Everything is temporary, even the uni(/multi)verse. ;) :P

Everything is Temporary

This article is about how files are temporary even though the people who uploaded the files probably thought they're not (so they didn't really future-proof stuff).

Example 1: Flash. It was being used everywhere, so I don't think the average person thought it would get replaced by anything, yet there was an announcement from Adobe in 2017 that it would shut down on Dec 31, 2020, and it vanished on Jan 12, 2021 (Adobe already stopped supporting Flash on Dec 31, 2020, but Flash stopped working on Jan 12, 2021, due to a killswitch in newer versions of it). Bunnyhero Labs is a good example (especially since the person in charge of the site has moved on to other projects that he has made a different site for; luckily the site is still up and unchanged as of 2024)! I've seen many old sites with Java apps too, like Microprizes (on the Links page). As of March 12, 2017, Firefox phased Java out fully. :( Thankfully there are older Firefox versions available! ;) Also thankfully, BlueMaxima's Flashpoint is an archiving effort started way back ;) in 2017, when Adobe announced Flash's shut down, that has currently archived 90,000+ games and 10,000+ animations from Flash, Java and various other webgame platforms, like Silverlight. I've contributed a couple of games to Flashpoint so far... ;) Ruffle, a Flash emulator, is being used in place of Flash for various sites, including Newgrounds (NG also made their own Player) and Homestar Runner! It's a little glitchy, especially with games and ActionScript 3 stuff, but it'll hopefully improve.

Example 2: Screenmates. I download some when I was younger. One of them was a wind-up bird screenmate and another was a rockhopper penguin's head in a window that would follow your cursor across the screen (from Neon Genesis Evangelion, but I didn't know that as a kid as I found it on a random site that didn't say that info). Now, no matter how hard I tried to find the first one, all the links were broken (or behind viruses/adware)), but I finally found him through a site archived on the Wayback Machine :D and have him for download now on the Downloads page (works on Arch Linux but haven't tried it on Windows 10), and as for the second one, which I finally found at Otakuworld (hooray for 'em!), fails to install on Windows 10 since it's 16-bit. At least on Arch Linux, he seems to work! :D Just run the self-extracting installer, and it'll extract to the same folder it's in. Then click on PENPEN.EXE and it should run! :D Whoopee! Anyway, this is usually because either the servers go down (sometimes they're even from Geocities! ;) ) or the owner of the site abandons it and possibly deletes most of the files. Sometimes the person forgets about the site and thus doesn't pay for hosting the site (or doesn't have money to do so), thus it goes down. As for the screenmates themselves not working, either they used weird code that only works on a specific OS and nowhere else, or it's simple backwards compatibility issues (like in the case of PenPen here).

Example 3: Revamps. Sometimes, people revamp(ire :P ) their site. Most of the time, this is a horrible mistake because they usually remove access to the old files in one way or another (even if the files are still on the server). They could also move servers/webhosts.  A site called rubaduck.com (about rubber ducks; not NSFW :P ) went down, claiming to be 'redecorating'. The next time I went there, the domain was for sale. ;) Another site, coolnerds.com, (contained XP tricks and tutorials among other computer-related stuff) went down and the webmaster made a different site, called alansimpson.me. It didn't have any of the previous one's content. (Unlike the next one after the next one. ;) ). Download.com used to be a good site, believe it or not. Then it was taken over by C|Net... ;) ShreeGanesh.com suddenly revamped in Oct 2020! Some content has been removed, like most pictures, videos and Java and Flash stuff, but at least most of the pages (stories, prayers, etc.) are still there and the old stuff is on the Wayback Machine.

BillyBear4Kids.com though, has had its fair share of odd revamps... ;) Originally, it used to be a fun site for kids, with lots of activities, games, wallpapers, and even screenmates! Their first revamp (2016) changed the site into a WordPress site, and in the process, took away almost all of their old stuff. In 2017 though, they changed it back to the original site. Then in 2019, they made it a redirect to a blog called Tranquil Parenting, also a WordPress site. It was only relevant because Sonja (Rainie's daughter) ran it, and Rainie was the original owner of the Billy Bear site before her death. In Jan 2020, it was again remade as a WordPress site which was similar to the 2016 revamp but was at least more colorful, was tied to Tranquil Parenting, and allowed you to sponsor children who were separated from their families. For some reason, in July 2020, it was again revamped into a low-quality GoDaddy site that has barely any info, but at least still aims to support children separated from their families (although has no products, unlike the previous revamp). Wow... In 2023, Billy Bear retired, but in 2024, he returned with a weird site that had AI-generated (maybe) pictures and paywalled content.

