https://help.rockcontent.com/en/how-to-solve-404-error
The statement that “the internet is forever” is a pithy description of how someone should interact with the internet. Be cautious when sharing because something you share can spread exponentially, “going Viral” and then it becomes the defining moment of you on the internet. But when people use this saying that means that they don’t put in the effort to save and protect the things that exist.
Unlike the real world, internet spaces can disappear without any noticeable catastrophe. Because of this a large chunk of the early internet vanished under our noses. Particularly 38% of websites that existed in 2013 don’t today and those that were made between 2013 and now 25% of them are gone forever [https://www.pewresearch.org/data-labs/2024/05/17/when-online-content-disappears/]. This tendency will probably continue into the future so there will be websites that were used and beloved that fall and lose everything they remember.
Of course there are technologies that can remember websites for posterity or nostalgia. “The Wayback Machine” can save websites as they were so even when gone it is remembered.
The problem of actually using this and other methods to remember is two fold, that it currently exists so why should we bother and someone else has probably already done it.
The first concern makes sense since if 38% of websites that existed in 2013 don’t now, that means that 62% are still there. It is hard to conceive of the vulnerability of websites. Even if it is far less comfortable to think of the internet as vulnerable of disappearing at any moment, that is far more true than a perpetual unchanging space. Even real life spaces need maintenance to ensure they are safe and continue to follow their purpose. Some small effort from people who enjoy their websites to make sure that they can be remembered is an effort, like a backup of a critical document, will only be remembered and thanked when things go wrong.
“But why do I have to do it”
You don’t, but because of the bystander effect, the tendency of everyone to expect someone else to ‘do something’ many terrible things occur that should not. People don’t call to report a wildfire because “someone’s obviously already done it”. The loss of websites is hardly as important as ‘real world’ concerns, but even for the little it matters it still matters.
This brings me to Digital Citizenship and what I believe to be a critical part of this idea is that you should be responsible to save the things that you believe to truly matter. Citizenship contains both rights and responsibilities and since the internet doesn’t have its own space that can be forgotten. The right to access the things you like is directly connected to the responsibility to save and ensure that these things continue to exist.
You certainly can decide to ignore this, and it will probably be fine, but If no one saves it and If it vanishes from its original place then it can disappear as certainly as a burned painting in the real world.
Only you can make your corner of the internet forever.