Is the saying, "The internet's written in ink, not pencil" accurate?

ALostInquirer@lemm.ee to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 58 points –

With things shifting around the internet the past year, and also just...Having been on the internet for awhile now, I feel like this saying, while decent as a cautionary measure...May not really hold up past that. Am I being a little naive though?

Is some decade(s) old post of mine from some old forum really still floating around somewhere out there on some random old server chugging along?

I feel like even in the corporate web, a bunch of that old data's probably been long lost courtesy of costcutting measures and businesses going under.

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It depends, I think. If it's a scurrilous, untrue rumour about your sexual habits, then it will be preserved indefinitely. If it's some critical information, that is only published in one place, and you need to cite it for a paper, then it's either gone or modified beyond recognition.

Yup. Expect that everything lasts exactly as long as you don't want it to.

And if it's a forum discussion with a solution to your current technical problem, the link will be dead.

If it’s some critical information, that is only published in one place, and you need to cite it for a paper, then it’s either gone or modified beyond recognition.

So the critical information may be best preserved if in some way associated with unscrupulous, dubious information? Or in other words, the tried and true folktale/embellishment transmission method?

Yeah, just post something critical online and in the author section write something like "the author likes to masturbate in front of a window during the day while hula dancing" and the critical info will survive the heat death of the universe.

Did you know I have a tattoo on my breasts? It's the full text of "New Economist Intelligence Unit Report: Open Banking – Revolution or Evolution?" from Temenos.