# Should the SDMB have any kind of a duty to archive old threads? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 5, 2006, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538 "2006-09-05T18:22:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538/1 "2006-09-05T18:22:46Z")
I think this thread is more suited to The Pit than ATMB, mods please move if you must. Over the SDMBs history as questions have been asked and answered there’s been a fair amount of good quality info-wheat mixed in with the chaff over the years. It seems that in searching a lot of older threads are now MIA or otherwise offline. Is there any effort being made to archive the board? 500 gig drives are now below $ 200 and blank recordable DVDs are often less than a quarter apiece. I know Cecil likes to affect the arch posture that the SDMB is mainly a sea of chittering, pseudo-intellectual bobbleheads, but I sincerely believe that the board Q&A and other discussions would be of immense interest to social anthropologists decades or centuries from now as snapshots of the Zeitgeist. Are any efforts being made in this direction for the sake of posterity? ---
**Author:** ![Walter\_Windchill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Walter\_Windchill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walter_Windchill)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538/2 "2006-09-05T21:22:47Z")
\> Should the SDMB have any kind of a duty to archive old threads? No. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538/3 "2006-09-05T21:50:51Z")
Archive, no. Stop making ‘old’ content inaccessible, yes. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538/4 "2006-09-05T22:07:21Z")
Duty? To whom? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538/5 "2006-09-05T22:17:35Z")
[QUOTE=astro] I sincerely believe that the board Q&A and other discussions would be of immense interest to social anthropologists decades or centuries from now as snapshots of the Zeitgeist. Are any efforts being made in this direction for the sake of posterity? [/QUOTE] Golly. :eek: Now I have to start worrying that everything I post may be the subject of some snot-nosed wet-behind-the-ears Ph.D candidate’s thesis on “The Zeitgeist of the Internet: The Early Years” sometime in the year 2525. I can hardly wait. :rolleyes: Can you just shoot me now? Seriously, though, I think a storage facility along the lines of the Norwegian Global Seed Bank would be a good idea. All the circumcision threads, the trolls, the socks, the bannings, the Dopefests, the TMI pimple threads, the Pit infighting–I see them all inscribed on golden plates, somewhere in a sooper seekrit storage facility on a lonely Arctic island. I’m seeing something like the Fortress of Solitude, all prisms and Hollywood lighting… And Cecil’s descendants could be sort of like a hereditary caste of priests, to guard the treasure… Yes. I like it. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538/6 "2006-09-05T22:28:10Z")
[QUOTE=Smeghead] Duty? To whom? [/QUOTE] To posterity, I think was his idea. Tell ya what, **astro**. For $1000.00 from each registered member of the SDMB, I’ll personally memorize the entire history of the SDMB, and pass it down in an oral tradition to my descendants (they might wish to charge nominal maintenance fees). No need to decide right now. Talk it over amongst yourselves. I’ll check this thread periodically for your response. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538/7 "2006-09-05T22:33:57Z")
I don’t that space is really the issue. This boards is mainly just plain text rendered by some rather simple software for viewing in a browser. I asked about the server hardware a few years ago. IIRC, the board was still under 2GB then and I would have to bet that it is still under 5 or 6GB in size. It could be backed up on a DVD or two or a small fraction of a modern hard drive (or many times over on an IPod). I suppose they can do what they want but it would be a shame to lock people out of a lot of really good stuff just for some simple convenience. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538/8 "2006-09-05T22:50:13Z")
[QUOTE=astro] I sincerely believe that the board Q&A and other discussions would be of immense interest to social anthropologists decades or centuries from now as snapshots of the Zeitgeist. [/QUOTE] “As far as we can tell from the archeological evidence, the principal preoccupations of English-speaking, 21st Century Earthlings were cats, circumcision, and Jack Chick tracts.” ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538/9 "2006-09-05T23:26:09Z")
heh, heh. You said doody. ---
**Author:** ![threemae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@threemae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threemae)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538/10 "2006-09-05T23:43:16Z")
No, I think that this is a great idea. Seriously, I’ve often considered what a loss it would be if poof, one day all of the Boards were wiped out in some sort of server crash. I sincerely hope that some sort of backup is being made. Given that they could be stored for around $10 onto DVD media, I don’t think that this would be an unreasonable action. Every year, make a set of three to four copies of the Boards, mail them to SDSAB or Administrators in separate locales, and then we’ve got a backup. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538/11 "2006-09-06T00:43:01Z")
> [@tubadiva](#): > > Those earliest posts have been offloaded. We expect to return them to view in some sort of archival form in the future. > > With over 6 million posts in the system we are bumping up against the limits of what the server will hold. If we continued to retain those older posts you wouldn’t be able to make new ones. Something’s got to give. From [Search does not return some results - About This Message Board - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=369330) So, the answer is, it still exists. And will. Someday it will be available. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538/12 "2006-09-06T00:59:26Z")
