Dependence

I’ve been thinking about the stuff I depend upon to keep this blog, and in particular about link rot.

Most of the stuff I post here is sharing something I saw elsewhere.

I depend on other sites I link to to keep the links alive. I could mitigate this by always linking via the Wayback Machine, but I would also be dependent on them…

I depend on YouTube for the videos I share. I could copy and host them myself, but that would increase a LOT the cost of keeping all the stuff. I depend on Spotify for the songs I share. I could copy the audio and host them myself, but that might be considered a copyright violation.

And even for stuff I own and have a backup for, I depend on Flickr to keep my photos, on SoundCloud to keep my music, on GitHub to keep my code. The list goes on and on…

Dependence and trust. This is what makes the web go round.

Speaking of trust…

Should I go live in a cabin in the woods?