Gemini Archiving and WARC

[acdw]

On 2020-09-01 (Tuesday) at 23:43, Charles E. Lehner <cel at celehner.com> wrote:

> Hi Gemini List,
> 
> Has anyone thought about, or implemented, archiving of Gemini content/traffic?
> 
> WARC (Web ARChive)¹ is a standard format used for web archiving. It 
> uses text headers for metadata like in HTTP and email. It looks to me 
> like WARC could be adapted for Gemini. The WARC spec supports multiple 
> URI schemes, although it doesn't specify any other than http/https, 
> ftp, and dns². Bespoke formats could also be used, of course, or just 
> downloading files wget-style, but using a standard format could allow 
> for interop with "the WARC ecosystem"³.
> 
> Archive Team⁴ has also worked on archiving non-HTTP protocols like FTP⁵ 
> and Gopher⁶.
> 
> I think there is an opportunity for people to maintain high-quality 
> archives of Gemini content, like what the Internet Archive⁷ and 
> archive.today⁸ do for the HTTP(S) Web. Now is a good time to start, 
> while many of the original Gemini hosts⁹ are still online.
> 
> Regards,
> Charles E. Lehner
> 
> ¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_ARChive
> ² 
> https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/#ftp-scheme
> ³ https://www.archiveteam.org/index.php?title=The_WARC_Ecosystem
> ⁴ https://www.archiveteam.org/
>   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archive_Team
> ⁵ https://www.archiveteam.org/index.php?title=FTP
> ⁶ https://www.archiveteam.org/index.php?title=Gopher
> ⁷ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Archive
>   https://archive.org/
> ⁸ https://archive.today
>   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archive.today
> ⁹ gemini://gemini.circumlunar.space/servers/
>

I personally think this is a great idea, but I know some might not be so on-board with it. I'm thinking of solderpunk's post (in their gopherhole, actually): gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space:70/0/~solderpunk/phlog/the-individual-archivist-and-ghosts-of-gophers-past.txt

So is there a way to opt-out of archiving for publishers? Some in the community might want to know about it, though I personally am of the opinion that if you've published it, it's now the property of the commons.

-- 
~ acdw
acdw.net | breadpunk.club/~breadw