[QUOTE=astro] I know Cecil likes to affect the arch posture that the SDMB is mainly a sea of chittering, pseudo-intellectual bobbleheads, but I sincerely believe that the board Q&A and other discussions would be of immense interest to social anthropologists decades or centuries from now as snapshots of the Zeitgeist. Are any efforts being made in this direction for the sake of posterity? [/QUOTE] As an example, the threads from September 11, 2001 are already fascinating as a window into what people were thinking and feeling that day. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538/13 "2006-09-06T05:15:09Z")
I hope this posting is not a serious violation of SDMB rules because I have it on good authority how the Powers That Be™ are planning to archive the collected wisdom, musings, banter, badinage, etc of all SDMB members. Yes, every thread about 1920’s Style Death Rays, starting your own country, words that end in ‘gry’, does .999… = 1?, cancer cures you have found, fungus fun facts, etc will be stored for time immemorial by [this](http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/wolf_meister/slate.jpg) high-tech breakthrough. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538/14 "2006-09-06T14:26:08Z")
[QUOTE=Smeghead] Duty? To whom? [/QUOTE] To the thousands of paying customers. We pay for the ability to post and search, cull years worth of posts from the archives, and our ability to search is reduced. That’s not to say “the customer is always right” or that they should be kissing our asses every day. However, we pay for this service. We are now customers and they have a duty to provide a reasonable level of service for the price. What constitutes “reasonable” is a matter of opinion, and that opinion will vary. Making all posts searchable may not be reasonable at this time. Let’s not pretend, though, that the SDMB administration does not have any responsibilities for the level of service they provide. ---
**Author:** ![Uvula\_Donor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e19adc/32.png) [@Uvula\_Donor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uvula_Donor)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538/15 "2006-09-06T14:57:11Z")
While it’s true that there are occasional threads of timeless interest and/or significance (the 11 Sept 2001 thread is a good example) the fact is that probably 85% of the message board is fairly worthless bullshit. Most of the past content of the SDMB (and most other internet message boards, for that matter) could be permanently deleted with no more consequence than cutting a fart in a hurricane. \*OMFG!! My stellar wit and wisdom is gone from t3h intarnets!! The horror! \* Fucking hell, get over yourselves. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538/16 "2006-09-06T15:10:06Z")
I would not use the word “duty” but I sure wish they’d back the whole works up to DVDs and allow us to buy them. Not only would I have a permanent copy of old threads, safe from the threat of erasure to slim down the database, but I’d also be able to do searches offline and save the hamsters. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538/17 "2006-09-06T15:27:27Z")
[QUOTE=Uvula Donor] While it’s true that there are occasional threads of timeless interest and/or significance (the 11 Sept 2001 thread is a good example) the fact is that probably 85% of the message board is fairly worthless bullshit. Most of the past content of the SDMB (and most other internet message boards, for that matter) could be permanently deleted with no more consequence than cutting a fart in a hurricane. \*OMFG!! My stellar wit and wisdom is gone from t3h intarnets!! The horror! \* Fucking hell, get over yourselves. [/QUOTE] Speak for yourself. I’ve seen posts by some members that were more insightful and informative than practically anything I’ve read elsewhere on the subject. Granted the chaff to wheat ratio is high on message boards, but storage is incredibly cheap these days. ---
**Author:** ![Uvula\_Donor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e19adc/32.png) [@Uvula\_Donor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uvula_Donor)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538/18 "2006-09-06T15:59:45Z")
[QUOTE=astro] Speak for yourself. [/QUOTE] I do. I agree that there are occasional gems here, and said as much. But this: > [@astro](#): > > I sincerely believe that the board Q&A and other discussions would be of immense interest to social anthropologists decades or centuries from now as snapshots of the Zeitgeist. is pretentious and delusional. I’m sure, though, that you’re following your own advice and _speaking for yourself_. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538/19 "2006-09-06T16:24:29Z")
**Uvula Donor** I would imagine that **astro** is speaking “tongue-in cheek” when referring to the alleged significance of this message board’s postings. Granted, every utterance from all “Dopers” is truly a golden nugget of intellectual wisdom but I don’t feel any of us are too full of themselves. 😃 At best, millenia from now, the musings of the SDMB will probably be no more significant than the Dead Sea Scrolls, or the Rosetta Stone. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538/20 "2006-09-06T16:42:38Z")
There are several threads I’ve participated in – specifically, those where I’ve lost my temper and thrown spectacular and profane temper tantrums – that I personally would be very happy if they lost permanently. If I could get ahold of the “originals” of those threads, I would burn them in my fireplace. I think as a Board society we demonstrate vindictiveness as often as generosity, and inanity more often than wit. Without some serious culling of the wheat from the chaff – and who would decide which is which? – I’m not so sure enshrining our musings is a great idea. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-sdmb-have-any-kind-of-a-duty-to-archive-old-threads/371538.md?page=2)