Hey Brandon!
Hope you guys are holding up through the holing up.
So, this is a good catch. I'm going to be a little wordy in my response both as a way of (over?) responding to your question and opening up a conversation with WikiRate folks.
1. What may not be obvious is that the "file" actually refers to a wikirate copy that doesn't depend on the original url. So if you go to the "Download" button on the source, it actually does provide the file.
2. We intentionally don't make it easy to update source files, because we don't want them to change after people have cited them. Eg, well-intentioned people would often come along and update sources with more recent versions, and that would mean some of the pages cited in answers no longer have the content mentioned. We don't yet have the community power to embrace and correct that kind of thing...
3. *However*, you've found a narrower problem, where the original url is changed. And even if it were a slightly different version (not that I know it to be), having a link would arguably be an improvement over a broken source.
The immediate solution:
- Try editing +Link instead of +File. This will change the "original" url without altering the file. No extra permission is needed; it's just obscure so that folks don't unintentionally edit it.
The discussion to be had:
What do we want to do when the original url becomes defunct?
Some options:
1. leave as is (most probable short term)
2. detect broken urls and
a. remove "original" link (because the original is broken)
b. show original link but indicate somehow that we know it's broken and invite a fix?
c. other?