I found a 2005 thread where everyone said to save old forum posts as plain text, but I think that's wrong.

The thread was on a webmaster forum, and the top comment with 50 upvotes said to always save posts as .txt files. I chose to save mine as HTML instead, because I wanted to keep the formatting and links. It took me a weekend to set up, but now I can actually see the old posts as they were meant to be seen. Does anyone else think we should be saving the full look of these old threads, not just the raw text?

2 comments

2 Comments

felix_fox1mo ago

But you lose the searchability and portability of plain text... HTML files can break over time.

bencampbell1mo ago

Ever try to open an old HTML file with broken image links or busted CSS? It's like finding a photo album where half the pictures are missing. Plain text just sits there, boring but perfect, forever. A decade from now, your markdown note will still work, but that fancy web page might just be a blank screen with some sad error messages.