Hacker News Reader

There's an interesting dichotomy:

As a single user, you must assume that anything you upload to the Internet will be there forever, because anyone can download a copy and maintain it. This means users need to be careful about privacy-sensitive information, controversial opinions, etc.

But on a broader level we don't actually dedicate much effort at all to maintaining the bulk of what's posted online, meaning most important things will eventually be deleted.

View on HN

Or to put it another way - the longevity of something on the Internet is the inverse of what you’d want it to be.

I'd phrase it like this - the longevity of something on the internet is correlated with its need/usefulness.

If someone needs that 'thing', they will download & keep a local copy, and then when if it disappears, then someone will ask for it on Reddit and voila! you shall provide.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com