Example 4: Videos. Videos can also be taken down, as people who upload copyrighted YouTube Poops can attest. ;) For the following shows, I could find full episodes a long time ago but not now: (keep in mind this list is only for YouTube, since I can find most of these shows for free in full in other places ;) )

  • Baby Looney Tunes (can only find clips for some reason)
  • Tiny Toon Adventures (I can only find a few episodes)

The following shows I can find (again, this list is only for YouTube), but either incomplete or in bad quality:

(and yes I understand why there are frames and effects over videos, to prevent copyright strike, but)

  • The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (zoomed in; but complete at least! ;) )
  • The Magic Adventures of Mumfie (incomplete; but recently the entirety of Mumfie's Quest got uploaded! :D Of course, someone should download it, and upload it to Archive.org)
  • Magic School Bus (in most videos, the Producer Says segment is gone)
  • The Land Before Time films (low quality; but the TV series is fully on YouTube, phew!)
  • Martha Speaks (this one has a lot of history behind it... first, all of the episodes [or at least, the majority of the episodes] were uploaded on the YouTube channel Martha Speaks; then, they uploaded more and more Martha episodes [including the episode The Martha Show]; next, while I was watching episodes, suddenly all of the full-quality videos with proper titles got taken down [after two years too, since they were uploaded in 2017]; then, I found a bunch of Martha episodes [not all of them, but including a re-upload of The Martha Show, phew! I downloaded the re-upload ;) Although it's a lower quality than the original, :( oh well :) ] as re-uploads on YouTube; then, the original channel came back, with all of its original videos! :D And then, in late 2023, it went down again! :( Everyone should download the original Martha Speaks channel when it returns (or download the show elsewhere) and create torrents of it since I don't have enough space right now!)
  • Sea Princess (again, only all episodes from Season 1 and some from Season 2 are available)
  • Lilo & Stitch: The Series (either has a frame, or is sped up or slowed down, or both)

Example 5: Websites. Uh oh no... :(

The worst examples are:

  • The Cartoon Studio from PBS's site vanished (the Character Maker is in Flashpoint though)...
  • A long time ago Shedd Aquarium's Amazing Reef Movie Maker went away... (At least I found the other games in the SEA Explorer's Guide...)
  • Katie the Lost Little Caterpillar's official site disappeared... (maybe because the proposed TV series got cancelled?) This includes the Bug Creator (Wayback)...
  • The Busytown Mysteries online Flash game (featuring activities like collecting shells, butterflies and leaves, as well as your character being either a cat, dog, or rabbit, and being able to choose your own car [two of the choices were an apple car and a carrot car] and paint it) is gone...
  • Lizardworks (a site with cool screensavers that I loved and had on my computer, my favorite was the lizard popping everywhere :) ) went away... (found images of the screensavers in action on their official website on the Wayback Machine, at least)...
  • Chimpoo (Club Penguin but with monkeys) and Shidonni (online game where you draw your own pets and play with them) are gone now...
  • Froggyville's gone (although thankfully they posted a notice in advance stating that the site would go down as well as the reason why, which was that the original owner of the site died; :( obviously I wouldn't want my site to go down after my death, but at least the majority of it's on IA, except for the JavaScript games possibly, but I have a copy of the virtual frog game :) and have uploaded it to MEGA, see the Downloads section for it).
  • Club Penguin, Moshi Monsters, and Bin Weevils are also gone now alongside Flash, although at least Moshi Monsters and Club Penguin are being 'rewritten' by fans ;)

Example 6: Games.

See my Piracy article for that.

Also, Stop Killing Games!

