How to save the internet

Fremantle

· archiving · websites · bookmarks ·

Ruben Schade, 16 December 2024:

Is stuff online worth saving?

My philosophy in life has always been “if you liked it, keep it”. The Web is an ephemeral place, and we’re learned recently even the Internet Archive is not immune from overzealous lawyers and bad-faith actors. I have backup copies of entire blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, and books that no longer exist anywhere else, and where copyright would preclude me from resurfacing any of it.

I like posts like this, about how to save the things we like. To make a bookmark, quote a bit, and link to it, might be enough. I have the IA'S Firefox adding that makes it quick to ask the Wayback Machine to Archive a page.

The copyright issue is sort of annoying, making it (tautologically) illegal to republish things that you're not allowed to republish. But the social expectations seem even more to be swinging to "don't save my stuff without asking me". Which does make sense, but it's also been making me nervous about archiving a whole bunch of things that I used to gather (read: hoard).

[I haven't stored the above post.]

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