the internet isn't forever, at least the things on the internet aren't permanent

[Memory]

i mean, over half of all YouTube videos from 2013 and before have been purged already, so what?

2ch is mostly gone, Nico Nico Douga's had its purges, and lots of old MikuMikuDance models are lost, lots of UTAU voicebanks (and characters) are lost, so what? nothing's permanent, so who cares?

well... really, does anyone else relate or something?

most of my nostalgia is gone, mostly because YouTube (the biggest example i'll use here) has driven far into more corporate and commercial, but i love the old dumb content.
lots of MMD slapstick, nightcore, Vocaloid tracks/PVs, flipnotes, etc. but i wonder why there's literal businesses dedicated to running on YouTube fulltime?

and websites aren't forever too - MySpace is gone proper, even though it's technically still up, even if you had an account chances are it's gone because they didn't end up properly handling them in the mid 2010s or so. at least as far as i've heard. Flipnote Hatena wasn't forever either, but maybe there were other spaces to take their places. that's how life works basically.

digital things are sort of like life, in a way. if you reframe it, it's very similar to biology life, the 'life cycles' of digital media are very present even if we think they're not.
in some ways a piece of media may as well be near permanent, but especially in the internet era, most things aren't permanent. not in the slightest.

well, there's lots of archived things, right? and they will forever still be here even if they're just in someone's memories?
lots of PVs i remember - tracks like SPiCa - are gone already, at least as far as i can tell. it was removed from my old YouTube playlist and it apparently got deleted or something. the only PV now is in Project DIVA and in my memories, which in and of itself is still true i guess.
it's a little sweet to me that it's still in existence, in my memories at the very least. if anything's in someone's memories then it still exists, right?

though, there's more than just looking at the remains of the past, right?
there'll always be new things, humanity finds a way. life finds a way. even if something goes, another will appear to take its place.
but that's why i download them. they're not Victorian antiques - they're digital, not physical. on the server, they could just simply delete it from existence.
but maybe let's focus forward, not backward. this was pretty long sorry, but it's mostly just a big thought of mine.
does anyone else feel something similar?

[shapezncolourz]

thats how ive been feeling recently - just the other day i tried to download a video of a skit done with characters from my favourite show for a benefits performance, only to find that the video had been deleted and the uploader has no contact information (not even a comments section on any other video - they took down all their stuff). i tried looking for it myself for a few hours (found every performance in full EXCEPT the one im looking for) and asking on reddit (people just mocked me for wording things weirdly, such is being autistic on the internet :/ - i could talk about that more but id make my own topic for that), but to no avail.

i had a small part of this realisation a few months ago when a description i like for another video got changed (though this was luckily archived on the wayback machine so no biggie), but this in particular really made me realise how non-permanent the internet actually is. content that was up one day can be completely gone the next with no warning, and with no way to recover it by the time you find out. it makes me want to archive all of my favourite videos, images, and other posts, but i just dont have the space on my computer for all that :(

over the past couple years ive really started building up an appreciation for the internet archive, but especially with recent goings-on (that im not all that up-to-date on tbh, im referencing things from any time within the last year and i dont even know the specifics other than you couldnt access the wayback machine for a while XP) it makes me wonder if one archive is enough. i know there are a couple of other sites out there for specific uses e.g. ao3 for literature, but still.

(anyways, if anyone has the it crowd sketch from the secret policemans ball (2008) on hand then PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE send it my way omg im begging )

[eclipsed]

I feel the same and honestly I get it so you are not alone with the feeling that nothing last forever and if I wanted to relive the past I can't because a lot of it is gone now, I guess I look at it like this:

Nothing last forever so lets make the most of it and lets try and create or share the things I am feeling.

I feel like this gives me meaning in life I want people to see how I have grown as a person or if I am happy I want them to feel the same I am feeling because I know it will leave an impact even if it is small.

I guess in a way I optimistically hope that in someway shape or form I at least leave an impression on someone or anyone.

I guess if there is one thing I want to do going forward it is to start archiving youtube videos, music and a lot of the stuff I enjoy I know you mentioned it but I did not know half the videos from 2013 and before then are gone I always had the impression youtube kept it and moved it to cold storage or to storage that is the least expensive option but I guess I was wrong so you have given me something to think about so thank you for sharing that fact I do want to ask how do you save videos if you don't mind me asking I have never looked into it so it might be good to look at the options I can do

[tau888]

well, there's lots of archived things, right? and they will forever still be here even if they're just in someone's memories?
lots of PVs i remember - tracks like SPiCa - are gone already, at least as far as i can tell. it was removed from my old YouTube playlist and it apparently got deleted or something. the only PV now is in Project DIVA and in my memories, which in and of itself is still true i guess.
it's a little sweet to me that it's still in existence, in my memories at the very least. if anything's in someone's memories then it still exists, right?

though, there's more than just looking at the remains of the past, right?
there'll always be new things, humanity finds a way. life finds a way. even if something goes, another will appear to take its place.

It will remain to physically exist in a weird way, through information stored in your brain.

The bittersweet reality is that everything that we know and ever will know will be gone eventually. Many people like to think that their childhood was the best and everything has gotten worse since, but this is because of their own bias since childhood is usually remembered as a happier and simpler time, because THEY themselves were happier and simpler.

Everything is always being replaced. A horrible time in somebody's life is a wonderful time in somebody else's life. For countless of people who are yet to be born, the "good old days" haven't happened yet.

The internet has helped make things much more stable and permanent, but even this decays with time. No matter what we do in attempt to archive something, it will always have a shelf life.

Nostalgia is a wonderful strong feeling, but we need to also realize that new great things are being created right now. Don't try to linger at the past too much; try to make right now a time that you will look back to fondly, just as you do right now with the past.

[Inlusione]

We should not strive for 'forever', but we should also not get on a trend of making everything as temporary as possible. Everything there is now on the internet is lost and forgotten in less time than ever before and that's mostly because nobody cares. But if we look back in history, people used to. I consider having things digitally to be a huge step up beyond keeping them only physically - it's easier to make copies and save them on many different places so they won't evaporate by unexpected physical disasters. So we should just think of better ways to preserve important information and to make sure it will be around for as long as possible, exactly like literature and paintings, sculptures and all the other arts that are still around after hundreds of years. There's an important distinction here: things on the internet should not be permanent, there is way too much crap to make it available forever. It just sounds like a disaster. People should just step out of their comfort zone and start to give a damn about something. 99% of the areas of the internet that people spend their time in are just making the best efforts to keep only what's new on top and to erase everything else which is a mistake. Nothing will be archived because no one has time to actually go back to anything older than 1-2 years.

[Kie]

I have a lot of strong feelings about the popular expression "what's on the internet stays forever". I understand why it exists, and that it's important to remind people to not post things they might regret later on. But I also think it has done a lot of harm to how people perceive the internet.

Stuff on the internet is quite the opposite of "forever". So many things are just a company shutting down away from being permanently lost. Just look at Neocities... we lost so much of the personal web all at once!
This is why I think it's super important to teach people to backup their own stuff, and to archive anything they enjoy or find valuable (including stuff like music from small artists, manifestos, and youtube videos). It's also why I believe purchasing media will always be superior to streaming services, or "buying" (when what you are buying is actually just a lifetime licence) digital copies. I think what happened with Kindle is a good example of the reasons why (there's plenty of articles about it online if you're out of the loop - just search "amazon kindle controversy").

I've lost a lot of childhood memories to the internet. Sites shutting down, media being lost..
I don't want it to happen again. That's why I backup everything I care about on an hard drive, and why I support initiatives like The Internet Archive and their Wayback Machine as much as I can!