Online One Minute, Gone the Next?

The Web grows by more than seven million pages each day, and has become the medium of record for journals in fields from science to law to literature. But even the newest technologies are one day supplanted by newer ones. What if the Web goes the way of the dodo? And even if it doesn't, what about websites that do—when they go offline for good, are they gone forever?

Should we heed the warnings of the print traditionalists who cling to their books in dust-laden libraries? a

Might this very online literary quarterly one day be lost to history?

Not likely, thanks to Stanford University's LOCKSS project. LOCKSS—the acronym stands for "Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe"—is an open-source program that libraries use to archive copies of their digital collections, as well as a range of top-drawer online publications. The New York Public Library, Switzerland's CERN Library, the National University of Singapore, Italy's National Council of Research, India's JRD Tata Memorial Library, and over eighty other leading research institutions all rely on LOCKSS to provide permanent access to electronic versions of leading academic and arts journals—including failbetter.com.

We've been around a while now—five years and counting—and plan to stick around a while longer. But thanks to LOCKSS, even if we aren't, we'll be immortal. Hieroglyphics inscribed on the wall of a chamber inside a pyramid—that's us. And more importantly, everything we run on this site.

So our interview with acclaimed poet Mary Jo Salter will be available… forever. As will the great new stories we're publishing by Susan Buttenwieser, Diane Goettel, Carolyn Hiler, Douglas Light, Matt Leibel, Jen Michalski, and Hal Niedzviecki. Not to mention amazing poems by Thylias Moss, Jason Schneiderman, Brendan Lorber, and J. Allyn Rosser. And stunning images from Stan Shire and Shelly Lependorf.

So say it with me now:

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. failbetter.com…. forever.

Thom Didato