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Preserving interviews without rewriting history

A practical standard for restoring old routes while respecting writers, artists and missing evidence.

Start with provenance

Identify who conducted the interview, when it was published, what formats accompanied it and whether the page was revised. A screenshot without a URL or timestamp is a clue, not a complete record.

Preserve structure before content

Restoring established paths, section indexes and descriptive metadata makes an archive navigable. It does not require copying text whose rights or accuracy are unclear.

Label every reconstruction

Readers should immediately know whether they are seeing an original capture, a licensed republication, a summary based on cited evidence or a modern contextual page. Silence invites confusion.

Never fill gaps with plausible dialogue

An interview transcript is not the place for creative reconstruction. When the record is missing, say so plainly and point readers toward verifiable sources.