Comments regarding Internet Links inside Imperial and Deluxe Forum Discussion threads

[dishwashercrazy]

Since I am a relatively new member of aw.org (July 2008), I don't recall seeing this question discussed.

Often times, when I'm looking through the archives, I come across an interesting discussion, with broken links to sources outside of aw.org. These are in the form of photos, articles, Criagslist Ads, eBay sales, etc.

It's been frustrating for me when I'm interested in reading and researching some of these archived discussions, to find that important links no longer work.

In some of my owns posts, rather than post just a link to an outside source, such as a Craigslist sale, I take the time to save the photos off to my computer, and then load them into the discussion thread. AND I know there are many others here that follow the same pattern.

Now, I realize that this is not so important for a sale in those and other Ad related websites.

BUT, when we link to an article on the web, or other interesting source, and it eventually is broken or deleted, then we lose that valuable information.

My recommendation is that we capture a hard-copy of important information, and make it an integral part of the discussion.

Any thoughts?

Mike

 

[launderess]

Are You Going To Stump Up for the Hard Drive/Storage Costs?

*LOL*

While links do not take up space, one has recently cleaned out my "Favourites" section and careful what gets placed there in future. Ditto for photos be they on my hard drive, Zip drive, CD, or whatever.

Have also trolled through the archives and found links and photographs, or more to the point, the space where they should have been. If you see a post that you like, copy, clip and paste or whatever you need to do to save the information on your PC or elsewhere seems prudent.

While it is not my place to speak for our beloved site owner and founder, storage space costs dear. Especially as digital cameras/cell phone cameras become the norm thus more persons are posting same. Many times those pictures are not optimized or reduced, and posted in all their huge pixel glory.

 

[danemodsandy]

Mike:

This won't help with archived posts, I know, but there is a tactic that will save things for you.

Use the "Save Page As" function in the File menu of your browser to save Web pages of interest. This saves the entire page just as you see it on the Web - very useful for pages that change frequently or are deleted quickly, like Craigslist ones.

When you save a page, you will end up with a file icon and a folder for it. The file icon is what you click on to open the page again, any time you want. The folder contains all the files the file icon needs to recreate the page. I have Web pages from ten years ago I've saved.

One tip: If something is multiple pages, you will have to save each page separately, using a different name for each. I generally use a name that is the same for every page, differing only at the end, like so:

For a three-page obit of Julia Child from the New York Times:

NYT_Julia_Child_Obit_P1.htm
NYT_Julia_Child_Obit_P2.htm
NYT_Julia_Child_Obit_P3.htm

To open a saved page, open your browser, go to the File menu, and click on Open. Then navigate to the file the way you do when opening any file in a programme.

 

[dishwashercrazy]

Launderess: Thanks. I totally agree with your comments that storage space can be costly. And I do convert my photos to jpeg format before posting. And, yes, things that I see, Like the Westinghouse story recently, I save to my own hard drive for future reference.

Sandy: Thanks for the tips on saving the whole page.

Perhaps when I come across a broken link, I can post a request here asking if anyone saved the information that is no longer available.

Mike

 

[launderess]

If one compares posts from just a year ago with today, it is plain more and more photographs are being uploaded, as with the Internet in general. Older threads with no or maybe one photograph load quite fast, however some modern threads take a good while to load (even with DSL), due to being picture laden.

Everyone loves snaps, but again hanging onto those those pictures for future reference costs money. Nevermind the increase in postings as the club's membership has grown.

The issue is one not limited to this club,but all over the Interent, including providers are dealing with storage "issues". The federal government would love for ISPs to hang onto things much longer than they now do for various reasons, to which the former responded the increased costs would cripple their business models. If the feds want to store the stuff,let them build and pay for a system to do so, IIRC was the response.