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The Internet Is Failing The Website Preservation Test (archive.ph)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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This is something that keeps me worried at night. Unlike other historical artefacts like pottery, vellum writing, or stone tablets, information on the Internet can just blink into nonexistence when the server hosting it goes offline. This makes it difficult for future anthropologists who want to study our history and document the different Internet epochs. For my part, I always try to send any news article I see to an archival site (like archive.ph) to help collectively preserve our present so it can still be seen by others in the future.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Capitalism has no interest in preservation except where it is profitable. Thinking about the long-term future, archaeologist's success and acting on it is not profitiable.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Its not just capitalism lol

Preserving things costs money/resources/time. This happens in a lot of societies.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

And a non-capitalist society could decide to invest resources into preservation even if it's not profitable.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

So could a capitalist society?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Could it? Yeah, sure it could, and in some cases it will, but only if someone up the chain thinks it's profitable. Profit motive should never dictate how archaeology is practiced.