tech: Massive Google Purge

Subject: RE: tech: Massive Google Purge
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Jan 24 - 11:24 AM

Dr. Word, we cross posted. I put up links to the same site you mentioned.

Subject: RE: tech: Massive Google Purge
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Jan 24 - 11:23 AM

I hadn't thought about that - YouTube accounts are tied to personal Gmail accounts, etc.

One way to preserve precious videos is to store them at the Internet Archive. Go to the Projects page and find information about what and how to upload it. You may have to download things from YouTube then upload them here. There are ways that organizations can archive things and lots of types of projects. And as always - it is another great place to donate cash. Just like Mudcat and Wikipedia and some of your other favorite crowd-sourced valuable resources. I have a few old movies on VHS tape that are not available in any library or streaming sites that I digitized and uploaded. I don't claim copyright, though most of them are old enough that it isn't a problem.

Subject: RE: tech: Massive Google Purge
From: GUEST,DrWord
Date: 18 Jan 24 - 11:21 AM

^oops   Just wanted to thank you, Joe. I don’t know much about the work of web.archive.org ~ only that I retrieved some html stuff of mine for which the old links had “expired”.   I have no idea how much that org has done/ is doing, how much server space, &c.
You’re our tech deity @ the ‘cat! The archive thing obviously can’t address these issues, maybe especially video/audio ~ ah, there’s lots of data in the ditch along the “InfoSuperHighway”   Bless the Mudcat forum and DT ! Others may try fishing for “lost files” besides the blues and folk ??
   Thanks encore, Joe. Be kind to yourself. Keep on picking

Subject: RE: tech: Massive Google Purge
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Jan 24 - 12:13 AM

Here's the Google announcement: https://blog.google/technology/safety-security/updating-our-inactive-account-policies/

May 16, 2023 — Starting later this year, if a Google Account has not been used or signed into for at least 2 years, we may delete the account and its contents

I maintain a song database for the Rise Up Singing and Rise Again Songbooks, and I try to have at least one YouTube video link for each song in the books. But it's a constant job to keep those links up-to-date, because recordings in Google's YouTube are constantly moving into oblivion. That's why we ask that when you give music information at Mudcat, that you post the full information PLUS a link to where you found it. Links tend to die, and we don't want Mudcat to become a collection of dead links. This is especially important for song lyrics and background information about songs.

Links die - keep the information alive at Mudcat.

-Joe-

Subject: Massive Google Purge
From: GUEST,ChrisJBrady
Date: 17 Jan 24 - 11:16 PM

Seems that the big purge of Google accounts has hit YouTube despite announcements that they would be exempt. This appears to be a temporary reprieve. So in future many rare uploads could well be deleted without warnings. The issue is worrying because as in the case of ‘missing’ or ‘lost’ episodes’ folks will digitise old tapes, then upload then to YT, only to maybe pass away, then have their account deleted for inactivity, taking their uploads with them. This would not be the first time that websites, accounts, and uploads have been purged from the web.