6 ms·

Warner Bros. Scrubs Cartoon Network Website, Erasing Years of History

49 points by clwg 2y ago

Bluestein 2y ago
Impermanence is a problem. The main information substrate of society is based on media that - unlike books or print - needs sustained economic investments after creation just for it's continued existence, a problem often made worse by a single publisher point of failure.- Until we "fix" this, or find a permanence solution, entire swathes of culture will keep vanishing wholesale, until nothing remains on record from our age - a dark age, or gap - when seen from the future, looking back. Hindsight will only find a void - AIs, perhaps, our only remaining collective memory from this age up to an age where information permanence is widespread and solved.-
- ls612 2y ago
  At least the torrent sites will likely have all of these episodes somewhere. Piracy is the only way to ensure data permanence in the modern world probably by design.
  - kjkjadksj 2y ago
    They are still beholden to seeders maintaining hardware and connectivity.
    - Bluestein 2y ago
      I was going to say that - regarding my claim of them needing 'continued investments' to exist - but at least they are descentralized, which might help.-
  - eleveriven 2y ago
    Relying on piracy for data permanence cannot be a good idea...
    - ls612 2y ago
      Do you have a better idea?
      - Bluestein 2y ago
        It's a hard problem. But turning to librarians - the information cataloging experts - could be a start. A public-sector backed, librarian-implemented effort, based on blockchain technologies could perhaps work.-
- lancesells 2y ago
  Impermanence is a part of life. Things are born, live, and then die. I sympathise with the creators and fans of works that disappear due to economics but I don't really know if most media leaving us is a loss to humanity.
  - Bluestein 2y ago
    Totally see your point, granted. But it was the permanence of our knowledge and science and wisdom and arts throughout the ages that has - to some degree - given us progress. A collective memory.- The further problem is that this impermanence is, structurally, a "default" for the current, dominating media - whereas it was only a fraction of knowledge that was lost or vanished when the imperative modes of transmission were "permanent-by-default".- Further, methinks, we would be missing on a great opportunity - enabled by technology - to make knowledge permanent and accesible - going a bit beyond, from remedial action to constructive action ... The other side of that goes to impermanence as a feature, the "right to be forgotten" and such aspects ... ... which are also important and in league with the "natural" entropy you rightly point out exists ... ... but the pressing problem is - methinks - on the other side of that spectrum, the side of guaranteeing what up to very recently had been a feature of information media: Its capacity to transcend time, and remain.-
  - falcor84 2y ago
    I've been thinking about this recently and am somewhat concerned that we're moving towards a world where every single interaction between person and machine, and increasingly between two people or even between a person and the physical environment, is being recorded and stored for eternity. There's just so much potential for abuse here.
    - Bluestein 2y ago
      > environment, is being recorded and stored for eternity I'd posit, precisely, that it isn't eternity. But a putative eternity or an "implied" eternity ... ... but nowhere near that in actual practice, to the point of being potentially ephemeral, to our detriment.- (Naught of which subtracts from your valid concerns, where warranted ...)
- eleveriven 2y ago
  We can say that out digital media is fragile
brunoarueira 2y ago
It's a pitty! On the other hand If someone scraps the website to preserve as history, they'll go after and will apply a DMCA takedown.
satchel888 2y ago
[dead]
eleveriven 2y ago
Why... just why? It might help the studio save money in the short term, but they risk undermining its long-term brand
- duped 2y ago
  When AT&T spun off Warner to Discovery, the new Warner got stuck with $58 billion in debt (their market cap is like, $18 billion). They've managed to clear that down to $40 billion today. Meanwhile, last week they wrote down like $11 billion on their balance sheet, due to the devaluation of all the TV networks. So long-term brand value isn't really worth a ton because they're in so much debt they can't borrow from future profits to pay current debts. The reason they're shutting down these websites is to do two things, first streamline their streaming offerings to just Max, and second to free up the licenses to all their content in the vault to sell to other streaming platforms for cash today. And they're in so much debt that no one is going to buy them out. So there's going to be no brand in the long term if they don't fix it. AT&T truly fucked them over, my prediction is in a year or two there will be a fire sale of former Warner assets. Netflix or Amazon buys the backlot.
rockemsockem 2y ago
Most of it is fortunately preserved on the hard drives of many pirates
alephnerd 2y ago
Rip my childhood of CN's flash games (I never solved thr scooby doo rpg with the underwater pyramid). I wonder if that flash Cyberchase RPG on PBS Kids is still online...

