Do you guys ever use the Internet Archive for anything? I agree that they’re doing a great job archiving things, but realistically, through time most of things which happened have been forgotten.
I use the Wikipedia like once a week to look something up, but I only ever used the Internet Archive to look at a early version of my own website. But never for anything else. But perhaps I’m missing out on something?
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They’ve got a lot of old manuals scanned in, so I use it to reference those a lot.
Just for look at older versions of sites
I went to IA a few moments ago to read a website that went offline months ago. IA had not saved that website.
I use the Wayback machine sometimes.
Norm MacDonald’s old youtube podcast is on there, while it’s hard to find anywhere else (they took it down from youtube when he got his Netflix show).
I’ve found public domain pictures on there, and I’ve spent time browsing very old music.
I went down a rabbithole of comparing evolving definitions of words by reading through generations of dictionaries. That would be hard to do without the IA. As well as comparing versions of books that I was considering buying.
Pretty much any book you want to read for free, you can borrow from them. I use it very frequently to grab sections of some book I’m interested in or want to cite but don’t have a physical copy of.
They also have awesome documentaries. The Mine Wars is, I think, one I saw not that long ago which was pretty sweet.
I do not donate to them for using all this awesome stuff, even though I probably should.
I use it to find old software and games for my retro PC projects, currently working on a Windows XP gaming machine and maybe a DOS machine afterwards.
Without the Internet Archive it would have been a lot harder to find software.
And I love the wayback machine for looking up old websites.
Lots of sites and companies that have gone out is business can still be found there when I need info they published in the past.
Grateful Dead concert recordings and downloading old software/ roms.
There is an official polish Neon Genesis Evangelion voiceover that aired on TV once. All the other versions are with subtitles.
reading defunct webcomics
At least one per week, in various ways. Websites that no longer exist, obscure media I want to study… It’s great!
I use it for light novels like Overlord and Mushoku Tensei
Was searching for a 3d model to print some months ago.
I spotted one after a while but the download available was only for an updated version, and needed the old version.
Managed to pull off the old download link from the archive and get the file. I was pretty stoked that it worked.
through time
Dude, you’re saying this as though the internet has been around for millennia. And as if you’ve never been to / heard of a library.
I’ve downloaded a ton of music videos to create my own self-hosted MTV station. I’ve downloaded music and books. I’ve used it to view non-paywalled (NYT) articles shared on Lemmy. I live in Philadelphia so I’ve used it to look up the earliest version of the “yellow pages” or “white pages” from the 1800s. I’ve searched for the videos they used to show us in elementary school on 16mm - stuff about the expansion of the USA, the national parks, history of my state or city, etc. I’ve used it to look up tv commercials from the 1980s for a bit of nostalgia and older tv shows that people have uploaded from their personal VHS collection. Some people just upload personal stuff that’s entirely mundane but voyeuristically interesting. And I’m certain I haven’t even scratched the surface of what’s on there.
I do - there are old sites that have gone off line that I search the Way Back Machine to look at. There are also lots of archived files available that I’ve used more than once (Amiga files for example, Usenet archives and even old magazines).
It’s not really a day-to-day tool for everyone, but when you need it it’s irreplaceable.
