What makes it valuable is that it is the Folk that are depositing a route to their collecting in one place, by and large. If Fakebook manages to keep its record of fakery for 100 years, historians will have a huge task, even with AI, in sifting for a subject.

A folkussed (sic) genre makes that task so much easier. Given the current ranking of Folk in the general mountain of data it is inevitable that somewhere like the Mudcat has a huge role to play.

I wonder - what plans have Max & colleagues got for the long term sustainability of the 'Cat's archive?

I face the same question with my Oral Archive how best to ensure its longevity after my demise. There are local archives that get copies, but how to leave 2Gb visible on the interweb? Any ideas?

Always assuming something as ubiquitous and fast changing, can remain backward compatible enough. cf, say, cylinder recordings or 9.5mm cine.