The Challenges of being an Archive Channel, according to Aspie ADog
Having subscribed to and consumed my fair share of content archived by channels dedicated to keeping it alive, I think I can identify five core problems that will only get bigger as macroeconomic forces push in increasingly unfavourable directions.
Problem #1: The raw material generally required to get started in this hobby is becoming more and more like a fossil fuel. What do I mean by that? Well, fossil fuels, whether Republicans want to acknowledge it or not, are finite. i.e. They will eventually become non-existent. And I’ve noticed recently that generally prolific uploaders have begun to acknowledge this reality. Sticky tape ‘n’ rust said the following in a channel post about this issue:
“Things are really starting to get dry out there for new material for continuity unloaders! [I think he meant uploaders?] Us continuity uploaders and our subscribers may have to face the possibility that before the end of this decade there may be gaps between uploads as there isn’t an infinite number of tapes out there. At some point, the number of tapes that haven’t been checked will simply run out and there are signs that we’re nearing that point. We’re not there yet but it’s now making itself obvious that it’s within the foreseeable future!” [6]
The Ingest Department, who gave me the PERFECT central image for my Thumbnail today, echoed those sentiments by saying:
“The amount of stuff that goes into skips too and is thrown away by people. And to be fair, can you blame them? How are they to know? They just stumble upon their tapes they used once a week to tape the news and that’s it. It is very much a hit and miss hobby. I missed about three boxes of tapes a year or so ago in London that I’d been offered but then the guy [gave] them to someone else. It’s a hard world!” [6]
And another one, Mummy giraffe presents classic UK TV, added: “Problem is there’s a lot more tape miners now than when we started in 2007 [and] thus far fewer fresh tapes to go round.” [6] And this comment in particular I don’t think should be ignored because, as I said, I’m not 100% up to date on all the routes and sources people use to find the tapes they process, but it does seem to imply that archiving has becoming a kind of Klondike Gold Rush. I mean, the technical side has gotten more and more sophisticated and there are more and more places where you can discover pretty much anything from Television over the past 30+ Years plus. Primarily on YouTube and particularly with sound quality that is so 2025. But, to quote a basic economic theory, when demand increases, supply decreases. Although I do think the Supply Side in this case has a ceiling that will eventually be hit.
This begs the question, and leads into Problem #2: Who will technically own what when the dust settles, and the gold has completely dried up? I think easily the biggest slippery slope in this whole hobby is everyone’s favourite legal c-word, Copyright. Now, unless you’re Disney or a lawyer with galaxy brain intelligence, Copyright, in theory, eventually has an expiration date. I don’t care, at least today, about the specific parameters of it within the context of this hobby. What I care about more is the issue of ownership and who can really claim ownership of tapes once they’ve been digitised, and the content uploaded onto the internet.
Now, for me, common sense would dictate that should be the person who checked the tape first. And most of the time, it is. However, I am vaguely aware of conflict that occasionally ensues when copies of the same piece of content are uploaded by two or more different channels. Which I think is redundant since, if one channel goes under, at least the other channel keeps that piece of content alive. Although I do take issue with content that is taken from one place which uploaded it in decent quality and ends up being edited and uploaded in very poor quality. And also put behind an Age Gate for no reason. As for DCAs, this is where I think they can play their part most effectively. By keeping alive content that seemed lost to YouTube’s VHS Vexation forever. So long as they give credit where credit is due. Why do you think I reference everything I cite or insert an embedded link into?
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