Internet Permanence

[Judge Dredd]

More and more, accounts are tied to e-mail addresses and mobile phones, both of which have a tendency to expire if "you don't use them enough". What that entails is vague and seems to vary based on who you ask and when you ask.

My main concern is my Steam account which has more than 500 games on it. Someone elsewhere on the forum said Proton mail is good and never expires. I don't know as I've never used it myself.

 

[I Love Beef]

Even worse in the case of some unforeseen event where inevitably a country will plunge into war, where infrastructure may or may not survive warfare, or should a catastrophic natural disaster hit.

I don't know if you can rip Steam games but I would suggest doing that and putting them onto dvds or something. Even without a faraday cage, backups should be made.

 

[Rembrandt]

I don't know if you can rip Steam games but I would suggest doing that and putting them onto dvds or something.

cs.rin.ru does this, make an account and look up Steamless (majority of posts and downloads are member only) or browse the catalogue of games people have made standalone

Also check out gog-games.to, since all of the titles on there are RDM free you can download the games from it and keep them as personal copies

 

[StyxHexenHamster1350]

I hate to use Reddit as an example, cesspool that it is, but this is one thing early Reddit got right; No email or phone requirement. Just a username and a password. If the user forgets their password it's their own damn fault; make a new account.

Every website should be an island unto itself, and not make use of outside resources (email/phone/etc.)

A website that makes use of outside resources is fully dependent on those outside resources continuing to function.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Are videos that get taken down ever archived on archive sites?

 

[anustart76]

cs.rin.ru does this, make an account and look up Steamless (majority of posts and downloads are member only) or browse the catalogue of games people have made standalone

Also check out gog-games.to, since all of the titles on there are RDM free you can download the games from it and keep them as personal copies

Buy your games on GOG where possible, and archive the installers. Where not possible, you basically just have to pirate it.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Are videos that get taken down ever archived on archive sites?

If it's popular enough, yes. Sometimes. But a lot of stuff isn't.

As far as I'm aware, all of Giant Bomb's content is on Archive.org, or at least the official videos. Finding them can be tricky.

The real problem with archives is that they're prone to deletion whenever the whenever the wind changes in US politics.

Seeing Moddb and to a lesser extent Archive.org start deleting things on the say-so of insane activists over a flag replacement mod (and later a pronoun removal mod) was disheartening. Even sites like Based Mods are only somewhat effective because they archive only the controversial mods themselves, not the mods caught in the crossfire.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Buy your games on GOG where possible, and archive the installers.

So games bought on Steam can't be just copied to offline storage and backed up?

(never used Steam over here)

If it's popular enough, yes. Sometimes. But a lot of stuff isn't.

I've never seen an online video archived on an archive site.

 

[anustart76]

So games bought on Steam can't be just copied to offline storage and backed up?

It really depends on the game. Sure, a lot of games can, but others have extra DRM or do something extra during the install process.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

DRM

Can you imagine how different the 'net could've been if copyright wasn't invented, like how fashion is (sort of) not copyrighted?

Of course copyright being first invented -- and easily still used -- as a form of censorship is not too surprising in this world.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Google is going to be deleting g-mail accounts that haven't been used for two years or more, starting December 1st.

https://mashable.com/article/google-deleting-inactive-accounts-starting-december-1

 

[AmpleApricots]

Just get a paid email account. They're quite a few ones that store all your stuff encrypted so even them themselves can't bring your mails back if you lose your password and they also can't look into them, and only hand over encrypted data to e.g. law enforcement. The good ones have even transparency reports where they list how often they turn police away that wants to take a casual look into accounts unlawfully, e.g. without court order. Happens shockingly often. Some accept cash payments and have been used by e.g. ransomware groups in the past where the police ended up not being able to extract anything, so you know it's true. Posteo is an example. Contrary to google the privacy conscious providers also don't want a phone number (which is basically an ID) and won't wig out if you try to access them via tor or somesuch, they literally do not care as long as the balance is paid.

These won't cancel your account while you pay and often it's really cheap, like $1 a month. Get google's anal probe out of your ass and pay. It's worth it.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Just get a paid email account.

I'd pay a fee if it could guarantee longevity. The main thing I'm concerned about is "important" stuff. Steam, Paypal, things like that where money is involved. Passwords I'm fine with. It's that things are becoming a tangled web of dependencies on outside services and declining functionality.

 

[anustart76]

I'd pay a fee if it could guarantee longevity. The main thing I'm concerned about is "important" stuff. Steam, Paypal, things like that where money is involved. Passwords I'm fine with. It's that things are becoming a tangled web of dependencies on outside services and declining functionality.

Proton's probably pretty safe in that regard. Seems to be going strong.