INTERNET ARCHIVE - WAYBACK MACHINE

[GordMay]

This year the Internet Archive turns 25 [1].

It’s best known for its pioneering role in archiving the internet, through the Wayback Machine [2], which allows users to see how websites looked in the past.

Portions of the internet are constantly disappearing, but you can help save the internet, by preserving materials that document the cultural heritage of society, including on the web, as a citizen archivist.
Web archiving is the process of collecting, preserving, and providing continued access to information on the internet. Often this work is done by librarians and archivists, with assistance from automated technology like web crawlers.

Archiving the internet is a monumental task, one that librarians and archivists cannot do alone.

Anyone can be a citizen archivist, and preserve history, through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine [2].
The “Save Page Now” [3] feature allows anyone to freely archive a single, public website page.


[1] ➥ https://anniversary.archive.org/

[2] Wayback Machine ➥ https://archive.org/web/

[3] Save Page Now ➥ https://web.archive.org/save/

Originally Posted by boatman61

One of the problems with the Internet is the fact it can be edited and previous facts/statements/opinions made to disappear forever without trace...
... The Internet however is once censored it is forever so.
➥ https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3444691

[GordMay]

The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine allows you to search for Web pages no longer accessible to the public. Browse by date through over 150 billion pages archived since 1996.

The Archive's mission is to help preserve digital artifacts and create a publicly accessible Internet library for researchers, historians, and scholars. The Archive collaborates with institutions including the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian.

It can take 6 to 24 months for pages to appear in the Wayback Machine after they are collected. The Archive does not collect pages that require a password to access, pages tagged for "robot exclusion" by their owners, pages that are only accessible when a person types into and sends a form, or pages on secure servers. If a site owner requests removal of a Web site, that site will be excluded from the Wayback Machine.

Another source of previously published Web pages is Google.
The search engine maintains a "cache" — a version of the page from when they last indexed it. Access is via the "cached" link that shows up under a search result.
➥ https://support.google.com/websearch.../1687222?hl=en


Tips for Using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine in Your Next Investigation
➥ https://gijn.org/2021/05/05/tips-for...investigation/

Using Wayback Machine for Research
Here ➥ https://blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/2012/10/10950/
And ➥ https://blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/file...Research_2.pdf

[JDGreenlee]

Much of the internet deserves the dust bin of history but the concern about savings some of it is directly related to proliferation and monetization of non-fungible tokens on the blockchain: the first tweet, etc. My emails from 1985 and subsequent woeful attempts to build web pages, while historical, were much ado about nothing and thankfully disappeared. The internet is better without them.

Some argue, perhaps in jest, that a best friend is one that deletes your hard drive and online accounts when you die.

On the other hand, I and many on CF rightfully think that every GordMay post is important and must be preserved. Good job. You are often the voice of reason.

[CaptTom]

The Archive does not collect pages that require a password to access, pages tagged for "robot exclusion" by their owners, pages that are only accessible when a person types into and sends a form, or pages on secure servers. If a site owner requests removal of a Web site, that site will be excluded from the Wayback Machine.

Wow. I didn't know about the parts in bold, above. This limits the use of the Wayback Machine for "gotcha" reporting, when a person or organization denies a past position. I'd personally rather see anything that's made public once, stay that way.

This seems like they're giving people a way to erase history. Imagine if you pulled the microfilm of an old newspaper, and found someone had blacked out a bunch of articles.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

Wow. I didn't know about the parts in bold, above. This limits the use of the Wayback Machine for "gotcha" reporting, when a person or organization denies a past position. I'd personally rather see anything that's made public once, stay that way.

This seems like they're giving people a way to erase history. Imagine if you pulled the microfilm of an old newspaper, and found someone had blacked out a bunch of articles.

I believe that that's the fault of the original Publishers - not the Wayback machine.
Perhaps, someone more knowledgeable, could elaborate.

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by GordMay

I believe that that's the fault of the original Publishers - not the Wayback machine.
Perhaps, someone more knowledgeable, could elaborate.

Perhaps. The way I read your excerpt, it's the Wayback Machine that's choosing not to record anything that's flagged for robot exclusion, which is pretty common, or a site owner can request that their whole site be removed from the archive.

It seems to me that the most likely reason you'd make something public, then try to prevent it from being archived or (worse yet) request that it be removed from the archive, is that you have something to hide. Which is exactly the kind of thing the Wayback Machine would be most useful for.

[SeanPatrick]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

It seems to me that the most likely reason you'd make something public, then try to prevent it from being archived or (worse yet) request that it be removed from the archive, is that you have something to hide. Which is exactly the kind of thing the Wayback Machine would be most useful for.

When I first read this thread, I thought about my own stupid website being archived for 'all eternity' ... and it made me shudder. What if I made a mistake somewhere that I haven't caught yet? What if I write an opinion, but then change my mind later in light of new evidence? What if there's something on there that I just don't want to be available for the rest of time? I've known about the "Wayback Machine" since ... way back. But I was unaware one could have content removed.



I agree that it is a powerful and useful tool. Just recently, I read part of an article in which someone used it to prove that a major website had changed some very important lines of text. This was relevant to certain current events which I will not mention here (PM me if you must know). However, probably the vast majority of content on the archive is copyrighted material. If the owner wants it taken down, the archive is likely legally obligated to comply.

[CaptTom]

I see both sides of this, for sure. I know I've written things I wish I could take back!

I just keep coming back to what a huge change this is, and how it may affect our society, if publishers and writers are allowed to re-write history any time they want.

In the past, once you published something (in a newspaper, magazine or even a movie or TV show) it was "out there" in the public. You couldn't just change your mind and ask everyone with a copy to erase it. I don't think copyright law grants you that authority.

You can create a new or updated version of whatever you published. You can issue an apology or publish additional details to better explain what you meant. But until now, you couldn't simply erase your work from history like it never happened.

I can't imagine that's a good thing.