[______-]

> Comparing the Library of Alexandria with random web sites is unwarranted. Libraries are curated

I wasn't trying to compare, just making an analogy / metaphor. As in: how many libraries of Alexandria do we lose each day on the web? Because it it's too high a number, then the web is fundamentally broken.

> And websites who can't afford hosting, and there's hosting for $5 these days, BTW, self-curate themselves out of existence

But it shouldn't have to be like that. I've seen some real gems out there that disappeared and weren't backed up on Wayback. Literally all the owner needed was $5 as you say and the site could continue.

[dasyatidprime]

There's some complexifiers to this that seem worth recognizing, especially since the "financially drained" that was mentioned was pandemic-related and therefore is likely part of a broader cluster of problems:

1. $5 and tail risk. Even if your financial hardship isn't that bad, if it's still making things more unpredictable, that could be $5 plus a cascade of overdraft fees one day. If things are worse, of course, it could also be your last meal for the month, or your last chance to not go homeless. Better get rid of any expense you can.

2. $5 and executive function. The payment card you were using expired. Are you going to remember to update the info when you're in constant low-grade panic or depression?

3. Relatedly to (2), $5 if you can get to that point in the first place. Maybe you had your site hosted on something more expensive, for… whatever reason. Now you have to remember how to transfer all the files and hope everything still works, and so on.

4. Kind of like (3), $5 except for the more-expensive domain name that seemed like a good idea at the time. Oops. Where are you going to move to? Will anyone be able to find it afterwards anyway?

5. $5 and relationship overhead. Which of these five-dollar hosters are trustworthy? Will they stay that way?

There's probably more.

If we care about preserving the independent Web, these sorts of problems definitely present themselves over the long run. I'm theoretically an affluent-by-many-standards technologist, but I've had issues over time that resulted in my previous sites going splat and just… couldn't really pull together what it would take to revive them, and wasn't that motivated. Decentralization of maintenance-energy overall while having individual sites relying on one or a few people has real inefficiencies that way if permanency is valuable.

[slver]

> As in: how many libraries of Alexandria do we lose each day on the web? Because it it's too high a number, then the web is fundamentally broken.

If your brain remembered every piece of information it stumbled upon, you'd cease to function before your first birthday.

Your computer would be out of RAM before it gets past its BIOS check.

And your HDD would get filled to capacity in less than a week and become inoperable.

The web doesn't have to preserve everything. 99% of everything is garbage, and I'm being conservative. Forgetting is an essential capability, and we should focus on quality, not quantity.

[wolverine876]

Ironically, you've said something worth remembering.

[slver]

It's fine, we reinvent it every day from first principles.