Every now and then I come across a link to a webpage that no longer exists for the usual reasons (owner died/stopped paying for hosting, whatever).
I then use the Wayback Machine to look at what is no longer findable by 99.99999% of internet users. Most times I do this I find content that makes me sad it is no longer findable.
I really appreciate the Wayback Machine but... I also feel extremely saddened that the internet moved from distributed personal/small group websites to huge platforms like Wikipedia or Medium or Facebook.
The character of those small websites was what made them special. It's something you can't duplicate on FB.
MATTEO BECHINI, jrobb, Olivier Mehani, Stephen Michael Kellat and 8 others likes this.
Olivier Mehani, Stephen Michael Kellat, j1mc, Douglas Perkins and 5 others shared this.
This kind of thing concerns me. How much should we bother investing in properly and clearly writing about something now if our work will be gone in a few years? Sad, that. If you spend a good amount of time producing high quality material, here's to hoping it doesn't disappear into the void any time soon.
In many cases I specifically try to get my work shared in a myriad of ways. Everything can go on my website, and a lot of stuff can go on other free services, too. Wikimedia Commons and Archive.org are my two favorite such sites at the moment. It's slightly different, but Wikipedia and Wikivoyage are of a related character. We can use larger free services as a kind of backup. It's not a total solution, but it helps.
One gripe I have is people using embedded JavaScript maps. Google Maps, most commonly, but other services have the same issue. Those are usable now (if you're willing to run Google's JS in your browser, anyway). Will they be around in 5 years? In 10? Who can say. Better to generate a static image and provide a link to the map service. At least the image is one you control so it'll linger.
Douglas Perkins at 2015-07-29T01:53:38Z
Stephen Michael Kellat, j1mc, lnxwalt@microca.st, Greg Grossmeier likes this.
jrobertson at 2015-07-29T05:08:54Z
Stephen Michael Kellat, Douglas Perkins, Greg Grossmeier likes this.
