Contradicting views are always fun to read. This is good training, from my perspective, to decyfer what is true and what may be outdated. After reading this weeks online readings I thought I had a pretty good understanding about the reality of posting news stories on the web. According to Mark Glaser’s online article, “When Web print stories disappear, the meaning of ‘archives’ fade,” there is not really a way to completely expunge online data, such as news stories.

So after all of this new information is stored in my head, fresh in my memory, I go looking for evidence. The first thing I find? A story with completely different views, stating that the Web as a historical record is fragile. What? I just read that once the Web has control over it, it’s not going away. Peter Abrahams writes that what was once written on the Web is now, in many cases, gone forever. So here is the catch, I think. Looking back at the top of the page, which should be done at the very beginning I know, is the date: May 2004! Five and a half years ago, mine as well have been on a different planet.

Abrahams could not have predicted what we are capable of now, or even thought it was possible. The deleted story about the violent goth kids and the vampire game is no longer in any archives, it has been deleted from the source of the story. But if you still want to read it you can apparently still find it on an Italian gaming site.

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