Do you ever think of your online posts as a part of your legacy?

[Duer 157099]

And, if they were to suddenly disappear at the descretion of the webmaster who owns the site where they are posted, would you feel slighted? Like you lost a part of yourself? Perhaps part of the record of your life, your diary, that your ancestors might have been interested to find?

I think I do. And a few months ago, I found that all the posts I had made to a particular online community had disappeared, computer issues, reconfiguration, etc. It happens, of course. For whatever reason.

But I felt like I had lost something.

Anyone relate?

[MiddleFingerMom]

1. No.

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I often think I should keep a log or a blog with some of my posts (but never
actually DO it), but I've never felt a site is a permanent archive of "me".
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Except, of course, for PermanentArchiveOfYou.comm.
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The disappearance of that would really piss me off.
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[RandomThoughts]

2. That is part of temporal lore.

There are some people that think that people in the future do things now, and they do that by things like records.

That same comment is thought on topics of erasing people, like they did to a pharaoh in Egypt, or like is done when history is rewritten.


It is the concept that 'man remembers' It is the same thing many groups have thinking that power is in peoples hands.

I can retype or recreate anything I have said before if I wanted to, nor do I need people to read what I type now or later.

The effects will occur because they should.



Although it would be funny if one small forum administrator or moderator was a bottle neck for so many thoughts from someone. LOL but not what I think is the case.


I think there is a commonality in thought of correlation without causation, in most things, in that something does not have to be read by everyone. It is possible thousands of people are saying the same things so everyone hears it, but each person only hears it from one person. Thought about that as a story idea once.

[MilesColtrane]

3. Nah...

After I die, my legacy will only consist of empty liquor bottles and broken hearts

[Call Me Wesley]

9. And these empty liquor bottles

will surely tell some stories. The broken hearts, too, but at least you can preserve the labels from the empty liquor bottles. ;)

[JanMichael]

4. Interesting question...a friend of ours just died last week...one that we

had lost touch with for a couple of reasons...

Now, I have found some of his old posts on fly fishing forums, Facebook, DU...etc. Yes, in a very real way, online posts are a legacy.

[hippywife]

5. Nope.

I'm just out here talking to people. No legacy building involved. :hi:

[bigwillq]

6. No

It's just a message board. I have a real life, you know. :)
Seriously, no. Don't think about it. Don't feel like I would lose something if it happened.

[Phentex]

7. Yes! I discovered some archives for a mailing list...

I was on when my son was a baby. It was fascinating! I do write in a journal but I was talking online to this group for about three years and there were so many little things I had forgotten about.

I don't know about others being interested in what I said back then, but I think I want to find the time to cut and paste certain messages. I'm still shocked they are "out there" somewhere!

[Duer 157099]

16. That's certainly one aspect, as a reminder to ourselves

Of what was happening when and what we thought about it. Posting online has largely substituted writing in a journal for many people, in fact, that's exactly what many blogs actually *are*--someone's online journal.

[Tobin S.]

8. Hell, I wish some of my posts would disappear :)

PUI and all that. ;)

[Call Me Wesley]

10. Absolutely no, to be honest.

In fact, I'd prefer to have anything possibly erased in case of my demise. There's enough written stuff on paper around here that will keep my legacy. Everything online is just bits and bites and nothing for me to conserve. Like this post.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. My dear Duer 157099...

I do see my posts as part of my legacy.

And not only mine. But also the posts of some dear friends here...

If they should suddenly vanish from my life, then at least I would still have their words and thoughts that I read and felt, here.

A lot of important things have been said to me here.

I want to remember...

:hug:

[RandomThoughts]

12. Someone needing a legacy is a limitation.

Seems pretty silly.

Might as well leave your legacy on the melted faces of your foes.

[Duer 157099]

17. It may not be so much needing a legacy

as much as thinking that my son, when he is grown up and mature, may stumble upon things I've written and he'll come to understand me better, something that's not possible right now when he's a teenager.

I could be very delusional thinking that, of course!

[RandomThoughts]

18. Shrug, all story telling starts with imagination.

sometimes there are metaphors, sometimes not. On the topic of delusion.

Although I like your concept of having something to think on later. Although many comments really are part of the time they are spoken in. you lose alot of context without the same context when a comment is made.

Wasn't there a movie about that?

[Duer 157099]

19. I'm sure there have been many movies about this

and ironically, the particular message board I was thinking of when I penned the OP was a board devoted to film analysis, and it's my (and others') comments there that I'm sorry have disappeared. There was lots of valuable analysis there.

[RandomThoughts]

21. don't take it to hard.

probably happens many times, no different then a conversation in a bar, has meaning at the time.

[LaurenG]

13. I am actually hoping that many of mine disappear

primary wars, hissy fits, stuff like that are better off gone.

[Old Troop]

14. God! I hope not!!

[david13]

15. No. I'm not a legacy person. I'm just an ordinary person. dc

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

20. Godalmighty, I hope not.

[lizziegrace]

22. Nope

The real legacy is your family - children, grand-children and friends who love you. It's not what you post on an internet message board.

[Seneca]

23. You rock my world

:D

[Duer 157099]

25. When I learn of the loss of an online "friend"

I feel it as deeply as if the person were my neighbor.

[lizziegrace]

27. Did you read my reply closely?

I didn't say the legacy included just those in real life. I have some dear friends online. But as a whole, my posts are that, posts. The friends and family I leave behind are my legacy.

I say a toast whenever I have company for a meal. "To friends who are family and family who are friends."

[applegrove]

24. Not really. The ideas discussed here are what is important to me. And that Dems do okay in the

election. That is my legacy...moving things along in my little way.

[CreekDog]

26. depends what my legacy is

if infamy, then my posts here will support that. :P