How reliable is the Internet Archive really with us trusting it to store all this valuable information?
i don't think it's reliable at all. Not unless you are using their paid services. For example:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240000000000*/bitcointalk.org
for this forum, they can go DAYS without even doing a single snapshot. and then in a single day they might do 2 or 3 snapshots. doesn't make any sense.
what you'll notice if you take a look at the snapshots of this forum is when you start clicking on individual threads, many of them don't even seem to be archived so it's worthless.
There are times that certain pages simply fail to load in my experience.
you are right. i think the internet archive is almost worthless. but they do have a service called Archive It
https://archive-it.org/
Archive-It Basic Pricing
• $500 yearly for 128 GB data archived
• $800 yearly for 256 GB data archived you pay alot to store a little. seems to be the name of that game...
I really don't know how much all the Bitcointalk data will cost when using all these decentralized file storage systems so no opinion on that
it would cost more than any centralized web hosting service most likely.
; and I don't know the risks/downsides of IPFS either besides the fact that it's far more tried and tested.
using ipfs for a website as dynamic as a forum seems like it could be problematic. ipfs is really best for storing files that don't change. if we think of trying to store each forum thread in it's own file, that file would need to be "updated" possibly hundreds of times. not ideal.
But what's the idea? Is there a backup/copy of the forum, in case it stops working? This is already being done by some users.
which users exactly? and how dedicated are they to doing it? what happens if they stop doing it? i heard that loyce is doing it. but i think that's a pretty big burden to put on one person's shoulders. apparently loyce archives the blockchain too. he must be really busy. what happens if he gets burned out? what happens if all of them get burned out?
Or is it putting the website up and running in a decentralized system?
that would be the end game.
that way things could have real world consequences. merit could actually be not just some imaginary thing but actual bitcoin. and things like AI spam could be stopped by requiring new users to make a small deposit of bitcoin and if they started abusing the forum then their deposit could be siezed for different infractions.
it's not about not trusting the current administration but recognizing they are only human and humans can only last so long. if you want something to last you have to make it decentralized, just like bitcoin...