Nobody gives a shit about your dumbass Doctor Who headcanon.

The Library of Congress is no longer archiving tweets in general. They’ve acquired an archive of tweets over time since starting in 2010, even retroactively going back and getting everything since 2006. but they’re stopping the willy nilly archiving, mostly due to the fact that Twitter is trash.

Which isn’t really a surprise. Most people treat the platform as a toilet for their every little thought and opinion. 140 280 characters at a time, natch. That latter bit, the move to 280 characters, is in part what did it. The other is simply that they tend not to build such comprehensive archives in the long term. According to the white paper:

Collection Decision

The Library continuously reviews its ongoing acquisitions, whether subscriptions to

newspapers or the receipt of tweets via a gift. As a result of the review, the Library has

determined that its initial Twitter collection will consist of a twelve-year snapshot of the

beginning of one of social media’s most important and transformative communication tools.

Subsequent selective tweet collecting may continue in addition to the twelve – year snapshot.

Some factors contributing to this decision include:

(a)

The nature of Twitter has changed over time.

i.

The volume of tweets and related transactions has evolved and

increased dramatically since the initial agreement was signed.

ii.

The Library

only receives text. It does not receive images, videos or

linked content. Tweets now are often more visual than textual, limiting the value

of text-only collecting.

iii.

Twitter is expanding the size of tweets beyond what was originally

described at the beginning of effort.

(b)

The Library now has the first 12 years of public tweets. This period documents

the rise of an important social media platform.

(c)

The Library generally does not collect comprehensively. Given the unknown

direction of social media when the gift was first planned, the Library made an

exception for public tweets. With social media now established, the Library is bringing

its collecting practice more in line with its collection policies.

As stated, they’ll still be collecting tweets. They’re just going to be more selective about what gets saved. Presidents, political leaders, culturally significant people as a rule of thumb. Though it’s conceivable that they’ll also collect what’s said around a large event, like a disaster or momentous landmark occasion. Just, not anything related to what cartoon characters you want to have sex with or, like, anything Bob Chipman has to say.

See, THIS is why the least realistic thing that was ever on TNG is that nobody took an industrial jackhammer to Data's skull after the first week of having to explain the logic progression of very simple jokes. https://t.co/P27F2siIti

— Bob Chipman 😁 bobchipman.bsky.social (@the_moviebob) December 22, 2017

In the Superior Future™, we destroy or murder things or people we don’t like. Good job with that anger management, Chippy.

Sources: Gizmodo, Library of Congress blog

About Author

B. Simmons

Based out of Glendale California, Bryan is a GAMbIT’s resident gaming contributor. Specializing in PC and portable gaming, you can find Bryan on his 3DS playing Monster Hunter or at one of the various conventions throughout the state.

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