How reliable (permanence) are online movie databases?

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lol. but I mean permanence in a practical sense not the literal theoretical meaning of eternity. As in, the database is I believe something like maybe 15 years old, and within the last 3(?) years there was a mass deletion of the site's images. So, I'm talking about practical, reasonable time periods, like permanence in the sense of the foreseeable future maybe a decade or two into the future. Shit that's within our lifetime, and for the uses and purpose of the now and soon-to-be-now.

It would be nice to have, but I've learned any site can shut down at any time for any reason. The closest thing we have to a permanent record is Archive.org and the Wayback Machine, but even they're getting sued once every few years, so who know how long that party is going to last? If it's important to you, make a copy. And copy the copy.
WARNING: "Don't Copy that Floppy!" spoilers below
And yes, I would download a car. I would totally download a car.



It would be nice to have, but I've learned any site can shut down at any time for any reason. The closest thing we have to a permanent record is Archive.org and the Wayback Machine, but even they're getting sued once every few years, so who know how long that party is going to last? If it's important to you, make a copy. And copy the copy.
WARNING: "Don't Copy that Floppy!" spoilers below
And yes, I would download a car. I would totally download a car.
mmm but I am only one person and there are thousands of people that contribute to themoviedb, so the smarter and more important question for me (especially since programming and my brain are like oil and water), is how likely do you think it is that other people have been able to successfully copy the site's data/images...



It would be nice to have, but I've learned any site can shut down at any time for any reason. The closest thing we have to a permanent record is Archive.org and the Wayback Machine, but even they're getting sued once every few years, so who know how long that party is going to last? If it's important to you, make a copy. And copy the copy.
WARNING: "Don't Copy that Floppy!" spoilers below
And yes, I would download a car. I would totally download a car.
the wayback machine really is a godsend though when it comes to researching tv and movies. and its wild how its basically the one and only website like it.



matt72582's Avatar
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It would be nice to have, but I've learned any site can shut down at any time for any reason. The closest thing we have to a permanent record is Archive.org and the Wayback Machine, but even they're getting sued once every few years, so who know how long that party is going to last? If it's important to you, make a copy. And copy the copy.
WARNING: "Don't Copy that Floppy!" spoilers below
And yes, I would download a car. I would totally download a car.

I think if people knew how to make a copy, they would. Is it difficult? I'm an amateur archivist, and I almost encourage subscribers to extract my videos so they have a copy in case I have a heart-attack and die tonight. For those who have a lot of videos - schedule them, so that your channel doesn't die. There's one guy who had a handful of Mort Sahl archives, and although he'd charge $300 for a 2-hour audio clip, it's all I have to buy, and now the guy won't respond to me, so no amount of money can buy it.


Free the archives!



mmm but I am only one person and there are thousands of people that contribute to themoviedb, so the smarter and more important question for me (especially since programming and my brain are like oil and water), is how likely do you think it is that other people have been able to successfully copy the site's data/images...

I think Yoda probably has the best advice for you, but that does involve some programming stuff.



If you're willing to put in the work you can cut-and-paste and screen cap a lot of information. Consider this low-tech archive of broadcast TV spanning 35 years.




It would be nice to have, but I've learned any site can shut down at any time for any reason. The closest thing we have to a permanent record is Archive.org and the Wayback Machine, but even they're getting sued once every few years, so who know how long that party is going to last? If it's important to you, make a copy. And copy the copy.
WARNING: "Don't Copy that Floppy!" spoilers below
And yes, I would download a car. I would totally download a car.
dayyym that websites operating budget is a whopping 19million just for one year....