paintedlines

Is collecting one's past in an archive narcissistic or just morbid - and do you care - should I?

While setting up lotC, I filled in the tabs at the top with possible subsections - "archive" being the last. Initially it was only mean to be a space filler. But over time I started to develop ideas of what I could do with that area. None have been very solid, that is until last night.

At first I figured I would use the space as a place to post older info and things of interest. Things that have been on the net long enough that they really aren't worthy of a blog post but still worth a look now and then. A digital "dead letter" office. In the end, I realized that the name really didn't fit the idea so that was scrapped.

The thought of the area being an archive for something stuck with me. That, coupled with the notion that I would soon be hitting my tenth year as an active citizen of the net, lead to a more narcissistic purpose for the section. If it was to be an archive, why not an archive of my own past work? Bingo - it's so simple.

Now for the criteria
• Only works of text
• Only work that was written for the net or at one point had been on one of my previous sites
• There will be not editing for content - the original work will be posted

Now one may ask: There can't really be that much material? And in a way you might be right, but since this is, at its root, an exercise in ego, I don't really care. But there is enough to warrant the section. If my math is right, and looking at the sign-up dates for my oldest accounts bares me out, in the ten years I have been online there have been: four past attempts at a personal website, two stints as a regular columnist for a net magazine , a blog that lasted under a month and a period where all I did was write really moody poetry.

The dates of the work to be posted don't quite fill a decade, since, in the last few years my output for net material pretty much died. But as I said, there is enough and much of it people have really never seen before or have never connected with me. Its sorta fun to look back, and see how I have changed or not. And part of that fun is in tracking down everything that I have written . Old floppys, emails in folders I forgot about, to hunting sites that no longer exist in the Internet WayBack Machine. Its a challenge worth undertaking.

Anyway, look fior the Archive to go live soon. It will be the next section to go live. And probably the only new addition to make it in under my self imposed deadline - that i have no chance in Hell of meeting. Oh well - moving on...

While lotc is shaping up to be my digital future, I don't want to forget my digital past. Its not that these things will ever go away, few things once on the net ever do, it would just feel good to have the fragments organized and available, if only for myself. People leave few tangible lasting thing behind - my words may not be much, but there is a good chance they will far out last me

When you move into a new home, you typically take something of the old with you. Why should a website be any different. Clean slates are nice, and all, but they are only as clean as how much you choose to erase.