Link rot and content drift are endemic to the web

Post by krapp » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 6:55 PM UTC

ulber wrote: post #102

krapp wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Once people stopped making potato gun websites, the internet really stopped blossoming into an amazingly vibrant space. Entire new genres of creative output - music, fiction, fandom, films, cosplay, hobbyist and enthusiast communities have been spawned by the modern web. It's never been more vibrant. I'll never understand why people on Hacker News seem to believe the internet stopped evolving as an expressive space…

Yeah, the internet is bigger now - all of the weird fringe stuff from enthusiasts is still there and there's even more of it. One thing that has happened is that the mainstream is there too now, so if you don't venture outside that its easier to not see the more interesting stuff. In the old days, when just having a "homepage" placed you a bit outside the norm, stumbling on something non-mainstream was more of a give…

Post by majormajor » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 7:07 PM UTC

BatFastard wrote: post #110

majormajor wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, and nobody is going to the library or other archives to check out those old how-to books, they're using contemporary sources on Youtube instead. And the same will be true of old vs contemporary sources in fifty years. I don't expect my own collection of books - which includes some that are valuable to me primarily for nostalgia - to have much value past the death of myself and the rest of my generation. It migh…

Well not caring for the Beatle is like not caring for Mozart. Bad taste is always an option in a free society.

Post by anoncake » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 7:15 PM UTC

blooalien wrote: post #97

wintermutestwin wrote: post #47

I am increasingly worried about the valuable content on YouTube. There are so many old live concerts, useful how-to videos and other cultural treasures amidst all the junk. I suspect that one day, they will make their ads unblockable by embedding them in the video files. I sure hope that some people are downloading the valuable stuff and stashing it away to load onto YouTube's successor.

> "and please skip the tired argument that I should just pay a subscription fee to avoid their ad crap - we are already paying them with our data. My data is worth far more to me than the value they provide for it. Plus - I won't give money to a company who forced this Faustian bargain on me." Not only this, but many of the largest companies these days would never remove advertising even from a paid service. It's lik…

Post by tooltower » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 7:22 PM UTC

mountainb wrote: post #90

makomk wrote: post #63

It's amazing how little some trusted institutions care about this. For example, the BBC has been bragging about how many people rely on their coverage of the pandemic, but have an obnoxious habit of repeatedly overwriting old articles with new ones on similar topics and not keeping the old versions available. The history of a once-in-a-century pandemic with huge local and global impacts is literally being overwritten…

The BBC publishes nothing but garbage and there are other extant sources that are more durable. It's fine to forget things. We're missing entire libraries of classical literature from great authors which would be nice to have. Missing documentary sewage isn't a tragedy. This should show us that most of the web isn't worth preserving anyway, much like McDonald's burger wrappers aren't worth preserving like sacred arti…

Post by gentleman11 » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 7:40 PM UTC

wintermutestwin wrote: post #47

I am increasingly worried about the valuable content on YouTube. There are so many old live concerts, useful how-to videos and other cultural treasures amidst all the junk. I suspect that one day, they will make their ads unblockable by embedding them in the video files. I sure hope that some people are downloading the valuable stuff and stashing it away to load onto YouTube's successor.