This is a good thing, IMO.

I am sad about link rot and old content disappearing, but it's better than everything be saved for all time, to be used against folks in the future.

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GaryBluto 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> I am sad about link rot and old content disappearing, but it's better than everything be saved for all time, to be used against folks in the future.

I don't understand this line of thinking. I see it a lot on HN these days, and every time I do I think to myself "Can't you realize that if things kept on being erased we'd learn nothing from anything, ever?"

I've started archiving every site I have bookmarked in case of such an eventuality when they go down. The majority of websites don't have anything to be used against the "folks" who made them. (I don't think there's anything particularly scandalous about caring for doves or building model planes)

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otterley 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Consider the impact, though, on our ability to learn and benefit from history. If the records of people’s activities cannot be preserved, are we doomed to live in ignorance?

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sejje 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I don't think so. Most of my original creations were before the archiving started, and those things are lost. But they weren't the kind of history you learn and benefit from--nor is most of the internet.

The truly important stuff exists in many forms, not just online/digital. Or will be archived with increased effort, because it's worth it.

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otterley 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Like it or not, the Internet is today’s store of record for a significant proportion—if not the majority—of the world’s activities.

If you don’t want your bad behavior preserved for the historical record, perhaps a better answer is to not engage in bad behavior instead of relying on some sort of historical eraser.

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sejje 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Behavior that isn't bad, becomes bad retrospectively after a regime change

	▲	otterley an hour ago \| parent [-]
		That's a risk we all take. Not that long ago, homophobia was the norm. Being on the wrong side of history can be uncomfortable, but people do forgive when given the right context.

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nine_k 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Think about the stuff archeologists get to work with.

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ninjagoo 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

What's that famous quote - those who do not learn from history ...

BUT, it's hard to learn from history if there's no history to learn...

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TheRealPomax 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Kind of the "think of the children" argument: most things that are worth archiving have nothing to do with content that can be used against someone in the future. But the raw volume is making it impossible to filter out the worthwhile stuff from the slop (all forms of, not just AI), even with automation (again, not AI, we've been doing NLP using regular old ML for decades now).

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UltraSane 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Man I cannot disagree more. This is a terrible thing.