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HISTORY IS OUR FUTURE
And we've been trashing our history
Archive Team is a loose collective of rogue archivists, programmers, writers and loudmouths dedicated to saving our digital heritage. Since 2009 this variant force of nature has caught wind of shutdowns, shutoffs, mergers, and plain old deletions - and done our best to save the history before it's lost forever. Along the way, we've gotten attention, resistance, press and discussion, but most importantly, we've gotten the message out: IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY.
This website is intended to be an offloading point and information depot for a number of archiving projects, all related to saving websites or data that is in danger of being lost. Besides serving as a hub for team-based pulling down and mirroring of data, this site will provide advice on managing your own data and rescuing it from the brink of destruction.
Currently Active Projects (Get Involved Here!)
Archive Team recruiting
Warrior-based projects
Current Running Warrior Project: Telegram
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- Issuu: Interactive flipbook repository is clamping down on free users' upload limits and plans to make existing uploads falling foul of its new limits inaccessible to others. IRC Channel #wetakeissuu (on hackint).
- Ukraine/Russian invasion: Archiving various .ua sites in the wake of the Russian government's invasion. IRC Channel #ucryne (on hackint).
- Telegram: Archiving public messages in various newsworthy and/or otherwise notable Telegram channels. IRC Channel #telegrab (on hackint).
- GitHub: Embraced-uh, I mean, bought by Microsoft. IRC Channel #gitgud (on hackint).
- MediaFire: Not 'at-risk' but grabbing speculatively to save historic files IRC Channel #mediaonfire (on hackint).
- Google Drive: Same as MediaFire. IRC Channel #googlecrash (on hackint).
- Reddit: Banning communities that generate bad PR for Reddit Inc. Currently grabbing new material. IRC Channel #shreddit (on hackint).
- URLs: A random collection of stuff. IRC Channel #// (on hackint).
- URLTeam: URL shorteners were a fucking awful idea. IRC Channel #urlteam (on hackint).
An updated Warrior virtual appliance (v3.2) is now available with better support for newer projects that utilize wget-at. Please download it using the link above.
Manual projects
- 2019-202? coronavirus outbreak: Documenting and preserving data, events, and impacts of the virus on society. IRC Channel #coronarchive (on hackint)
- ArchiveBot: For those with lots of disk space, bandwidth and long-term commitment. IRC Channel #archivebot (on hackint).
- WikiTeam: Saving wikis dumps (XML). And their external links for the Wayback Machine (WARC) as well as exporting MediaWiki databases. Permanent effort, everyone can help (you choose the size of your downloads). IRC Channel #wikiteam (on hackint).
- Dead people: When people die, their webpages and/or social media might go "Poof!" due to fees and other knick-knack. IRC Channel #archiveteam (on hackint)
Upcoming & proposed projects
- Zippyshare.com: File sharing host opens its wallet, discovers it looks nearly empty, but will keep hosting until March 31, 2023. IRC Channel #zippyshart (on hackint).
- Chrome Web Store: Google has announced a timeline of policy changes that will lead to content being removed between December 1, 2020 and 2023. IRC Channel #chromeweblore (on hackint).
- Abandoned iOS App Store & Google Play apps: Both Apple and Google are slimming down on abandoned apps, with an estimated ~1.5M of them at risk. IRC Channel #appocalypse (on hackint).
- Kinja: Deleting all user pages, maybe? IRC Channel #gokinjagokinjago (on hackint).
- Twitter: Deleting inactive accounts
2019-12-11 sometime. IRC Channel #archiveteam-bs (on hackint).
- VKontakte: A Russian equivalent of Facebook carries the risk of tumbling down under the weight of sanctions as a result of the government's invasion of Ukraine. IRC Channel #lostkontakt (on hackint).
- YouTube: Archiving all YouTube metadata and selected videos afterwards soon. IRC Channel #down-the-tube (on hackint).
- Imgur: Image hoster decided that using it for hosting images is not permitted. (Now it's been bought by MediaLab.) IRC Channel #imgone (on hackint).
- JamiiForums: the Tanzanian government would like this gone. IRC Channel #archiveteam-bs (on hackint).
- LiveJournal: Very old, widely regarded as in decline, and has a lot of important stuff buried in it. IRC Channel #archiveteam-bs (on hackint).
- Ownlog: Ownlog is losing popularity and support from its owners. IRC Channel #archiveteam-bs (on hackint).
- The Pirate Bay: Recently came back up, grabbing an archive for sanity's sake. IRC Channel #archiveteam-bs (on hackint).
- Valhalla: Where to store what even the Internet Archive doesn't have space for? IRC Channel #huntinggrounds (on hackint).
- Giphy: Bought by Facebook, to be "integrated" (assimilated) into Instagram https://news.knowyourmeme.com/news/facebook-to-buy-giphy
Recently finished projects
- Classic Google Sites: Making more sites inaccessible to the public starting
September 1, 2021 January 30, 2023 with Workspace accounts. IRC Channel #nearlylostmygoogles (on hackint).
- TJ (aka TJournal): Russian news platform shutting down 2022-09-10 over Ukraine reporting. IRC Channel #journalthis (on hackint).
Hiatus / Missed the Mark
- Webs: Vistaprint is killing off the Freewebs you knew from the 2000s on
March 31 June 30, 2021 sometime, unless you pay up. IRC Channel #webbed (on hackint).
- Tinkercad: Autodesk announced its intent to put designs from inactive OAuth accounts back into minds around May 24, 2021. IRC Channel #tinkerhad (on hackint).
- Angelfire: Angelfire is a web hosting service that contains big chunks of early WWW history and has no proper backup. IRC Channel #angelonfire (on hackint).
