in order to give thousands of documents to Wikileaks. The article is here: https://www.labnol.org/software/wget-command-examples/28750/ The tool is here: https://www.gnu.org/software/wget/

I apologize if I am posting too many suggestions. I'm just trying to find a solution that works.

sensitive

On the contrary! I just don't want to waste your time for something that most likely is not possible here. Your suggestions are highly appreciated.

IShallNotFear

You might want to try some of the cache options listed on http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/others/archive.shtml . I just tried Yandex, the russian site and it has a feature the might work. Let me walk you through it. First, go to Yandex and paste in your web address. When the search results come up there will be a subheading in green text. To the right of the green text, click the down arrow and select the option "Сохранённая копия" which in google translate is "Saved copy". From there you will get a fresh URL that you can copy into archive.is

sensitive

Nope. Doesn't work either. I give up archiving this way. I will do some screenshots and save to my harddrive, then do a post. Maybe other users can find out why some of these pages (mostly those after login) don't archive. Again, huge thanks!

sensitive

Will try. You are awesome :-)

IShallNotFear

Give this a try: go to http://www.cachedview.com , put in the web address and search for it using google web cache. If the google cache version looks good, copy and paste that link into archive.is. I just tried it using a regular webpage and it seemed to work with archive.is I did not work with archive.org or megalodon.jp

sensitive

Same result :-( Wonder what it is with this website. All other pages from other sites archive with no problem. Doesn't even look very sophisticated. But huge thanks anyway!!!

IShallNotFear

If it helps, I have used megalodon.jp to archive pages that archive.is and archive.org won't archive. It doesn't work with everything though, but every once in a while it will do the trick. If that works, you can then archive the medalodon pages in archive.is and archive.org

sensitive

Thanks! I just tried it, but doesn't save the images either. Page shows only partially. Must have something to do with the programming of this site, I guess.

anonOpenPress

The image host server might have blocked archive from accesing it, in which case you need to either:

  • Try to archive the image link separately
  • capture (crtl+Prt SC --> ctrl+V to any image/word program in your computer)
  • download the image (note: malware hidden in the file possible, run with virus scan)

IShallNotFear

To piggyback what anonOpenPress said, if you can right-click on an image, get the URL for that image, and archive that, that would be a good work around. If that works, you will also want archive the regular web pages so that people can see the images with the context.

sensitive

Many thanks, aOP. As you can see from the screenshots I gave, only the barest information is archived, so this means a huge workload. I will do my best.

anonOpenPress

Talk to me about workloads... :D The best of luck!

DonKeyhote

TLDR: mods of the worlds biggest PG forum. having compromised archive hosts, will stop allowing screenshots and demand archives pages

rwb2

I'm sure there are better solutions to the one I'm going to describe that the tech experts will know and hopefully provide, but in a pinch (assuming you are using a Windows based PC) you can always hit Control (Cntrl) and Print Screen (PrtSc) buttons, then open Paint program, and hit Cntrl V (or paste from the pull down menu), and the screen shot will appear in Paint, and you can then save it as a Paint document. Then you could upload those Paint images to imgur or some other photo hosting platform.

Hitting Cntrl / PrntSc copies exactly whatever is on your screen at that moment.

numbtoyou

whoa whoa whoa. use the snippet tool lol.

rwb2

Yes, I use the snipping tool, but I've had a few Windows based computers and it seems not all of them have Snippet, so I didn't mention it to the OP, but perhaps I should have anyway.

numbtoyou

No worries. I was just pulling your leg. Xp/vista do not have it. 7.8.10 do.

sensitive

Thank you. Yes, I know of this option, but this would cost a lot of time.