Bonum Certa Men Certa

Archiving Web Sites to Ensure They Last Decades, Not Years, Outliving or Outlasting Various Disruptive Events

Video download link | md5sum b29da11a5ae25c7597c459e8e4c320b2



Summary: Today we upload 15 years' worth of blog posts to the Internet Archive (IA), or close to 32,000 stories along with Daily Links; we suggest that other sites do the same in order to tackle 'Internet rot' and preserve information (otherwise there's room for obscene revisionism)

THE INTERNET won't stay around forever. The Soviets, back in the old days, tried to develop something similar to it. The Internet will probably survive the next decade or two, but fifty years is a stretch; as for the World Wide Web, it has already devolved into a transport layer for JavaScript and DRM, having been rendered bloated and malicious in practice (albeit not in theory; one can still produce elegant Web sites).



Earlier this year we moved to Gemini and more than a year ago we adopted IPFS, which is used to circulate daily bulletins and IRC logs in a decentralised fashion. Our IRC channels all became self-hosted (in our network) earlier this year -- an ambition that we've had for years but didn't get around to until Freenode collapsed.

Archiving a Web site isn't the same as format changes and protocol changes. It's also not about making more copies, especially if those copies are as vulnerable to censorship as one another. Here in this site we have some public domain (PD) works that are of relevance to us and can be accessed in gemini://. Most of the works, however, use a Creative Commons licence. We are not a curation site per se, but it helps to keep copies of historical material, such as antitrust material demonstrating Microsoft's crimes (as tactics barely change over time). Well, by Internet standards we have enjoyed a long span of 15 years (articles and daily links) and we remain active on the daily basis. The same is true for Tux Machines, which turns 18 this coming summer, so a lot of the material we have here is no longer available anywhere else, except the Internet Archive (IA).

A few years ago we started making site archives in IA and we also recommended the site to people, dubbing it the most important site on the Web. It's no eternal site however; as an associate of ours explains, "the IA is very important but it will succumb as the WWW is phased out in favor of obfuscated, proprietary JavaScript."

IA can barely cope with (e.g. spider/index/save/navigate) many of the "modern" Web. When you add DRM to the mix (EME), then it's not a "format-shifting'" task as that too becomes an impossibility. Sites need to evolve or perish, which may mean getting off the Web and one day planning for the demise of the Internet as a whole. Like IA, our associate explains, "archive.is is interesting, but it'll die one day. In the long run they will all pass away. In formal archives, one of the initial decisions the institution has to make about any given artifact is that of how long it shall be preserved for. Nothing lasts forever, but there are ways of stretching things out and the duration determines the methods of preservation."

For a site such as ours it makes sense to keep the material available for 50 years, which is maybe how much longer I can live (if I'm lucky).

"Media shifting will obviously be involved," the associate notes, "but at a loss for some items. The plan pre-dates AWA by a great many years."

Last weekend we turned 15. "Already in 15 short years," our associate remarks, "many whole sites are gone. And of the sites that remain, many have lost all their old articles in clumsy reorgs. Of that which is left, some of those have purged documents with "inconvenient" messages or themes... even Groklaw purged its comments. I suppose few to none of the Groklaw comments made it into the Library of Congress archives."

At the time of writing I'm still uploading 205 MB of archives (as shown in the video above). We hope it can inspire other sites to think ahead and do the same. It's not a big task and it's better done before it's "too late"...

Our associate concludes by saying that "many programmers and even engineers are conscientious in erasing anything "old" even important records. Now with electronic media, there is often only a single copy of anything any more and that introduces, obviously, a single point of failure. So in the old days, one could maintain a relevant personal or professional archive. Now those are all centralized and continue to exist only at the whim of participant consensus. Anyone with administrative privileges, can "tidy" up and easily erases the world's last copy of a standard or other evidence or similar material."

We are going to add more material to IA and it can be found here as that piles up along with some material that isn't ours.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Traf-O-Data, the Company That Jeffrey Epstein's BFF (Bill Gates) (Co)Founded 53 Years and Went Out of Business Due to Heavy Losses
Who will die first, Bill or Microsoft?
A Note on SimilarWeb
Or why SimilarWeb is meaningless for more than 99% of the sites on the Web
IBM Said to be Shutting Down Offices or Sites in the United States
the press can no longer avoid admitting that IBM moves many jobs to India
LLM Slop as Attack Vector on the Reputation of Linux
The attacks on Linux have escalated to information warfare
 
