> On Aug 21, 2026, at 5:24 PM, Greg Swallow <[email protected]> wrote: > > just can't trust any "service" to keep my data via www even when they are > known for being the best at it.
At the risk of taking this even farther off-topic (although I'd argue it's relevant to the recent discussion on best practices for document preservation), I think you've hit the nail on the head. Being service- and cloud-averse boils down to a single thing: Do you trust me to pay my service bill? Should you? Do you trust the service to keep existing and doing a good job? No matter how much we might trust a tried-and-true service or system, can we trust that the weak link in the chain won't fail? At the end of the day, either we're putting our eggs in a storage or distribution basket, or we're taking it upon ourselves. Even archive.org is a compromise; it's about the best we've got and like everything else in life it comes with no guarantees. If we want to curate, archive, preserve, and spread what we know and how we know it, all the less-bad options involve not handing over the keys to the kingdom to some cloud service. Practically? The best thing we can do is try to be conscious of our Bus Factor when we collect or curate information. When I throw in the towel and move into the hermit cave on the mountain, I want to leave enough behind that the next guy to care finds something other than a 404. That "next guy" might be our kids taking an interest in what the old guy was up to, or might be someone who winds up thinking something we did incidentally mattered. Best possible outcome in my opinion is everyone asking themselves if they're taking ownership of something or taking responsibility for it sticking around. Not everyone's going to be a preservation fanatic, sure. Can't hurt to do better than just chuck stuff over the wall and hope for the best. Thanks for standing this close to my soapbox. Donate to your local library.
