Data Hoarder

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We are digital librarians. Among us are represented the various reasons to keep data -- legal requirements, competitive requirements, uncertainty of permanence of cloud services, distaste for transmitting your data externally (e.g. government or corporate espionage), cultural and familial archivists, internet collapse preppers, and people who do it themselves so they're sure it's done right. Everyone has their reasons for curating the data they have decided to keep (either forever or For A Damn Long Time (tm) ). Along the way we have sought out like-minded individuals to exchange strategies, war stories, and cautionary tales of failures.

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Is there such a thing as the opposite of a data hoarder? (alien.top)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I tend to either act as a data hoarder, but most of the time end up being overwhelmed with anxiety about having so much data. Even when I just look at my personal photos, I just feel impeding doom knowing it can only grow and grow, it will never get smaller.

I was wondering if this had a term.

And coming from this question, I am just amazed by this community. What has prompted your interest in data hoarding?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

There's a thing called Obsessive-Compulsive Spartanism (a form of OCD) that could be applied to data or anything else. The presence of things seems to cause a nagging anxiety which leads to them trying to free themselves from things. This isn't minimalism per se. In extreme cases someone may buy something, say a toaster, then throw it away, then find they need a toaster and buy another one. My spouse has some of those tendencies and I am always saving things from the trash and sometimes even backing up her office computers that she doesn't even own.

Then there's us folks here. There's a theory that some of us have an innate belief that resources are limited and we must take advantage of the opportunity to get what we can now. Our anxiety comes from the fear of losing our stuff and not having a backup. This may seem perplexing to some because we devote so much of our resources to getting and keeping that stuff. For me it only becomes a problem when I know I have it but can't find it. Or realizing maybe I do have a problem when I find a brand new 16TB drive in a pile of computer parts that I don't remember buying, then a week later finding another one.
There's also the data curators here that find gathering and organizing beautiful and calming. Many of us here are bits of both.