thearchivist.funKeep attribution with an exported artifact
A portable file should carry the evidence a future reader needs to understand its credits and known restrictions.
A SOURCE-LED INDEX
Explore the archive.
704 records: sourced internet history, research methods and community contributions, followed by the original art project.
Search and filter ↗Keyboard Cat supplies the exit music
Old home footage became a modular ending for someone else's mishap.
Kickstarter invites audiences to help projects happen
Kickstarter launched on April 28, 2009, connecting creative proposals with people willing to help fund them.
Know Your Meme: trace references beyond the template
Know Your Meme documents memes and viral phenomena through editorial work and community contributions. It is useful for discovering names, variants, references and interviews around a format that may be difficult to sear
Kurita's emoji set makes expression portable
A compact collection of pictograms helped add visual nuance to mobile communication.
Lateral reading
Lateral reading means leaving a page to investigate its publisher, author, evidence, and reputation through other sources. It helps counter the temptation to judge credibility from visual polish, confident language, or a
Leeroy Jenkins turns a raid into a story
A staged gaming disaster made a shouted name shorthand for reckless interruption.
Let’s Encrypt opens automated certificates to the public
Let’s Encrypt entered public beta in December 2015, reducing barriers to obtaining web certificates.
Library of Congress web archives: study curated collections
The Library of Congress web archives organize selected websites into thematic and event-based collections. They are useful when you want a clearly described research collection rather than a search engine's most visible
Link rot
A link can stop serving its research purpose through deletion, a changed path, a login barrier, a redirected homepage, or altered content. A page that still loads may no longer contain the evidence you cited. Checking on
Linux grows through distributed development
Linux began in 1991 and developed into a kernel maintained through contributions across the internet.
LOLcats give pictures a shared dialect
Cat photographs and irregular captions created a recognizable language for collaborative humor.
Loss becomes a pattern-recognition game
A dramatic comic was repeatedly reduced until its arrangement could stand in for the entire work.
Make short video research readable
A short clip is easy to share and difficult to cite precisely. A transcript turns its relevant contents into something readers can search, compare, and inspect. It should preserve the boundaries between what is audible,
MDN accessibility lessons: turn principles into working HTML
MDN's accessibility learning module connects web development techniques with accessible use. It covers topics such as semantic HTML, CSS and JavaScript behavior, assistive technology, multimedia and mobile experiences. I
Measure a collection without claiming to measure the internet
Counts make an archive feel concrete, but they can mislead when the unit or collection method is unclear. Fifty posts, fifty images, and fifty distinct caption variants are different measurements. A useful numerical stat
Meerkat disappears from the App Store
Engadget reported on 1 October 2016 that Meerkat's chief executive Ben Rubin had tweeted on 30 September that his team had removed the app from the App Store. The Google Play listing also stopped working, and the officia
Merge research data without erasing its history
Combining catalogs is more than copying rows. Different files can reuse the same identifier for different objects, describe the same object with different fields, or attach contradictory dates. A careful merge preserves
Meta announces a US test of Community Notes
On 13 March 2025, Meta announced that a United States test of Community Notes would begin on 18 March across Facebook, Instagram and Threads. The initial phase allowed selected contributors to write and rate notes while
Metadata
A title, creator, source URL, file format, rights statement, and capture date are all examples of metadata. Metadata makes an object easier to find and interpret, but a field's meaning must be defined. Two columns called
Microsoft closes Encarta's online encyclopedia
Phys.org reported on 30 March 2009 that Microsoft would close its Encarta online encyclopedia. All Encarta websites were to be turned off on 31 October, except in Japan, where the service would end on the last day of Dec
Minecraft begins a world built through play
Minecraft's official anniversary history dates its early Cave Game release to May 17, 2009.
Moo Deng carries animal reactions across platforms
A young pygmy hippo became a source of expressive images and a recognizable online personality.
Mosaic makes browsing feel approachable
NCSA Mosaic helped a wider audience experience the Web through a practical graphical browser.
Mozilla makes the browser a community project
Mozilla began with the release of Netscape browser source code and developed a long-term open-browser community.
Musical.ly and TikTok become one global app
In August 2018, musical.ly and TikTok combined under the TikTok name, carrying existing accounts, content, and fans into the new experience.
MySpace loses years of uploaded music
In March 2019 users noticed that music uploaded to MySpace in its earlier years no longer played. MIT Technology Review reported on 19 March 2019 that the company's data protection officer attributed the loss to a server
Napster closes its file-trading network, and a court keeps it closed
Computerworld reported on 26 March 2002 that the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit had denied Napster's appeal against the court-ordered shutdown, rejecting all of its motions. Napster had closed its MP3 file-tra
Newgrounds automates its Portal
On April 6, 2000, Newgrounds introduced an automated Portal where people could upload creations without emailing them to the site's founder.
Newgrounds grows from a personal project into a community
Tom Fulp began Newgrounds in 1995; by 1999, its Portal was showcasing work from a wider community.
