What Projects Is Archiveteam Currently Working On?

Updated

Archiveteam's active work is organized by how you contribute and how long the project is expected to run. As of the current wiki.archiveteam.org main page, the projects fall into four groups: Warrior-based projects (run through the distributed Warrior client), short-term urgent projects (none listed at present), medium-term projects, and long-term projects. Each project below is drawn from that page, including its assigned IRC channel where one is listed.

Warrior-based projects

These are the projects you contribute to by downloading and running the Warrior, Archiveteam's distributed crawling client. The main page states the current "Archiveteam's Choice" is Telegram, with a weight of 1.0.

  • Telegram — the default weighted pick for Warriors. A separate entry exists for Warriors that don't have the update allowing them to pick a project at random from a weighted list.
  • The page notes that short-term, urgent projects are none currently.

If you want to help but don't want to choose a project yourself, running the Warrior and letting it take the weighted default is the intended path.

Medium-term projects

These are ongoing efforts expected to run for a moderate period. The main page lists:

Project What it covers IRC channel
Meta Ad Library Database for advertisements for Facebook and other products by Meta #fads (on hackint)
US Government Archiving the US government #UncleSamsArchive (on hackint)
Radio Free Asia Non-profit media organization owned by USAGM —
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Non-profit media organization owned by USAGM —
Voice of America Internationally-broadcasting state media network at risk of closure —

The three media entries (Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voice of America) are grouped together on the page, all described as USAGM-owned or -operated organizations.

Long-term projects

These run indefinitely or until the target is exhausted. The main page lists:

  • Distributed recursive crawls — recursively crawling large websites that have no clear structure that can easily be split into work items. IRC: #Y (on hackint).
  • Telegram — archiving public messages in various newsworthy and/or otherwise notable Telegram channels. IRC: #telegrab (on hackint).
  • Twitch — archiving metadata and select videos. IRC: #burnthetwitch (on hackint).
  • URLTeam — archiving URL shorteners. IRC: #urlteam (on hackint).
  • URLs — a random collection of stuff.

Note that Telegram appears both as a Warrior-based choice and as a long-term project; the Warrior entry is the client-side assignment, while the long-term entry describes the underlying archiving effort.

How to pick a project

  1. If you want the lowest-effort entry point, download and run the Warrior. The page's "Archive Team recruiting" section directs you to do exactly that, and the online tracker shows what's currently being worked on.
  2. If you want a specific cause, pick from the medium- or long-term lists above and join the corresponding IRC channel on hackint.
  3. If you know of something shutting down, the page asks you to put it on the Deathwatch or tell the team on IRC.
  4. If you want to write code for Archiveteam, the page points to a starting point for developers.

The main page also notes that donations keep the projects going, and that the site functions as an offloading point and information depot for archiving projects aimed at saving websites or data at risk of being lost.