Should I delete the source link in turn since it literally leads nowhere, or should I leave it as it is?

Leave them as they are.

If you can find a new source (e.g. the artist reuploaded the image again, or posted it to a different website and that one is still there) you should add it additionally, but otherwise leave it as it is. The link might be broken, but that doesn't always mean it's lost forever - it could be cached somewhere or available through archive.org

A dead link is better than none.

The dead links can sometimes be used to find an archive, if only to get descriptive text.

Let's leave it at that?
Especially the ones extracted from Tumblr before the porn ban?

alexyorim said:
Let's leave it at that?
Especially the ones extracted from Tumblr before the porn ban?

Yeah. Sometimes you can find different sources with that url. If a tumblr artist put any kind of commentary in the post, it shows up in the url and can be googled to get alternate reblogs.

dogenzaka said:
Yeah. Sometimes you can find different sources with that url. If a tumblr artist put any kind of commentary in the post, it shows up in the url and can be googled to get alternate reblogs.

True. The question is if it preserves the resolution and quality, given the extra layer of complication of getting the original resolution.

alexyorim said:
True. The question is if it preserves the resolution and quality, given the extra layer of complication of getting the original resolution.

You can reblog it to your own tumblr, then download a backup of your tumblr that has the original file.

dogenzaka said:
You can reblog it to your own tumblr, then download a backup of your tumblr that has the original file.

That is extremely interesting. Are people doing this by the millions yet?

lance_armstrong said:
That is extremely interesting. Are people doing this by the millions yet?

I doubt it. I posted about it 2 years ago when tumblr was counting down its final days, but most users probably don't frequent the forums.

I did that for a few posts, but nothing major.

@OrangeSmash: So to summarize: Don't delete old source links. Keep them forever so the historians can sort out the mess.

lance_armstrong said:
@OrangeSmash: So to summarize: Don't delete old source links. Keep them forever so the historians can sort out the mess.

You'll never know if Archive.org manages to take a snapshot of that source as well.