You probably know about The Crew (if not, watch this video now! :D ), as well as Darkspore and Battleforge, dying. They died because they required an always-online connection, even for single-player mode! Then the servers were shut down... Thankfully, there is a revival effort (for The Crew and Battleforge) happening :D but this is a recurring trend nowadays... :(

Check out these cool videos for more details about this topic: "Games as a service" is fraud, Hoeg Law's response, Hoeg Law's conversation with Ross, The largest campaign ever to stop publishers destroying games, Giant FAQ on The European Initiative to Stop Destroying Games, and Europeans can save gaming! Click on Stop Killing Games above to take action and sign the European SKG Petition now! :D

Windows ME, XP and Win7 Internet Games are also gone as their servers have been shut down as of July 31, 2019 (ME & XP) and Jan 2020 (Windows 7)!

Solution to the problems (mostly applies to independent web creators)

For files: Try to host the files in multiple places (don't put your eggs in one basket). That would solve almost everything mentioned above. Also, be very careful with revamping. If you have enough server space, keep the original site up while you work on the revamp (and preferably also after the revamp is finished). If you don't have enough server space, check if an archiving site (such as the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine) has all (or almost all, if you don't have enough time) the pages on your site before you start the revamp.

Places to host files: (from most important to least but still pretty important)

  • Your own site: Most important because you'll have the responsibility to take care of your own files, e.g. if everybody links to one place that is not their own, when that site goes down, all their links are dead (like the Jogames and ClockDomain examples in the Piracy article linked above). Don't rely too much on one site to host the files (even your own!). If you're short on bandwidth, you can try limiting the number of files visitors can download from you site per day, but if you don't want to (or cannot host them on your own site because you use free WordPress, like me)...
  • Many other sites: Your affiliates, your sites you link to, even other sites of your own can host the files if needed.
  • File hosting services: Many file hosting services are free or cheap. I mainly recommend MEGA, Mediafire, Dropbox, and Google Drive right now (they have a lot of free space). I use MEGA to host almost all the files on this website, and Mediafire and Google Drive for the rest. There's a risk your files will get deleted (by accident or on purpose), or the service glitches or shuts down though.
  • Internet Archive: If you're hosting old games or videos for example, you're probably better off uploading the files to the Internet Archive; but there's no reason you can't just host the files on everything else mentioned here as well! :)

Don't forget to back 'em up using your 3-2-1 backup (or more, like 3-2-2!) system so you can re-upload the files if needed! (You should be backing up as much as you can anyway, so this should be redundant ;) )

For YouTube videos of episodes: Use any frame (ideally of a small width, non-animated and non-distracting) if necessary. You can also use obscure video names along with regular ones, even though people might not find them unless they know what to search for (eg. for Magic Adventures of Mumfie, MMOMS1E1; a real example is the 2015 episodes of the Mr. Bean animated series on Dailymotion, although now they're on YouTube :D ). Oh and don't use misleading titles! (That move is no good even if it's to prevent copyright strikes! It simply makes the best episodes harder to find! ;) Mumfie is an example again. Do I see a trend? ;) ) Also, if you can, backup your videos and re-upload 'em on other video-hosting sites, like Odysee, Vimeo, etc.

For pages: Ideally, you shouldn't delete any page on your site (unless it's a mistake, then put it back up soon). EVER. (If it's found in the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, or another archiving site, then link to the archive of the page instead.) If that's not possible for any reason, when you remove the page, try to put a different page stating why, and give a replacement for it (even if it's on another site! ;) ). Also, customize your 404 page, with a link to the main page, a search box and your e-mail address. (Some of this advice applies to sites; also, before taking your site down, try to make sure every page (or at least, most of the pages) is on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine and/or another archiving site.)

Well, see ya! :) :D

P.S. (Postscript) About screenmates, Laura's Celebrations (visit it through the links page on my site) has a bunch of them, which I downloaded. But, I also downloaded a bunch of other screenmates from other places, and will put them into a zip file on my MEGA account. Watch the main page (and probably this space?)... ;)

Edit: Here is the screenmate collection (Part 1)! :D This is the collection mentioned in the above paragraph; there will be more parts as I get time and hard drive space to do them. ;)

Relevant pages (off-site):

Dear Lost Media Wiki: YouTube Is Not An Archive - Talks a little more about the issues discussed in this page. Ironically, that page got deleted... ;)

Dec 10, 2017: Changed the P.S. from talking about the '90s to screenmates.