49 points by clwg 2y ago

Impermanence is a problem. The main information substrate of society is based on media that - unlike books or print - needs sustained economic investments after creation just for it's continued existence, a problem often made worse by a single publisher point of failure.- Until we "fix" this, or find a permanence solution, entire swathes of culture will keep vanishing wholesale, until nothing remains on record from our age - a dark age, or gap - when seen from the future, looking back. Hindsight will only find a void - AIs, perhaps, our only remaining collective memory from this age up to an age where information permanence is widespread and solved.-

ls612 2y ago
At least the torrent sites will likely have all of these episodes somewhere. Piracy is the only way to ensure data permanence in the modern world probably by design.
- kjkjadksj 2y ago
  They are still beholden to seeders maintaining hardware and connectivity.
  - Bluestein 2y ago
    I was going to say that - regarding my claim of them needing 'continued investments' to exist - but at least they are descentralized, which might help.-
- eleveriven 2y ago
  Relying on piracy for data permanence cannot be a good idea...
  - ls612 2y ago
    Do you have a better idea?
    - Bluestein 2y ago
      It's a hard problem. But turning to librarians - the information cataloging experts - could be a start. A public-sector backed, librarian-implemented effort, based on blockchain technologies could perhaps work.-
lancesells 2y ago
Impermanence is a part of life. Things are born, live, and then die. I sympathise with the creators and fans of works that disappear due to economics but I don't really know if most media leaving us is a loss to humanity.
- Bluestein 2y ago
  Totally see your point, granted. But it was the permanence of our knowledge and science and wisdom and arts throughout the ages that has - to some degree - given us progress. A collective memory.- The further problem is that this impermanence is, structurally, a "default" for the current, dominating media - whereas it was only a fraction of knowledge that was lost or vanished when the imperative modes of transmission were "permanent-by-default".- Further, methinks, we would be missing on a great opportunity - enabled by technology - to make knowledge permanent and accesible - going a bit beyond, from remedial action to constructive action ... The other side of that goes to impermanence as a feature, the "right to be forgotten" and such aspects ... ... which are also important and in league with the "natural" entropy you rightly point out exists ... ... but the pressing problem is - methinks - on the other side of that spectrum, the side of guaranteeing what up to very recently had been a feature of information media: Its capacity to transcend time, and remain.-
- falcor84 2y ago
  I've been thinking about this recently and am somewhat concerned that we're moving towards a world where every single interaction between person and machine, and increasingly between two people or even between a person and the physical environment, is being recorded and stored for eternity. There's just so much potential for abuse here.
  - Bluestein 2y ago
    > environment, is being recorded and stored for eternity I'd posit, precisely, that it isn't eternity. But a putative eternity or an "implied" eternity ... ... but nowhere near that in actual practice, to the point of being potentially ephemeral, to our detriment.- (Naught of which subtracts from your valid concerns, where warranted ...)
eleveriven 2y ago
We can say that out digital media is fragile

brunoarueira 2y ago

It's a pitty! On the other hand If someone scraps the website to preserve as history, they'll go after and will apply a DMCA takedown.

satchel888 2y ago

[dead]

eleveriven 2y ago

Why... just why? It might help the studio save money in the short term, but they risk undermining its long-term brand

duped 2y ago
When AT&T spun off Warner to Discovery, the new Warner got stuck with $58 billion in debt (their market cap is like, $18 billion). They've managed to clear that down to $40 billion today. Meanwhile, last week they wrote down like $11 billion on their balance sheet, due to the devaluation of all the TV networks. So long-term brand value isn't really worth a ton because they're in so much debt they can't borrow from future profits to pay current debts. The reason they're shutting down these websites is to do two things, first streamline their streaming offerings to just Max, and second to free up the licenses to all their content in the vault to sell to other streaming platforms for cash today. And they're in so much debt that no one is going to buy them out. So there's going to be no brand in the long term if they don't fix it. AT&T truly fucked them over, my prediction is in a year or two there will be a fire sale of former Warner assets. Netflix or Amazon buys the backlot.

rockemsockem 2y ago

Most of it is fortunately preserved on the hard drives of many pirates

alephnerd 2y ago

Rip my childhood of CN's flash games (I never solved thr scooby doo rpg with the underwater pyramid). I wonder if that flash Cyberchase RPG on PBS Kids is still online...