datahoarder

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Who are we?

We are digital librarians. Among us are represented the various reasons to keep data -- legal requirements, competitive requirements, uncertainty of permanence of cloud services, distaste for transmitting your data externally (e.g. government or corporate espionage), cultural and familial archivists, internet collapse preppers, and people who do it themselves so they're sure it's done right. Everyone has their reasons for curating the data they have decided to keep (either forever or For A Damn Long Time). Along the way we have sought out like-minded individuals to exchange strategies, war stories, and cautionary tales of failures.

We are one. We are legion. And we're trying really hard not to forget.

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What's your most treasured data? (leminal.space)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

What in your hoard do you treasure the most? I imagine to a lot of us it is photos and videos of our families, which I'd love to hear about, but also interested in rare bits of media or information that makes your collection unique.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Lost music. It was an underground artist who quit in the mid 2010s before archive culture was really a thing. I've had people dm me looking for it before. I keep it offline only out of respect for the author who wants to stay gone because the reason he quit a decade ago was harassment.

at the same level of importance, every time I've gotten a new computer or operating system since 2013 or so, I've backed up every single user folded (pictures, videos, documents, etc) onto an external hard drive. I have a lot of good memories there that I really do not want to lose.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

Does that artist know that you held onto all of that stuff? Probably means a lot to them

[–] corroded 9 points 7 months ago

Like most of us, I have plenty of pictures and such that I don't want to lose. The most important to me, though, are some of the documents that I've saved or scanned from years passed. While a tax return from 2003 or the title for a car I owned 20 years ago aren't exactly useful, it's fun to occasionally look at some of the old stuff and see how far I have come in my life since then.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

My 3TB of injected VC games for wiiU (And soon additionally about 8 tb of injected VC games for 3ds)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Hell ya, I fucking love the wii u lol. Best emulation station going

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Early computer aided art and programs I've written, dating back decades.

In the mid 1990s I used ImpulseTracker to create music. The music sucks. But losing the original source .IT files would be heartbreaking.

Likewise, my first programs, written as a child in MS DOS batch files circa 1991 -- basic menu driven interfaces that facilitated launching my installed sharware... I don't have the games the program points to anymore, but that isn't the point ;)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I wonder how my old 5.25" floppies are doing, my project to back them up goes for 20 years now and I backed up none because I'm too lazy

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

I also can't prevent myself from being lazy. I haven't written anything in my diary for 1 year. I read it yesterday and It's a treasure. I regret I haven't wrote anything in it for 1 year :(

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

That's so cool that you've held onto that stuff through the ages

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

Mostly old projects of mine like artwork and games

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Other than family pictures, etc., I've been working on a collection of the episodes of a show from when I was a kid in the late 80s, "Long Ago and Far Away", showing fairy tales from around the world in a variety of art styles and media, with James Earl Jones as host. I've found maybe 2/3 of the episodes so far. Every few years I do another sweep to try to find more.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Preserving the classics, love it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

I have emails going back to YAM on Amiga in 2002, some games I wrote for GBA and mobile platforms that don't exist any more. I have some old IM logs but reading that was so cringe I should delete it, with wipe not rm. Some of the obscure old music I have isn't available even on Soulseek (except when I'm sharing it). Source code of old programs I and my friends wrote. And photos, of course.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I have some copies of shows that only received pilot episodes or shorts such as Wet City that I think are pretty rare. For treasured though I've got a journal from when I was in high school. A lot of it's insignificant forgettable stuff like going to the movies with friends but the prompts of setting help me paint a vivid mental image of it that makes me feel a bit nostalgic.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

I'm on an opposite end of the spectrum. I keep almost nothing