So I’ve been saving pretty much everything online that I kind of like for a few years now. My collection of random music, videos, texts, and images pales in comparison to the stuff some of y’all got, but I’m starting to push a terabyte. So before it becomes truly unmanageable, I wanted to ask about best practices regarding organization.
Goals/context:
* About half of my collection is media (some NSFW, and much not) made by various online queer communities. Given… recent politics, and knowing my queer history, I want to preserve the information I’ve gathered in case it becomes permanently unavailable.
* I want a collection that is easier to search through than a pile of loose files. Something is better than nothing, but I still hope for a decent organization scheme. This will also help me find the stuff I DON’T want to keep anymore.
* I want to keep my files local. Cloud storage is difficult to use, requires multiple layers of security that local storage doesn’t need, and are often inaccessible to local scripts, making them inflexible.
Main questions:
* Documenting provenance. Much of digital data is ephemeral, so it is very easy to lose track of where it came from. This makes tracking down info a nightmare when looking at old data. What can I do now to make my life, or the life of someone viewing my collection, easier? What info is common to record? What is less commonly recorded but still important?
* Searchability. This might come down to a specific software solution, but searching through mixed file types is a drag. What sorts of solutions have you all found for this problem? I suspect something involving tags would be the most efficient, since folders haven’t worked for me.
* Scalability. I need some scheme for adding new files to the collection. I’m still largely doing this manually, but if I get serious I would like my organization strategy to scale up to include automated tools. What sorts of tools are used, not just to download, but label new media?
I’ve tried the following programs to tackle my organization problems:
* Hydrus: Can’t use. It stores it’s files in its own directory, and it’s missing some features like organizing items into ordered collections. It’s tag system is also pretty verbose and inefficient.
* Tag Studio: Very promising, has almost everything I need with plans to add the rest, but development seems to have stalled in the last few months. If development continues, this will be THE tool I use for my collection.
TL;DR: I have a pile of files I need to make less of a pile. How do I do that with an eye towards preserving history?
Big topic I know. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
(P.S. In case it’s important, I’m on a windows machine, unfamiliar with linux, and don’t want to use macOS)
