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

[cynderthekitsune]

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 )