Fan-made Wordle archive shut down by New York Times

metro.co.uk:

The New York Times has shut down a Wordle fan’s efforts to preserve previous puzzles and people are not happy.

It feels like Wordle discourse has only become more prevalent since The New York Times bought the online puzzle game. There have been accusations of it becoming much harder since the buy out and, early on, it deleted regular players’ win streaks.

Now, in a move that’s sure to upset preservationists, The New York Times has requested that a fan-made Wordle archive website be shut down. Created by freelance web developer Noah, otherwise known as metzgermedia, it existed solely to let fans replay past puzzles and newer players to catch up on all the puzzles they missed.

No precise reason was given for the shutdown but visiting the website only yields a goodbye message. ‘Thank you for playing the Wordle Archive, and for all your nice comments and feedback that helped make the site better. Sadly, the New York Times has requested that the Wordle Archive be taken down. However, you can still play the daily Wordle over on their official site,’ it reads.

It also includes a link to an original word game called Word Grid, where you make words from a grid of nine letters within a time limit. Every letter used swaps it out for another one and every word you guess earns you points and adds extra seconds to the time limit. The longer the word, the more points and extra time you earn.

As far as we can tell, Noah wasn’t making any money from the Wordle archive, so whatever The New York Times’ motivation was, it wasn’t financial in nature. Regardless, it’s disappointing news for the site’s regulars.

However, this isn’t the only Wordle archive around. A separate one, which we previously covered in January, is still up and running at time