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The effort to preserve a million letters written by U.S. soldiers during wartime

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: The effort to preserve a million letters written by U.S. soldiers during wartime

#31

Post by Ar-Curunir »

Alex3917 wrote: post #30
ISL wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is one of the key reasons not to use the chat-like apps. Hard to search, hard to back up, hard to thread...

This. Every time you send a message in one of those apps, it's like taking a $20 bill and lighting it on fire. I'll admit they have their uses, and hopefully they'll get better over time. But given their current state, if you don't place any value on what you're saying then why even say it in the first place?

chat apps aren't a replacement for email, they're a replacement for in-person face-to-face talking.

You can't search or even store voice conversations (unless you explicitly record them, so by your logic, why would you talk to people at all?

Re: The effort to preserve a million letters written by U.S. soldiers during wartime

#32

Post by throwaway8941 »

ISL wrote: post #29
est31 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

E-Mails are fairly easy to archive. What about Whatsapp, Slack, etc? Shared Google documents? You need to create archivers for each of these apps, or at least the apps where the "important" communication is happening over.

That is one of the key reasons not to use the chat-like apps. Hard to search, hard to back up, hard to thread...

That's only an illusion because the most popular ones are complete trash.

Telegram has your whole chat history (or most of it) indexed and you can search it very quickly from the main window (just press Ctrl+F and type away).

The history can also be exported, along with images and other files, to JSON, or to a bunch of HTML files.

Re: The effort to preserve a million letters written by U.S. soldiers during wartime

#33

Post by tspike »

Alex3917 wrote: post #30
ISL wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is one of the key reasons not to use the chat-like apps. Hard to search, hard to back up, hard to thread...

This. Every time you send a message in one of those apps, it's like taking a $20 bill and lighting it on fire. I'll admit they have their uses, and hopefully they'll get better over time. But given their current state, if you don't place any value on what you're saying then why even say it in the first place?

I owe my current career to those apps. I’m mostly remote and I’ve been able to stay in tune with the pulse at the big offices via chat apps. Every time I send a message through one of those apps, it’s like putting a $20 bill in my pocket.

Re: The effort to preserve a million letters written by U.S. soldiers during wartime

#34

Post by daveFNbuck »

avar wrote: post #10
GhettoMaestro wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the value? Honestly I view all of this (digging into someone's personal correspondence from the past) as extremely overly voyeuristic, rather than having actual value. If it wasn't meant to be public originally, I don't want it to be public. It does not respect the original author's intention. (Not trying to be hostile - but I just wanted to say this.)

It's a good question. The reason we know how devastating and inhumane wars like say the Eastern front in WWII is in no small due to these sorts of records, otherwise we'd mostly just have contemporary state propaganda, statistics and the like. Reading about what a meat grinder war is for the grunt on the ground helps future generations a lot more in not repeating those mistakes than so-and-so many millions died. I th…

Living people are harmed by such disclosures if the idea that this might happen to their communications in the future makes them less willing to communicate openly and honestly with their loved ones.

Re: The effort to preserve a million letters written by U.S. soldiers during wartime

#36

Post by cjslep »

avar wrote: post #2

I wonder if by moving to digital communications we won't paradoxically be leaving a black hole for future historians when it comes to such records. I.e. now what would previously have been letters from the front might be sent as a text, phone call or E-Mail. Dead people don't pay for advertising revenue, so that data's likely being deleted soon after they're gone, or when their phone dies. Yes some of these services…

This is why I've taken up a fountain pen, stamps, matches, and sealing wax.

Fountain pen lets me write longer without pressuring my hand. Stamps for actually changing the world, as opposed to private writings. Matches and sealing wax for constructive pyromania.

Re: The effort to preserve a million letters written by U.S. soldiers during wartime

#38

Post by TeMPOraL »

GhettoMaestro wrote: post #7
avar wrote: post #2

I wonder if by moving to digital communications we won't paradoxically be leaving a black hole for future historians when it comes to such records. I.e. now what would previously have been letters from the front might be sent as a text, phone call or E-Mail. Dead people don't pay for advertising revenue, so that data's likely being deleted soon after they're gone, or when their phone dies. Yes some of these services…

What is the value? Honestly I view all of this (digging into someone's personal correspondence from the past) as extremely overly voyeuristic, rather than having actual value. If it wasn't meant to be public originally, I don't want it to be public. It does not respect the original author's intention. (Not trying to be hostile - but I just wanted to say this.)

> If it wasn't meant to be public originally, I don't want it to be public. It does not respect the original author's intention.

People die. Humanity lives on. At some point, the author dies, then their relatives die, and when they're all dead twice over, this stuff becomes relevant as a way for the future generations to have a glimpse at the realities of life of their ancestors.

I.e. history. If we were to respect what you wrote, we wouldn't have history.

Re: The effort to preserve a million letters written by U.S. soldiers during wartime

#39

Post by TeMPOraL »

daveFNbuck wrote: post #34
avar wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a good question. The reason we know how devastating and inhumane wars like say the Eastern front in WWII is in no small due to these sorts of records, otherwise we'd mostly just have contemporary state propaganda, statistics and the like. Reading about what a meat grinder war is for the grunt on the ground helps future generations a lot more in not repeating those mistakes than so-and-so many millions died. I th…

Living people are harmed by such disclosures if the idea that this might happen to their communications in the future makes them less willing to communicate openly and honestly with their loved ones.

Does the idea of a future historian poring over your e-mails make you less willing to send those e-mails today?

Re: The effort to preserve a million letters written by U.S. soldiers during wartime

#40

Post by TeMPOraL »

40four wrote: post #23
hi41 wrote: post #17

Wow. That amazingly beautiful cursive handwriting. Compared to that, mine is like a chicken’s scratching on the dirt, as they say in India.

Unrelated to the post, but I find it beautiful that a colloquial phrase 'they say in India', has a sort of global recognition to me growing up in the United States. We used to call poor handwriting 'chicken scratch' for fun all the time when I was a kid. I would know because my handwriting has always been horrible. I was always jealous of people who had pretty handwriting :) I'm sure this is a term people in many oth…

RE chicken scratch, we have a very similar saying in Poland - "pisane jak kura pazurem", meaning "written like a chicken with its claw would".
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