thinking about the internet archive makes me so emotional. i feel like web history is so rarely taken seriously, im so glad that the archive is around to preserve it and document it and make sure that everything is not lost. But it really is just one point of failure! a sophisticated one, but it is always scary when something happens to it.
that being said! im glad the article at least mentions the decentralized efforts of independent archivists. when i look at communities like /r/datahoarding (lol), i realize that not a whole lot will ever be TOTALLY lost to time. save the things you love, save the things you hate, put a lot of random shit on a flashdrive to rediscover and explore 20 years in the future. it’s fun. :)
I try to do my part by grabbing sites that interest me when they’re going down or at risk of going down. Eventually I’ll put them up somewhere when I get the time to organize everything.
I know it’s just a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things, but if nothing else it may be new to someone who stumbles across it, and may serve as inspiration to others who might want to save things too.