Archiving
They used to say that anything you put on the internet was up there forever -- and it's been something like thirty years and we know that's not true. Since then, we've learned that if you like something, you should save it. This page isn't only about archiving online but also in meatspace, and about existing archives and how to archive for yourself.
Archives
- Archive.Org:The Internet Archive, which is an archive of lots and lots and lots of digital media on the Internet.
Some interesting things that can be found on the Internet Archive include:
- Lots and lots of live Grateful Dead recordings
- The entire CDC website as of January 2025 as a Kiwix-readable ZIM file
- The Wayback Machine: a part of the internet archive that archives actual websites as they were at certain periods of time. You can search by URL and add pages to this archive using their "save page now" feature for citations.
- Archive Of Our Own: Archive for fan works like fanfic, fanart, podfic, etc
- SquidgeWorld Archive: Another archive for fanfic, fanart, podfic, etc. (Note: it looks similar in that it uses the same opensource code but is not affiliated with Archive Of Our Own)
- Fan Archives Directory: A directory of fan-maintained fanfic archives. You can add your own site if you have one.
Get Archiving!
- Kiwix: Offline reader for Wikipedia and other wikimedia and knowledge projects like Project Gutenberg, TED talks, etc. So yes, if you want, you can have your own functional copy of Wikipedia.
- ZimIt: A utility that requests ZIM files of any website. There are many limitations of this, I've found that this utility works very well for small, static sites like, say, neocities sites.
- r/Kiwix: the Kiwix subreddit, for discussion about kiwix. Occasionally has posts about new ZIM files that may be unavailable elsewhere.
- r/DataHoarder: a subreddit about datahoarding. Most useful if you're looking for actual media to archive large amounts of digital data.
- Dreamwidth's Data Hoarder's Community: information and discussion on data hoarding