Is one of utter importance.  I don't think that they get the respect they (we) deserve.  We dedicate our lives to preserving the dreams of Mankind.  We don't just preserve ONE thing (even though some of us might).  There are many topics, ranging from Sports, to Television, to Games, to Music, to Movies, and so forth and so on.  To give a perspective, there are about 100 sports Televised throughout the world.  Of that, about 30% are filmed here in the United States (a major feat of accomplishment).  Here is a scope of Professional games, and how many of them are filmed per day in the U.S:

MLB: 5-10
NBA: 2-7
NHL: 1-5
NFL: 4-19

And that is just the main sports.  We aren't counting sports like Soccer (American), Boxing, WWE,WNBA,ROCK WALL CLIMBING,GOLF, WFC, and so forth and so on.  That's just in THE UNITED STATES!  There is an estimated 200-1000 NEW Sporting Events throughout the DAY around the World!  EVERYDAY!!!  And even then, we haven't even begun to scratch the surface.  There's also College, High School, Middle School, Elementary School, Junior High.  A total estimate is around 30000 Sporting Events daily, about 10,000 of which are filmed!  THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ONE PERSON TO DOWNLOAD AND ORGANIZE, PER DAY!  ALSO, THAT IS JUST ONE CATEGORY.  THERE IS ALSO:

PORN
MOVIES
TV SHOWS
MUSIC
COMICS
BOOKS
ANIME
MANGA
MAGAZINES
DOCUMENTS

And so forth and so on.  If it were possible to download EVERYTHING that is filmed, made, written, etc. in a day's time, you would have close to 5 PETABYTES of data PER DAY!  That is the same size a Gram of DNA can hold!  PER DAY!  HEAR THAT?  PER DAY!  Then there is the case of having to do a MASSIVE (MASSIVE) BACKLOG Of content.  I'm not even counting Twitter, Facebook, Social Media, Photos, or YOUTUBE (MASSIVE, ABOUT 5 NEW EXABYTES OF DATA PER YEAR!).  In one Day, you would use up about 1500 3 TB Seagate External Drives (like I have).  IN ONE DAY!  And my Download speed is horrible!  So, I urge you, ALL OF YOU!  HELP PRESERVE OUR CULTURE, BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!!!  Thank You.

There is a fine line between preserving cultural artifacts and hoarding. Unless you're acting as the agent of some greater infrastructure that will outlive you, the accumulation of your life's obsession can all be for naught if there's no continuity when you're no longer around. Where will this vast accumulation of data go so that it can be of later historical benefit to anyone? If you can't work with like-minded individuals to organize the maintenance and continuity of your work, you can't be sure that what you leave behind won't be wiped out in a moment by someone who sees no value in it (that heart attack could hit at any moment, what then?). Better to enjoy the infotainment available to you while you can than to obsess over accumulating it to the imagined benefit of some hypothetical someone else that might care, when you can't really be sure that person or persons exists. I have every expectation that when I die, my collection will be dispersed to the four winds, cared about not for the intrinsic value that I find in it, but only for whatever financial gain it can offer to someone else by selling it. No doubt that many (in all probability, most) of the items in my collection may be deemed by someone else as worthless, or very nearly so, in strictly monetary terms. Hopefully, when the time arrives I'll begin selling it off piecemeal, deriving for myself whatever financial reward for my collecting efforts over my lifetime that I can -- but I can't know that for sure.

There are a lot of cultural artifacts that are generated and have almost no meaning or worth to people ie click bait articles on the interwebs. What I think is a most interesting job is being a curator of culture and picking out what is the most meaningful or enjoyable things for others. I think it's important to preserve Archie's history which is why I'm logging as many comics as I can on comics.org.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on May 13, 2016, 03:58:20 AM
There is a fine line between preserving cultural artifacts and hoarding. Unless you're acting as the agent of some greater infrastructure that will outlive you, the accumulation of your life's obsession can all be for naught if there's no continuity when you're no longer around. Where will this vast accumulation of data go so that it can be of later historical benefit to anyone? If you can't work with like-minded individuals to organize the maintenance and continuity of your work, you can't be sure that what you leave behind won't be wiped out in a moment by someone who sees no value in it (that heart attack could hit at any moment, what then?). Better to enjoy the infotainment available to you while you can than to obsess over accumulating it to the imagined benefit of some hypothetical someone else that might care, when you can't really be sure that person or persons exists. I have every expectation that when I die, my collection will be dispersed to the four winds, cared about not for the intrinsic value that I find in it, but only for whatever financial gain it can offer to someone else by selling it. No doubt that many (in all probability, most) of the items in my collection may be deemed by someone else as worthless, or very nearly so, in strictly monetary terms. Hopefully, when the time arrives I'll begin selling it off piecemeal, deriving for myself whatever financial reward for my collecting efforts over my lifetime that I can -- but I can't know that for sure.

I HAVE MANY A PLAN!