DISCLAIMER: this post is not about, or inspired by, that recent post about the creepy woman’s shitty apology, nor about any other people trying to rewrite their own histories. This is a post I have been thinking about for a while.

Anyway, I (obviously) get that internet archival is both necessary and pretty dang fun. But as we get closer and closer to technology being omnipotent and demanding all details of our lives, it becomes imperative that we be responsible with what we archive about others. We have to become the people that choose to forget information that 30 years ago would have died with someone in their diary.

Back in 2014 I chose to stop writing an article about a well-known “lost media” video game when I discovered one of the main developers had completely divorced themself from it when they transitioned; all interviews and publications about the game used their deadname. It felt like it would be not only irresponsible but potentially dangerous for me to point out that these were the same person, in case this was a line they were deliberately drawing. I had no way of knowing if they had gotten hurt.

Ask yourself: are you distributing people’s potentially-dangerous personal info? Home addresses? Deadnames? Does your right to freely distribute a work override their right to feel safe?

This is not anti-archival, anti-piracy. It’s about understanding that most people who make or post things online are people. I know there are a lot of people who will just do whatever they want, but I think this is still a discussion worth keeping open because I’m sure there’s just as many people who legitimately forget to consider it when they link to 10-Year-Old Amy Catluver2002’s Kinda-Aesthetic LiveJournal From 2002. Including even me.