Links 04/04/2025: LLM Slop Bubble Bursting and Korea Music Copyright Association Bans Slop 'Music'
Links for the day
Why Microsoft's Shares Sank Almost 20% in Recent Months (the Bubble is Imploding)
verified press reports from the past 24 hours
GNU/Linux Rises to Almost 5% in Algeria While Windows Sinks to All-Time Low
GNU/Linux grew tenfold
Where to Get More Gags
A valued reader recommended that to us
Links 04/04/2025: Tech Stock (Inc. GAFAM) Fall, Google Pretends to Do End-to-End Encrypted Emails (With Google in Control)
Links for the day
To Participate in Fedora Diversity You Must Use Proprietary Software
Not for the first time either
Yandex About to Be Three Times Bigger Than Microsoft (Bing) in Asia
That's about 60% of the world's population
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Decoupling Updates, Elaho as Gemini Client
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 03, 2025
Microsoft's Trouble in Africa and Asia
A new all-time high for GNU/Linux
Brett Wilson LLP Reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
The saddest thing in all this is that law firms can maintain high standards shall they wish to
Links 03/04/2025: Tariff Pains and C.D.C. Cuts
Links for the day
StatCounter: Microsoft is Masking a Disaster, It's Way Behind DeepSeek Already and Interest in LLMs Has Waned
it turns out the money "raised" for "Open" "AI" may not even exist at all
Links 03/04/2025: SoftBank Money for Microsoft "Open" "AI" Probably Doesn't Even Exist, Wikimedia Foundation Blasts LLM Nuisance While Microsoft Admits Demand Has Shrunk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/04/2025: Patch Panel and Pictures
Links for the day
Islamic Republic of Iran: GNU/Linux at All-time High This Month, Windows Falls to 12%
Vista 10 is up this month despite being "end of life" (EoL) soon
Indonesia: All-Time Highs for GNU/Linux
What's noteworthy right now is the growth of GNU/Linux
statCounter Says GNU/Linux Usage is Up Again (Internationally)
some preliminary April data
Only on April 1st Can the Free Software Foundation Associate With Microsoft's Open Source Initiative (OSI)
We saw some pranks that day linking the FSF to Microsoft (e.g. "endorsing" Windows)
Confirmed in the Mainstream Media: A Lot of Microsoft "Workloads" Were Just LLM Slop (Helping to Fake Growth for Years, as Microsoft Had Paid "Open" "AI" to Become a "Client") and Demand is Rapidly Waning, Datacentres Canceled and/or Shut Down
Anything to facilitate further accounting fraud
Taiwan's Media Covers Closure of Microsoft's "AI" Lab, It's Time to Talk About the Gradual Death of Windows and Implosion of the "AI" Bubble
Earlier this week we showed that mostly Asian media had the 'nerve' to mention Microsoft silently shutting down its 'AI' lab
IBM Gets Rid of Kelly Chambliss as Mass Layoffs Reported in IBM Consulting, IBM Loses Key Contracts/Graft
IBM Consulting has been in disarray lately
More Gains for GNU/Linux, Based on Web Surveys
the Steam site shows rapid growth for "Linux" this month
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux Articles, Not Even Written by Humans
Why aren't Web sites more vocal about this problem?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 02, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 02, 2025
Links 03/04/2025: Apple Fined Over Secret Surveillance, "Elegant Writer For A More Civilized Age"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/04/2025: Books and Cold Tea
Links for the day
Links 02/04/2025: More Layoffs, Nokia Again Takes Advantage of Illegal and Unconstitutional Patent Court With Nokia Staff as 'Judges'
Links for the day
Links 02/04/2025: Seizures and Returns to Windows of 24 Years Ago
Links for the day
LLM Slop Helps Obscure and Distort News About Layoffs (IBM, GAFAM)
It's hard to find accurate information
Links 02/04/2025: Microsoft Developers Are Threatening to Go on Strike, World Backup Day Noted
Links for the day
Gemini Protocol Has Growing Appeal (the Web Got Too Bloated and Full of LLM Slop)
For any "data plan" with bandwidth limits or "tiers" it would be cheaper to use/browse Geminispace
The Web Can Survive LLM Slop, But Only If We Collectively Shun and Discourage Serial Sloppers
Doing nothing ought not be a possibility
Amid Secret Shut-downs and Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (4 Waves of Layoffs in 3 Months of 2025) Some Microsoft Staff Expected to Go On Strike
workers going on strike
Gemini Links 02/04/2025: No more on Mastodon and Gemini Mention Script in Go
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 01, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 01, 2025
My Motion Disbarring or “Striking Off” Brett Wilson LLP for Enabling Violent Americans Who Try to Crush Microsoft Critics in the United Kingdom by Multiple SLAPPs
"Guns for hire" (for Microsoft people who received Microsoft salaries)
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Hijacked Again by Patent Litigation Industry, as President Cheeto Prioritises Aggressors
The "mafia" has taken over the "industry" and the Federal system (justice and constitutions trampled upon)
Ubuntu Slop and FUD Manufactured With LLMs and Funded (by Oneself) 'Studies'
Slop and FUD are ruining the Web