Why do you ask? Looking for a drinking companion? ;-)
The source of the discussions taking place here would still just be a click away.
I guess you haven't discovered that URLs can be changed en masse, in a matter of seconds. I could disable all the links on a site built up over years in under a minute, given access to the administrative PC. Is this so hard to understand?
Archiving and reporting are two separate FR features. Archives are not lost to the public as I mentioned to NittanyLion in #121. If FR is intent on being an online library for back issues, their software could easily be set up to periodically check for broken links and then display the original copy made at time of posting (if that's really important). But then the copyright issue pops up again.
I personally don't think it's important. There are other paid services for archiving periodicals. Lexis/Nexis comes to mind. I don’t know how they deal with the copyright issue.
I think that 90% of FR's value doesn't involve article archiving. I think 75% of FR's appeal will remain if we had to link to full text. I think that's a fair price to pay for maintaining our principles. I think it was Dr. Laura that said, "It's not a principle until it costs you something."
And sure, I'll have a drink with you. Make it to the Keys, and we'll argue in person.