NNTP makes distributed discussion a protocol
NNTP defined a common way to retrieve, post, and distribute network news articles.
Numa Numa brings the bedroom to the web
An enthusiastic webcam performance showed the appeal of ordinary people performing for distant strangers.
Nyan Cat combines two creative streams
An animated pastry cat and a separately circulating song joined into a durable loop.
Open source becomes an organizing label
The Open Source Initiative formed around a new public framing for collaborative software development in 1998.
Open Source Guides: make contribution and maintenance practical
Open Source Guides collects practical material about starting, contributing to and maintaining open-source projects. Topics include finding users, welcoming communities, leadership and maintainer balance. It is useful wh
OpenRefine: clean a catalogue without hiding the changes
OpenRefine is an open-source tool for working with messy data, including cleaning, transformation and enrichment through external services. It is useful for a catalogue assembled from several exports, where inconsistent
OpenStreetMap starts building a map people can contribute to
OpenStreetMap began in 2004 as a collaborative project for geographic information.
Openverse: find reusable media and verify the original
Openverse helps discover openly licensed and public-domain images and audio gathered from multiple sources. It is useful early in an editorial process, when you need to compare possible illustrations without already know
Orkut closes and Google promises an archive of public communities
On 30 June 2014 Google announced on its India blog that Orkut would close on 30 September 2014. New accounts could no longer be created from that day. The post described Orkut as Google's first foray into social networki
Ozone makes community labeling a shared moderation tool
Bluesky released Ozone as open-source software on 12 March 2024. The collaborative tool lets a team inspect reports and apply labels to accounts or individual pieces of content. The accompanying announcement described in
Packets make shared networks practical
Donald Davies and colleagues at NPL developed packet switching as a way to share data networks.
Patreon links creative work to direct audience support
Patreon began in 2013 as an attempt to turn a creator's audience relationship into more sustainable support for ongoing work.
Pepe and the instability of a shared symbol
A comic character acquired incompatible meanings as different communities adapted it.
Periscope is retired as a separate app
On 15 December 2020 Twitter said in a Medium post that it would discontinue Periscope as a standalone mobile app by March 2021. The company's FAQ gave 31 March 2021 as the date. Broadcasts shared to Twitter would remain
Persistent identifier
A persistent identifier aims to give an object a stable reference even when its current web address changes. The DOI system is one example. Persistence depends on maintenance and organizational processes, not on a magica
Photobucket puts a price on images embedded elsewhere
Photobucket changed its terms of service on 20 June 2017 so that showing its images on other websites required a paid plan. CSO Online reported on 5 July 2017 that embedded images were replaced by a notice asking the own
Pinterest organizes discovery around visual ideas
Pinterest launched in 2010 and describes its role around visual search, collecting ideas, and finding inspiration.
PNG gives web images a lossless format
PNG became a W3C Recommendation in October 1996, defining a portable raster-image format.
PNG's third edition brings animation and modern color into the standard
W3C published the third edition of the Portable Network Graphics specification as a Recommendation on 24 June 2025. The update incorporated Animated PNG and added support for modern color information, including high dyna
Posterous shuts down a year after Twitter buys it
VentureBeat reported on 15 February 2013 that Posterous would be turned off on 30 April, along with its mobile apps. Twitter had acquired the company in March 2012 for an undisclosed price, and the report noted the shutd
Prepare a handover another editor can use
A durable archive can explain its choices when the person who made them is no longer available.
Primary source
Primary-source status depends on the research question. A platform's launch announcement is direct evidence of what the organization announced; it is not independent proof that every announced feature worked. A later int
Project Gutenberg treats literature as shareable data
Michael Hart began an electronic library project that made redistribution part of its purpose.
Provenance
Provenance records relationships between an object, the activities that affected it, and the people or systems responsible. For an archived image, that might include its creator, publication page, download, crop, and lat
Public domain and CC0
Public-domain status concerns a work's copyright position; CC0 is a tool intended to dedicate rights to the public domain as far as legally possible. They are not simply interchangeable labels for anything available onli
Put uncertain dates on an honest timeline
A tidy timeline can conceal uncertain evidence. An exact-looking date may come from a later upload, a timezone conversion, or a software default rather than the historical event itself. The goal is to preserve the precis
Quibi says its shows may not survive the shutdown
TechCrunch reported on 22 October 2020 that Quibi, the short-form streaming service, would end streaming 'on or about' 1 December 2020, according to a Quibi support page. The word 'about' suggested the date was not fully
Rage comics make a common cast
Reusable faces let amateur cartoonists tell personal stories in a shared language.
Ratatouille moves from shared joke to benefit performance
Distributed fan contributions developed into a staged online musical supporting entertainment workers.
Read Content Credentials critically
Content Credentials can provide structured information about an asset's origin and recorded processing history. The C2PA approach uses signed provenance records and validation checks. This is useful evidence, but it does