Philosophy
Philosophy of the Archive Team
Statement of Philosophy of the Team Archive Wiki
This is a quick set of statements regarding why this Wiki exists, and the intentions behind maintaining it, and general philosophies of the owner. It's intended to prevent misunderstandings in the future, and to enable people to focus on adding to the entries without needlessly inefficient battles and in-fighting. Everything's up for discussion, but know who you should be discussing it with.
There's a Lead Guy
As it is, I perceive myself (Jason Scott) in the role of "Editor in Chief", that is, the person overseeing the direction and motivations of this Wiki[1]. While I am perfectly happy with intra-user discussions about procedure and policy and approach, if things become intractable, parties should all feel they can come to me and make the buck stop somewhere.
The site has no anonymous edits. Come on here and pseudo-nym yourself to your heart's content, but IP-based random hit-and-run leads to a lot of wasted time which we don't have in this time-critical situation. Registering is nearly instantaneous. Do it.
Information First, Then Action
The best situation is raising awareness of options when taking your data somewhere. To that end, we will maintain pages that are not really related to us archiving anything, but giving users information on tools they can use to archive things. There is a lot of information out there and there is a lot of good work being done, and even a lot of good work being done to categorize this information. Archive Team is just going to be yet another checklist to help you if you come calling.
Similarly, we are likely to end up being a deadpool of sorts, announcing or tracking sites that are failing, on their last legs, or suddenly gone.
What to Save
Our priority should be sites where user content was solicited and then provided. If we can, we should try to mirror the whole site. Next should be sites that are beloved collections of material, or which contain seemingly unique information. After that, anything goes. It's good to have a backup.
Opportunities to make a Difference
Wikis can be pretty dreary looking, so if you have skills in the areas of graphic design, mediawiki layout, or just like to keep track of links, please hop on and be a part of it.
This document will be improved.
- ↑ This means it's my fault.
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