- Audit 2014: It's time to verify our shit. IRC Channel #auditteam (on hackint). THIS PROJECT IS ON HIATUS AND WILL BE RETURNED TO AS AUDIT2018.
- Flickr:
Yahoo! SmugMug decided to kill it after finding Yahoo!'s plans to do so before they were bought by Verizon. IRC Channel #flickrfckr (on hackint).
- FTP: Help us find and download all FTP sites! IRC Channel #effteepee (on hackint).
- Google Groups: "Gone within a year" (SketchCow, 2016-06-07).
- Google News Archive: Let's store all newspapers at Google, WCGW? IRC Channel #papersplease (on hackint).
- DevPort: This portfolio SaaS provider has reportedly been having infrastructure issues, and removed their social media accounts. Possible impending shutdown.
- INTERNETARCHIVE.BAK: Grab a slice of the big cake of The Archive! IRC Channel #internetarchive.bak (on hackint).
- ISP Hosting: Finding ISP web hosting services before the Grim Reaper finds them. IRC Channel #webroasting (on hackint).
- NewsGrabber: Saving all news articles. Currently paused. IRC Channel #newsgrabber (on hackint).
- Project Newsletter: Archiving e-newsletters, currently in development. IRC Channel #projectnewsletter (on hackint).
- Quizlet: Flashcards and other learning tools IRC Channel #quizletusin (on hackint).
- Tumblr: Yahoo! considered killing it, now Yahoo has been acquired and Verizon declared war on NSFW blogs. Tumblr has since been sold to Automattic. IRC Channel #tumbledown (on hackint).
- yuku: Lately yuku is very unstable and hosting thousands of forums. Project currently paused. IRC Channel #archiveteam-bs (on hackint).
ArchiveTeam uses the hackint IRC network – ircs://irc.hackint.org:6697 (TLS required) – webchat: https://webirc.hackint.org/ – More info
Archive Team News
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- July, 2013: Snapjoy died. We grabbed what we could.
- May, 2013: Xanga announces a "rehash" in the form of paid accounts, and a kickstarter.
- April, 2013: Yahoo still hasn't learned its lesson, and closes Upcoming.
- April, 2013: Telinco, Nwnet deletes ALL the things.
- March, 2013: Google decides RSS feeds is for hipsters, closes Reader.
- March, 2013: Formspring catches on fire.
- March, 2013: Yahoo burns the messenger.
- February, 2013: IGN is acquired by Ziff Davis, and announces the closing of 1up, UGO, and Gamespy.
- February, 2013: Posterous announces it's deleting history at the end of April.
- January, 2013: That took long enough! We've turned on new user account creation, with a "are you human" edit checker added.
- August, 2012: It's August Cleanup time! We're shutting off new user accounts while we clean out spam and generally shore up the ol' barge.
- May, 2012: Tabblo announces its closure scheduled for May 30th, giving its userbase just ten days of warning. Archive Team is on the case.
- May, 2012: Archive Team's save of Stage6, a defunct video sharing site run by DivX, Inc. is permanently preserved at the Internet Archive.
- April, 2012: 20 million Friendster accounts spanning 14 terabytes are successfully rescued for permanent storage by Archive Team.
- March, 2012: FortuneCity announced the end of its free-hosting model, threatening around one million user-generated websites.
- March, 2012: We've switched servers to one of those new-fangled hosting companies that aren't hacked. We're going to sell you a lot less in the way of medical supplies now.
- December, 2011: POE News says it will soon be nevermore: Announcement
- December, 2011: GamePro magazine halts publication and their website goes dark.
- November, 2011: Archive Team rescues over 1.3 million users' data from Splinder's closure.
- July 2011: Archive Team teaches you how to rescue data from Floppy Disks.
- May, 2011: Friendster is deleting everything at the end of the month.
- May, 2011: Archive Team keeps it classy at poetry.com.
- April, 2011: How about some Google Video?
- March, 2011: The 2011 Personal Digital Archiving Conference talks are available.
- February, 2011: Let's watch some Yahoo! Video
- December, 2010: Archive Team is Delicious!
- October, 2010: Archive Team offers Geocities as a torrent.
- December 23, 2009: Yahoo shut down starwars.yahoo.com. We got a copy.
- October, 2009: Geocities closing is definitely the top of the charts.
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What is What
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- Deathwatch is where we keep track of sites that are sickly, dying or dead.
- Fire Drill is where we keep track of sites that seem fine but a lot depends on them.
- Projects is a comprehensive list of AT endeavors.
- Philosophy describes the ideas underpinning our work.
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Some Starting Points
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- Software will assist you in regaining control of your data by providing tools for information backup, archiving and distribution.
- Formats will familiarise you with the various data formats, and how to ensure your files will be readable in the future.
- Storage Media is about where to get it, what to get, and how to use it.
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Quote of the Moment
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"[Yahoo!] found the way to destroy
the most massive amount of history
in the shortest amount of time
with absolutely no recourse"
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Internet Atrocity! GeoCities' Demise Erases Web History
By Dan Fletcher, TIME Magazine, Monday, Nov. 09, 2009
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Recently Ended Projects
- Google Reader - Grabbed 46M feeds before it closed July 1, 2013.
- Posterous - Blogging platform acquired by Twitter on March 12, 2012. Closed April 30, 2013.
- MobileMe - Apple's file storage and sharing service, which hosted over 200 terabytes of data, shut down on June 30, 2012.
- Tabblo - A site where users told stories with pictures. Closed May 30, 2012.
- FanFiction.Net - Around 7 million fan-fiction stories hosted on what may be the largest site of its kind in the world. They're not shutting down but Archiveteam has a copy "just in case".
- Geocities - We archived most of GeoCities mother fuckers!
- FortuneCity - It may be gone but we've still got it
More
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