June 5, 2018: Edited this page, and forgot to make a zip file. :P

Oct 8, 2018: Edited this page, and forgot again to make a zip file! OoO Removed Dragon Tales since I think I can find all the episodes, but it might be re-added... Fixed some typos that I can't believe slipped through (like nessecary to necessary)...

Nov 6, 2018: Edited this page a lot, and forgot to create the zip file! O_O Again!

Mar 8, 2019: A lot more edits, and finally added a link to the zip file! :D The first of many zipped-up screenmate collections though... ;)

Mar 26, 2019: Removed the following:

  • Martha Speaks (eg. The Martha Show; as of March 12, 2017, an account is uploading episodes of it each week, but only up to Season 1 :( )

Reason why: As of today (actually as of Oct 6, 2017), the episode The Martha Show is finally on YouTube (from the same account too)! :D I'll be downloading it and re-uploading it somewhere if the channel or the video gets taken down. Everyone else should download the full channel and create torrents of it since I don't have enough space right now.

Apr 13, 2019: Re-added Martha Speaks (to the second list) because... you'll see if you check out the second list. ;) Also made the important notice from the previous edit bold and italicized it for the same reasons. ;) Here's a working link to the episode The Martha Show (the previous edit's link doesn't work anymore).

May 26, 2019: Made some other important stuff bold and italicized, and added another show to the incomplete shows list! ;)

June 8, 2019: Due to intermittent internet, it took me a lot longer than intended to update... :( Updated the incomplete shows list with more info about which Miss Spider episodes are missing from YouTube, as well as a link to some of the missing episodes! :D

July 15, 2019: Added Chimpoo, Shidonni, and Froggyville to the examples of lost websites; misc. edits.

August 4, 2019: Expanded more on Chimpoo and Shidonni, and added more info about Miss Spider and Froggyville.

Sat, Nov 2, 2019: Added Rainbow Fish and Sea Princess, and a few edits to Busytown Mysteries's description and Sunny Patch's description. (Sunny Patch = Miss Spider.)

Mon, Aug 10, 2020: Added relevant link to Badcafe's blog.

Fri, Oct 30, 2020: Spooky update this time... ;) Lots of updates. First off, as I guessed, PBS took down the Build-a-Fish game. We're lucky it's still on the Wayback Machine! :O Second, (I never expected this) ShreeGanesh.com revamped, so I added more info to the Revamps section. Third, due to the fact that the Legacy Index is gone now, I've removed the following paragraph:

But, a good way to revamp can be found here (Action Cat, a site used to make e-cards). Yes, the site owner revamped it, but the older version of the site can still be found on the site itself; just a link away! Hooray! :D (The link is 'Legacy Index', at the top right corner.)

Action Cat is still an awesome animated GIFs site though :D And finally, various other edits.

Thu, Dec 31, 2020: Corrected Flash's end date and added new info about Martha Speaks :D

Fri, Aug 20, 2021: Added Flashpoint and Ruffle to the Flash section and mentioned Club Penguin, Moshi Monsters, and Bin Weevils, as well as various other edits.

Sun, Feb 27, 2022: Converted the list of vanished websites to a list, as well as corrected and added some stuff.

Thur, May 19, 2022: Joyous news, I finally found a way to get PenPen to work! :D Added it in the Screenmates section.

Tue, Sep 20, 2022: More joyous news, as I've finally found the Wind-Up Bird! :D Added that fact to the Screenmates section. Considering adding a gallery here at some point...

Wed, Jan 3, 2024: Updated info on the "shows on YouTube in bad quality or with missing episodes" list. Removed Miss Spider and Rainbow Fish as all episodes are available on YouTube now, but I hope someone downloads them all so they can be reuploaded if necessary.

Wed, Apr 10, 2024: I found the rest of Shedd Aquarium's games in an ISO on Archive.org (except for Amazing Reef :( ) including Squish the Fish! :) Also various minor edits.