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This comment is probably going to hit a nerve. Why should I donate to the Internet Archive? The very rare times that I use it, it’s extremely slow (as slow as o

by AnonHP 5y ago

This comment is probably going to hit a nerve. Why should I donate to the Internet Archive? The very rare times that I use it, it’s extremely slow (as slow as or slower than TOR). The interface looks like it’s from two decades ago. The site trawls through and tries to captures everything from a website without providing an easy way to be excluded from archiving (it long ignored any robots.txt directives) and doesn’t provide an easy way for content removal (need to email, wait, go back and forth about ownership, etc.). From others, I’ve heard some good things about the library containing books and other media, but formatting of the books may not be great (unlike standardebooks.org, which is more limited though). Since everybody has a budget of sorts for donations, I personally see a lot more value donating to other organizations and not donating to this one for the above reasons.

marderfarker2 5y ago
You may not see the value now until you need it. Just like the photos in your phone.
solarkraft 5y ago
- It archives important things (you will be aware of this reason) - A donation hopefully frees resources to work on these things (I also find the UI terrible and think a lot of value could be freed through some curation)
hellbannedguy 5y ago
It's worth donating too. There are a few things I would like them to do: 1. No more stupid mistakes, like that Free for All Covid fiasco. (Don't blatantly irritate copywrite owners.) 2. Offer all their material (non copy written) to anyone in the USA. Let anyone house the data if they want. 3. Put all salaries, and assets, on your front page, or very easily found. I looked up their administrative salaries (CEO, BOD, etc.) a few years ago on Waystar (back then--salaries of founders seemed reasonable.) The founder was using the nonprofit CC for questionable purchases, but I don't even think he is around anymore. Oh yea, when looking up 1040's on Waystar it's free information, but the website makes it look like you need to pay for free government information, or used too? There are many websites that offer free 1040's now though.) I would like to see every 501c3 in the USA list the highest salaries of everyone in the charity, the number of volunteers, and the average pay of paid employees. I see way to many people blindly giving money to charities. Many are great like this nonprofit, but so many are overfunded, or just set up to support one, or two people. In my county, many nonprofits are considered just a business move with a sympathetic name. Too many are run by a husband, and wife, and are just a way to live a comfortable life. Every year it seems to be getting worse. Obama knew what was going on in a lot of 501c3's, and was about to take action, but backed away. I don't know why, but he took it off his agenda very quickly.
- mhh__ 5y ago
  If I were a charity I wouldn't list the salaries, not proudly at least. I see what you mean but the amount of times I see people making a fuss about charities daring to pay a decent salary to their employees really irritates me. I have tried to explain to people that good leadership is not cheap but the only thing they ever think is that any money not spent on food is wasted. A big charity might have millions or even billions in assets, and should be run with similar gravitas and skill to a comparable business. I see your point about nonprofits though.
olau 5y ago
You should donate to them because when you use them at those very rare times, they are your only option. They really care about preserving the past. Also, who cares about the UI if you only use them rarely? You don't buy ice cream from ugly ice cream sellers either? :)
robin_reala 5y ago
Archive.org is a core part of the process for producing a Standard Ebooks ePub. It’s not enough to just start with a transcription; if you want quality to need to back-reference to scans at some point which is where archive.org comes in. OK, there’s Hathi and Google Books too, but Hathi doesn’t allow PDF downloads and Google Books is useless unless you VPN in from a US IP.

by AnonHP 5y ago

marderfarker2 5y ago

You may not see the value now until you need it. Just like the photos in your phone.

solarkraft 5y ago

- It archives important things (you will be aware of this reason) - A donation hopefully frees resources to work on these things (I also find the UI terrible and think a lot of value could be freed through some curation)

hellbannedguy 5y ago

It's worth donating too. There are a few things I would like them to do: 1. No more stupid mistakes, like that Free for All Covid fiasco. (Don't blatantly irritate copywrite owners.) 2. Offer all their material (non copy written) to anyone in the USA. Let anyone house the data if they want. 3. Put all salaries, and assets, on your front page, or very easily found. I looked up their administrative salaries (CEO, BOD, etc.) a few years ago on Waystar (back then--salaries of founders seemed reasonable.) The founder was using the nonprofit CC for questionable purchases, but I don't even think he is around anymore. Oh yea, when looking up 1040's on Waystar it's free information, but the website makes it look like you need to pay for free government information, or used too? There are many websites that offer free 1040's now though.) I would like to see every 501c3 in the USA list the highest salaries of everyone in the charity, the number of volunteers, and the average pay of paid employees. I see way to many people blindly giving money to charities. Many are great like this nonprofit, but so many are overfunded, or just set up to support one, or two people. In my county, many nonprofits are considered just a business move with a sympathetic name. Too many are run by a husband, and wife, and are just a way to live a comfortable life. Every year it seems to be getting worse. Obama knew what was going on in a lot of 501c3's, and was about to take action, but backed away. I don't know why, but he took it off his agenda very quickly.

mhh__ 5y ago
If I were a charity I wouldn't list the salaries, not proudly at least. I see what you mean but the amount of times I see people making a fuss about charities daring to pay a decent salary to their employees really irritates me. I have tried to explain to people that good leadership is not cheap but the only thing they ever think is that any money not spent on food is wasted. A big charity might have millions or even billions in assets, and should be run with similar gravitas and skill to a comparable business. I see your point about nonprofits though.

olau 5y ago

You should donate to them because when you use them at those very rare times, they are your only option. They really care about preserving the past. Also, who cares about the UI if you only use them rarely? You don't buy ice cream from ugly ice cream sellers either? :)

robin_reala 5y ago

Archive.org is a core part of the process for producing a Standard Ebooks ePub. It’s not enough to just start with a transcription; if you want quality to need to back-reference to scans at some point which is where archive.org comes in. OK, there’s Hathi and Google Books too, but Hathi doesn’t allow PDF downloads and Google Books is useless unless you VPN in from a US IP.