Hi, That is why I suggest zipping everything up periodically so that people can download the zip file and being on multiple machines, it's always recoverable to a new storage system.
For my own website I have duplicate copies on multiple hard drives at home so I can always recover ... I also have the WayBackMachine scan my website once a year ... and I send in donations to help them keep it and Archive.org alive. ============================================================================================== C U L8r, °|° Walt Perko °|° "Kids ... teach them the good stuff, and they still learn the bad stuff on their own." http://www.R2Pv1.com/ RoboGuts™ Intelligent content for 3D printing making S.T.E.A.M. education better, easier and more affordable Experiments to learn how to use various Electronic Components, Structured Computer Programming, Phonemes for Speech &Song in any language, and Art. "The World Needs a New Economic Model" ============================================================================================== Sent from the Cyber7 -----Original Message----- From: M100 <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Joshua O'Keefe Sent: Friday, August 21, 2026 8:58 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [M100] Archival methods (was: "The Whole Enchilada" document) > 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.
