Is there a plan to preserve this forum's data when it shuts down?

[Tin Can]

I worry about digital extinction by loss of funding and closed websites.

Over time we, meaning all of us, have lost a lot of data, meaning writings, images, movies, libraries, you name it from failure to plan for extinction of resources.

This forum contains more info/data than any other source I know about LF photography.

How do we preserve it?

Have we forgotten the Alexandria Library fire?

It seems we are doomed to repeat the past.

[Wayne]

There are a number of free website downloaders. Anyone can make their own copy of the entire website. I did that myself before the migration from Greenspun. Of course you'd have to continually update it to make sure it was 100% up to date, but even monthly updates would capture most of it. I think it would also be good to know there is an "official" backup plan.

[Ralph Barker]

We back up the data on a regular basis (daily). We plan to run "forever," but if the site were to shut down permanently, I'm sure we would make an effort to archive the data in some manner, somewhere.

[Tin Can]

Good to know Ralph, I am sure the website is backed up.

I will look into downloading a personal copy.

Old men like me, worry about the future and unknown unknowns.

I see gaps in Internet History and Internet Archive does not capture everything.

Keep On, Keepin' On.

[Ralph Barker]

Good to know Ralph, I am sure the website is backed up.

I will look into downloading a personal copy.

Old men like me, worry about the future and unknown unknowns.

I see gaps in Internet History and Internet Archive does not capture everything.

Keep On, Keepin' On.

I don't recommend trying to download your own copy of the forum. Doing so would put a significant burden on the server and uses a lot of bandwidth, both of which are donated resources.

[Tin Can]

I don't recommend trying to download your own copy of the forum. Doing so would put a significant burden on the server and uses a lot of bandwidth, both of which are donated resources.

OK, I will not. I doubt I would do it correctly anyway.

[Dan Fromm]

www.archive.org is already keeping and even updating from time to time a copy of http://www.largeformatphotography.info/ I just looked at it and everything seems to be there, including the forum. Last copy was made July 2, 2015.

[Tin Can]

www.archive.org is already keeping and even updating from time to time a copy of http://www.largeformatphotography.info/ I just looked at it and everything seems to be there, including the forum. Last copy was made July 2, 2015.

Good to know.

Thanks Dan.

Was this ever discussed before on this forum?

[Mark Sawyer]

Another aspect of digital extinction is that so many of the images here are hosted on outside sites. If Flickr, Photobucket, or other such sites go away, the images go with them. It would be such a shame if fifty years from now, as people huddle in their underground bunkers to avoid the zombies battling the terminator robots, they don't have access to wet plates of pixies...

[Tin Can]

Another aspect of digital extinction is that so many of the images here are hosted on outside sites. If Flickr, Photobucket, or other such sites go away, the images go with them. It would be such a shame if fifty years from now, as people huddle in their underground bunkers to avoid the zombies battling the terminator robots, they don't have access to wet plates of pixies...

Fairly often I ask people, not bots, to post in the 750 pixel size allowed here, to preserve our record. It would be nice if posters who want to show a larger image, do both methods.

A forum fitting image and an external link.

Very disappointing to search the forum, as we are constantly asked to do, and find the images lost forever.