Librarianshipwreck

Look, I’m not saying that Twitter is about to vanish, taking an important slice of the records of the history of the early-21st century with it.

But if you’re doing any kind of research that cites someone’s tweets…now is a great time to make sure you have screenshots.

Nov 15, 2022 at 9:13pmMastodon for iOS
Show threadNino KadicNov 15, 2022
@librarianshipwreck Definitely not going to vanish, but maybe become less relevant, sort of like what happened to Tumblr. Or, ideally, someone buys it and makes it better. Definitely a good moment for a new social network to jump in and take over (though sadly, I don't think Mastodon will be able to do that).
Show threadAlexander Hamizdat Nov 15, 2022

@nino @librarianshipwreck as a cloud engineer myself... let's just say "definitely" is doing a bit more work in that sentence than I'm comfortable with.

and that's before the possibility of the DoJ or EU just seizing their DNS like it's a double-parked car headed to impound.

Show threadNino KadicNov 15, 2022
@alexhammy209 @librarianshipwreck I'm not a tech expert, I guess I was expressing my hopes rather than a strong opinion. But I just think that such a huge website will survive in some way 🤷🏻‍♂️
Show threadAlexander Hamizdat Nov 15, 2022

@nino @librarianshipwreck let me just say that probably is up to the job that definitely isn't going to be able to manage.

it's really likely that it will survive/be recoverable.

but it's like any big, complicated operation, there's an actual risk of it being damaged beyond repair and the normal safeguards against that irreparable failure have been systematically stripped away.

Show threadNino KadicNov 15, 2022
@alexhammy209 @librarianshipwreck Yeah.. Here's hoping it doesn't turn out like that :/
Show threadSome 41 Years Of Merry DeathNov 15, 2022
@librarianshipwreck maybe my obsessive screenshotting of all the William Carlos William Plum poems will finally prove useful!
Show threadLiz SNov 15, 2022
@librarianshipwreck I did recently see an article about this. Wish that I could recall where.
Show threadJust Another AmyNov 15, 2022
@librarianshipwreck If you’re citing something internet, shouldn’t you be doing that and running it through Wayback Machine etc anyway?
Show threadPhilip N CohenNov 15, 2022
@librarianshipwreck use Internet Archive to archive any tweet you want to cite
Show threadGrenadineNov 15, 2022
@librarianshipwreck I think all the time about the record of Ferguson being lost.
Show threadChance CareyNov 15, 2022
@librarianshipwreck think there are archive projects out there backing up all large account tweets right?
Show threadKate Bowers ArchivistNov 16, 2022

@chance @librarianshipwreck

Any coordinated or institutional Twitter preservation project will be highly selective. If one has not been established in your area of interest, it’s unlikely to appear any time soon.

Show threadKyrie ♿️ 🏳️‍⚧️ Nov 15, 2022
@librarianshipwreck Wasn’t the Library of Congress archiving tweets? Or did they stop because it was too much at some point? (Not that screenshots are not also a good idea…)
Show threadLiz LovelandNov 15, 2022
@Enbybookwyrm @librarianshipwreck They started being selective about what they archived from Twitter several years ago.
Show threadteledyn 𓂀Nov 16, 2022

@librarianshipwreck
@ilsa

I wonder if this is a question for @brewsterkahle, any chance of #internetarchive hosting these mammoth collections of defunct dinosaurs?

Show threadFemme MalheureuseNov 16, 2022
@librarianshipwreck I've already been burned this week writing about Musk — he deleted a tweet before I finished writing my essay. He's the very example itself of needing digital archives and in real time.
Show thread((Епископ Ідстіє-Немирнов))🇺🇦Nov 16, 2022
@librarianshipwreck @clockworkcanary It looks like you can get Internet Archive to make an archive of whole accounts. Worth doing for any accounts you're citing or might want to cite later. https://support.archive-it.org/hc/en-us/articles/208333743-Archiving-Twitter-feeds
Show threadToeBeansNov 16, 2022
@librarianshipwreck and maybe seeking consent to publish said tweets in your research 🤔
Show threadcyber.philosohackNov 16, 2022
@librarianshipwreck few folks I know who have a massive following have deleted all their tweets, it is happening
Show threadKate Bowers ArchivistNov 16, 2022
@librarianshipwreck
Perma.cc ftw
Show threadMiguel／ミゲルNov 16, 2022
@librarianshipwreck web.archive.org is also important
Wayback Machine

Show threadShane CurcuruNov 16, 2022
@librarianshipwreck I've been thinking about this (and successfully got my tweet archive), but I'm surprised I haven't seen tech peeps talking about building an archive, or even just a donation campaign (cash and engineers) to archive.org to do it.
Or am I missing that discussion? It's certainly an interesting challenge... 🤔
Show threadKonomi KittenNov 17, 2022
@librarianshipwreck I think it's a throw up between a sudden shut down or more than likely a slow death towards irrelevance, like MySpace.