this is not serious commentary

[sideways]

The web's sure getting wobbly. Twitter's a hole, Reddit's rioting, Tumblr keeps crowing about its invincibility even as worse features are being implemented directly in front of their salads, and AO3 is undergoing the kind of drama I am not equipped to summarise beyond "someone opened a can of worms and oh god the worms are everywhere and now the worms are fighting each other and the birds that were meant to eat the worms are also fighting each other oh god oh no".

One good thing to come out of this for me, personally, has been the drive to do a lot of backing-up and digital filing! I still keep chewing my thumbnail over whether to try and digitise the DVD library too... some of 'em are getting a little old and are in danger of your more standard physical decay. Woe to life on this ephemeral earth.

Comments

[atamascolily]

The Internet is indeed in dire straits, but your summary made me laugh, and I appreciate that. Good luck with your backups!

[sideways]

A friend compared it to the last dot-com bubble burst recently. I guess the heartening thing is we've built back before and probably will again.

[atamascolily]

I know, but it feels like it gets harder every time, and I'm just so tired... The whole point of AO3 was to not have to deal with losing everything due to platform collapse, and while I don't think any of the current situation is enough to sink it (and, honestly, it's a good thing to have this stuff out in the open instead of hiding it, so it can finally be dealt with!), it's just really dispiriting, especially when other platforms are so unstable.

[sideways]

Yeah :( Like you, I'm not getting 'on the brink of death' vibes from AO3 as yet, and I suspect it's more likely it'll just return to the status quo, which is disappointing in a whole different way. But it's a reminder even these foundations are on some shaky ground.