#preserve the things you love!! (but I'm not encouraging ppl to take this as a 'preserve gross things' sentiment because there are things-

[pestercide]

Yeah!! Archiving stuff and general lost media is just. Interesting and fun, to me, and in general that people come together to save things like this is just. Neat

Even from a personal antecedent standpoint, remember a few months back where for a few days, Twitter made it so you couldn't view anything without an account? When they pulled that back a tad, I went through some of my SM bookmarks and saved drawings (and a few videos) to make sure I wouldn't lose them if twitter decided to go full stonewalled again (they haven't yet thankfully but still, nice to have)

The thing about archiving stuff is how invaluable it is in preserving just about every corner of the internet, and that's what I love about it! Whether it's videos, songs, art, etc. It's great to see so many people are passionate about it to the point there are entire communities dedicated to it!!

And as for your anecdote, it makes me think about how I need to really double down on saving things in case the worst happens pff

I'm currently suuuuper obsessed with lost media and the searches behind em, and am even in the process of archiving some Youtube videos I was obsessed with as a kid! Cuz sure they were just some random videos but they meant a lot to me, and one day they might be deleted and forever considered lost media. And considering how attached to these videos I was (and as silly as it sounds) they meant a lot to me and might have meant something to others too!! Another great thing about preserving media is not only preserving it for yourself but others!!

For example, I'm currently searching for an old Super Mario Sunshine video that I watched countless times as a kid. It was grainy and low-quality and the biggest detail I remember was the outro of the video which had a clip of Mario riding the rollercoaster in Pinna Park with the song 'Scatman' playing over it (truly a testament to the time it was created ADNJEOFMRKE)