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OK so I lied...
...I told someone that I wasn't making any more posts about the LJ brouhaha, but this is slightly related. XD
My reaction to people complaining about archives and backfiles being purged or vanishing is:
If you do not have at least two different backups of data, one of them offsite (preferably both, and in two different places), then you do not have a backup.
Don't rely on any one site, service or piece of equipment to hold data for you. If you mod a community or an archive, arrange for backup of content and keep it up-to-date. Check your backup methods and materials on a regular basis, and consider re-archiving regularly.*
This has been your public service announcement for the day.
* Eight or so years ago, when I was working in the slide collection and talking with other slide collections about a digital archive, the University of Colorado slide librarian told me that when they looked into it, they found that the lifespan of a CD was 5 years. They committed to a program of re-burning their entire digital collection every year and a half, to prevent any potential data loss.
My reaction to people complaining about archives and backfiles being purged or vanishing is:
If you do not have at least two different backups of data, one of them offsite (preferably both, and in two different places), then you do not have a backup.
Don't rely on any one site, service or piece of equipment to hold data for you. If you mod a community or an archive, arrange for backup of content and keep it up-to-date. Check your backup methods and materials on a regular basis, and consider re-archiving regularly.*
This has been your public service announcement for the day.
* Eight or so years ago, when I was working in the slide collection and talking with other slide collections about a digital archive, the University of Colorado slide librarian told me that when they looked into it, they found that the lifespan of a CD was 5 years. They committed to a program of re-burning their entire digital collection every year and a half, to prevent any potential data loss.