Gone but Not Forgotten: Recovering the Dead Web

(blog.archive.org)

48 points | by wslh 3 days ago

5 comments

  • firefoxd 1 hour ago
    There was a website that I had quoted a long time ago. The author said something like "when the robots are taking over the world, don't panic. Buy a robot." I loved it. So I linked to it on my old blog. Then years later, I went to the source only to find that the page returned a 404. So I linked to the wayback machine instead. But then, it was removed from the archive.org. I can't even remember the name of the website at this point, just that it had the word "café" in it.

    Anyway, all this to say that since there are no sources for this quote, then I'm the new original source. You can quote me on that.

    https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/117370206/You-made-thisI-m...

  • com2kid 41 minutes ago
    Long ago in Seattle there was a network of BBSs and the head board was called Rat City. They had a lot of work by local artists (mostly tracker files and digital artwork IIRC).

    I have not been able to find a single hint of their existence. Everything about what was once a collection of artistic works, wiped from the earth.

    We really need to do a better job managing our historical legacy.

    • hombre_fatal 26 minutes ago
      I used to google my unique internet aliases from my preteen/teenage years and find a trove of my posts across forums and websites.

      In my mid 20s I’d remember to do it especially when stoned for that nostalgia hit but also for that sentimental hit you feel when viewing your younger self’s writings.

      Those same google searches two decades later have almost zero results. All the forums and websites are dead except a few odd ends like Newgrounds and WickedFire.

      Wish I saved them when I had the chance.

      • rootsudo 10 minutes ago
        All I get are copied and pasted yahoo answers. Only a few , well one forum remains.
  • badlibrarian 55 minutes ago
    "Do you do backups too, for example to guard against corrupt data getting mirrored across both copies, or accidental deletion?"

    John Gonzalez, Internet Archive infrastructure lead, replied:

    "We have done experiments to confirm that we can back up large portions of our corpus... but this is not a regular practice for us at this time."

    https://blog.archive.org/2016/10/25/20000-hard-drives-on-a-m...

  • johnea 3 days ago
    In modern times, archive.org is an international treasure.

    Which of course means it's facing major opposition from capital interests.

    Apparently no one ever thought an incoming presidential administration would literally wipe gigabytes of government funded research results off the web.

    Now we see in bold type how precarious is our democracy...

  • david_shi 1 hour ago
    Is this the story of Johnny Rotten?