Archive links are used to bypass paywalls and direct traffic away from the site. (The moderator of this site encourages it [1], and archive links for most paywalled articles are in the comments.)
This could be a legitimate reason they were doing it (nefarious ones are easily imagined as well).
This could be a legitimate reason they were doing it (nefarious ones are easily imagined as well).
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989