How to Get Involved with Archiveteam Projects

Updated

You can start contributing to Archiveteam in minutes by downloading and running the Warrior client, which pulls work items from active archiving projects automatically. The only requirements are a computer with an internet connection and enough disk space and bandwidth to handle the data you crawl. If you want to do more than run the client—such as coding, reporting at-risk sites, or coordinating on IRC—there are separate paths for each.

What Archiveteam Is

Archiveteam describes itself as "a loose collective of rogue archivists, programmers, writers and loudmouths dedicated to saving our digital heritage." Since 2009, the group has tracked shutdowns, mergers, and deletions and worked to save that material before it disappears. The wiki at wiki.archiveteam.org is the coordination hub: it lists active projects, hosts the Deathwatch of sites at risk, and points volunteers to the tools they need.

The Easiest Way In: Run a Warrior

The Warrior is Archiveteam's distributed crawling client. You install it, and it automatically grabs work items from projects that need help, crawls the assigned URLs, and uploads the results.

Steps:

  1. Go to the main page and find the "Archive Team recruiting" section.
  2. Follow the "Download and run your warrior" link.
  3. Install and launch the client on your machine.
  4. Leave it running. The Warrior selects projects for you, so you don't need to configure anything manually.

What to expect: The client will start downloading and uploading data on its own. You can watch progress through the online tracker linked from the main page. Bandwidth and disk usage depend on the projects currently active.

Common snags: Some projects are weighted so the Warrior picks them more often (Telegram currently has a weight of 1.0, making it the default choice). If your Warrior is on an older version that can't pick from a weighted list, it may need an update to follow the current project selection.

Check What's Active Before You Commit

Not all projects run at the same intensity. The wiki groups them so you can decide where your resources go.

Project type Examples from the wiki What it means for you
Short-term, urgent None currently listed High priority, short window—check back often
Medium-term Meta Ad Library, US Government, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voice of America Weeks-to-months of crawling; good if you can leave a Warrior running
Long-term Distributed recursive crawls, Telegram, Twitch, URLTeam, URLs Ongoing, open-ended; steady contribution matters more than speed

The online tracker shows what's actually being worked on right now, so check it before assuming a listed project needs help today.

Report a Site That's About to Disappear

If you know of a service shutting down, merging, or deleting data, the wiki has a Deathwatch page for exactly this. Add the site there, or tell the team on IRC. This is how new projects get started—someone notices a closure, and the collective mobilizes.

Talk to the Team on IRC

Each project has its own IRC channel on hackint, listed next to the project on the main page. Examples include:

  • #fads — Meta Ad Library
  • #UncleSamsArchive — US Government
  • #telegrab — Telegram
  • #burnthetwitch — Twitch
  • #urlteam — URLTeam
  • #Y — Distributed recursive crawls

Joining a channel is the fastest way to ask what needs doing, get help with the Warrior, or volunteer for manual work that isn't handled by the client.

Contribute Code or Run Manual Projects

The main page notes that if you want to code for Archiveteam, there's a starting point linked from the recruiting section. Manual projects—those not handled by the Warrior—are also listed separately. These are for people who can run targeted scripts or processes rather than rely on the distributed client.

Keep the Effort Going

Archiveteam asks for donations to keep projects running, and the main page links to a donation option. If you can't run a Warrior or write code, donating is a direct way to support the work.

A practical starting sequence: run a Warrior first, check the tracker to see it working, then join the IRC channel for whichever project interests you. If you spot a shutdown that isn't listed, put it on the Deathwatch. That covers the full loop from passive contribution to active coordination.