Missing Members

[Harry]

Bachtoven has come and gone?

And deleted all his posts, including those about the sad death of his lovely cat...?

Well he does that all the time, and we might guess why, but I think he is bothered by the level of conversation on GMG. Hard to fathom John!

[SimonNZ]

Okay, thanks.

[Spotted Horses]

Am I the first to notice that Brahmsian's account has been closed? In the kaleidoscope of name changes to goes on here, is that the former ChamberNut/SymphonyNut? A shame, a congenial and knowledgable contributor.

[DavidW]

Yes, aka Franco-Manitobain

He is still here.

[Spotted Horses]

He is still here.

Reregistered, then.

[Que]

Changing forum names, leaving, reregistering and then leaving and reregistering again.

I hope nobody minds that I can't keep up with all of this and get sometimes utterly confused about who is who...

I also hope people would quit the annoying habit of deleting all their posts before they leave. It's spiteful or paranoid or maybe both, I don't know.

[Madiel]

I've only ever changed my name once.

The person who actually motivated the name change never showed the slightest sign of understanding the point. But I like the new one and stuck with it (I don't know that I can call it new now, it's been years).

[brewski]

Changing forum names, leaving, reregistering and then leaving and reregistering again.

I hope nobody minds that I can't keep up with all of this and get sometimes utterly confused about who is who...

I also hope people would quit the annoying habit of deleting all their posts before they leave. It's spiteful or paranoid or maybe both, I don't know.

All of this, especially the part about keeping up with the changes! And I have never understood the "leave no trace" philosophy. When I write something here (or anywhere), I want it to be around for centuries! ("Gee, look at that guy, people were really dumb in 2023.")

-Bruce

[Spotted Horses]

All of this, especially the part about keeping up with the changes! And I have never understood the "leave no trace" philosophy. When I write something here (or anywhere), I want it to be around for centuries! ("Gee, look at that guy, people were really dumb in 2023.")

-Bruce

Reminds me of the maybe scary thought that in our age we are communicating so much on ephemeral digital platforms and so little on tangible media that it is not clear what future generations will be able to know about our culture. Maybe in future generations the loss of tweets after the failure of X (twitter) will be considered an event comparable to the burning of the library at Alexandria. Historians in the future will be trying to work out when Morgan Freeman was President and think that Donald Trump simply portrayed the President in a bad movie.

[DavidW]

Reminds me of the maybe scary thought that in our age we are communicating so much on ephemeral digital platforms and so little on tangible media that it is not clear what future generations will be able to know about our culture. Maybe in future generations the loss of tweets after the failure of X (twitter) will be considered an event comparable to the burning of the library at Alexandria. Historians in the future will be trying to work out when Morgan Freeman was President and think that Donald Trump simply portrayed the President in a bad movie.

It would certainly be hard for historians to get an accurate picture of events as they currently do through diaries, journals, memoirs, news articles etc etc if these websites just disappear.

I don't know about the library of congress, but I know that in the UK they collect and store in a library all written documents even electronic.

[Spotted Horses]

I don't know about the library of congress, but I know that in the UK they collect and store in a library all written documents even electronic.

I believe the Presidential Libraries do something similar. I seem to recall the library of congress keeping a log of tweets, I'm not sure how many or how selected.

[Brian]

The Library of Congress initially intended to save every tweet by everyone although I don't know how long that intention lasted or if it is still going.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

The Library of Congress initially intended to save every tweet by everyone although I don't know how long that intention lasted or if it is still going.

Oh, good Lord!!!

PD

[Spotted Horses]

The Library of Congress initially intended to save every tweet by everyone although I don't know how long that intention lasted or if it is still going.

But I thought the identity of the tweeters (X-ers?) is not included.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I could see saving some of the tweets by certain persons-of-interest (Hint: think certain politicians), but everyone?   

PD

[DavidW]

I could see saving some of the tweets by certain persons-of-interest (Hint: think certain politicians), but everyone?   

PD

They're publicly accessible anyway.  Discord and Snapchat are better for private conversations.

[Madiel]

Reminds me of the maybe scary thought that in our age we are communicating so much on ephemeral digital platforms and so little on tangible media that it is not clear what future generations will be able to know about our culture. Maybe in future generations the loss of tweets after the failure of X (twitter) will be considered an event comparable to the burning of the library at Alexandria. Historians in the future will be trying to work out when Morgan Freeman was President and think that Donald Trump simply portrayed the President in a bad movie.

I think you're underestimating what it's like for historians now looking back at the past. What has survived from the Romans or the medieval period is pretty darn random.

[aukhawk]

It would certainly be hard for historians to get an accurate picture of events as they currently do through diaries, journals, memoirs, news articles etc etc if these websites just disappear.

I don't know about the library of congress, but I know that in the UK they collect and store in a library all written documents even electronic.

Perhaps time to (re-)read MS Fnd in a Lbry by Hal Draper (1961).

It can be found as a pdf Here.  It's only a few pages long.
From Wikipedia's page on this modern classic: "It turns out that humankind's fall was brought about by information overload and the inability to catalog and retrieve that information properly."

[Scion7]

Where's Gurn? 

[Florestan]

Where's Gurn? 

Somewhere in Texas listening to Haydn, I reckon.