What to do with someone's old personal files?

[graywest]

Hello all. Do you ever find old personal files on disks that you receive as part of a lot when you buy 8-bit computer items?

 

I've been going through some old disks lately, checking to see what still boots up. Many of these disks came with a large lot that I purchased with an Atari 800XL some 15 years ago. It was from Ebay, so I don't know the seller. Don't even know if the seller was the original owner.

 

Anyway, I found a disk with quite a few personal files on it, mostly Atariwriter documents: several chapters of a science fiction novel in progress, a number of love poems, etc. No name anywhere, but most are dated sometime during 1985.

 

My question is: what should I do with this stuff? I'd feel bad just trashing it. But I'm not sure it's appropriate to archive it on the internet, either.

 

I've been thinking about it like this: if I found some documents or love poems written on paper stuffed behind the wall of my house, they might have some historical significance, or at least interest. I wouldn't just throw them in the trash. Does it work the same way for computer files? If you found someone's undistributed game written from scratch (not a magazine type in) would you try to archive it?

 

What do you all do if/when you find personal files?

[Rybags]

In the modern day I come across it a bit.  Part from when I buy stuff or find roadside or are given a middle aged computer.  Some from work, fixing, moving data etc.

I generally delete or wipe it.  Privacy laws are such that it'd the done thing.  Occasional stuff like music, movie, TV show I might keep though it's usually pirated stuff anyway.

 

Old stuff like you mention.  It's probably not much data though could be some time to transfer it.  But probably little effort to retain.

If you think there's the chance you could find the original owner then probably worth keeping.

Maybe you could publish something that's not sensitive and see if anyone comes forward.  Though the chances wouldn't be very high.

[ClausB]

Are the writings any good? Maybe show them to a literature expert like a professor. Probably the author kept printed copies of they were important.

[EddyFree]

 

I'd image/archive it and keep it stored in my private collection. Never know when someone may "reach out" on a forum like this asking if anyone happened to have their long lost "poems", etc....

 

 

[Magmavision2000]

35 minutes ago, EddyFree said:

 

I'd image/archive it and keep it stored in my private collection. Never know when someone may "reach out" on a forum like this asking if anyone happened to have their long lost "poems", etc....

 

 

This.

 

Who knows, you may have the long lost writings of a famous author. Archive it, but keep it private.

[Mclaneinc]

Yes, that seems the most good will idea, mere K on todays storage media is nothing so binning them would be a bit rude if nothing else. One other thing I'd do is put some of the text in to Google, find something non ordinary, unusual character names etc and search, you may find a draft or the full version..Won't hurt to try..

 

You may even find it was stuff copied from somewhere else by the original owner..

Edited July 12, 2020 by Mclaneinc

[StickJock]

When I copied my ~400 disks from the 80s to ATRs, I came across a disk labelled "Dad's WP".  It had some short stories he wrote, along with his resume.  I took a quick look at it and was surprised that he included his Social Security number on it.  Then again, my SS# was used as my student ID# at University and was on my student ID card, so I guess identity theft wasn't as big of a concern back then?

 

If I hadn't been going through the disks one-by-one, I wouldn't have even known that was in there, and if I had ever unloaded all my 8-bit gear, I would have just included all of the boxes of disks without even looking at them.

 

So yeah, I can see collections of disks containing some personal info, including some sensitive data.

[_The Doctor__]

If someone released their own personal data, that's on them. Once you bought it... it's yours. Now if you took it or hacked it, that's a hole 'nother ball of wax

[graywest]

15 hours ago, ClausB said:

Are the writings any good? Maybe show them to a literature expert like a professor. Probably the author kept printed copies of they were important.

I'm no expert myself, but I'd say they're not horrible. Not fantastic, either. I'd call them the writings of a somewhat talented amateur. 

[gilsaluki]

Too bad there is no way to re-unite these writings with their author, or their family.  Kind of like old photos, they meant something to someone at sometime in the past.  

[_The Doctor__]

I once did a search for lost old poems a friend and I wrote... they were on the internet attributed to -unknown... neither of us cared that it's out there, in fact we were happy to see others enjoyed them, and well , we made fun of our younger selves and had a laugh.

[ggn]

If the original owner cared about the files, he/she would have recovered them or ask someone to do it for them. So personally I'd just wipe everything. To me this is invading someone else's privacy, and to be honest I would be very unhappy if I found out that someone has personal documents of my own (or even put them online to add insult to injury!).

[mimo]

sell them to the highest bidder 

[scitari]

I think it is fine to keep them as a window into history. No different than finding a trunk in your attic filled with love letters and documents. I have a number of disks like these and enjoy browsing the material from time to time. However, I have no plans to share them with anyone else or distribute them in any way. Some of the documents are personal letters and the like which I plan to protect. Much of it is bowling scores, baseball stats, and lists of software. Some of it is worth preserving. For example, I have several masters theses which absolutely should not be destroyed. I will probably rip and release these at some point because they are part of the scholarly record. I consider myself a responsible custodian.

[+davidcalgary29]

Create a work of art called Magnetic Field Degradation/Remembering Forgotten Words by collating select samples of data to create a heartfelt and moving expose of the modern human condition during the COVID-19 crisis. The final result will resemble Samara's death film from The Ring, but people will love it. It will, of course, be mixed media of spoken word and ATASCII art printouts, but you'll have to find some tractor-feed paper (I'm not giving mine up). First pieces: "Someone's Dad's SSN" and "Who's Resume Is This?"

[Mclaneinc]

He's just annoyed there was no pRoN

[jefffulton]

On 7/11/2020 at 8:24 PM, graywest said:

Hello all. Do you ever find old personal files on disks that you receive as part of a lot when you buy 8-bit computer items?

 

I've been going through some old disks lately, checking to see what still boots up. Many of these disks came with a large lot that I purchased with an Atari 800XL some 15 years ago. It was from Ebay, so I don't know the seller. Don't even know if the seller was the original owner.

 

Anyway, I found a disk with quite a few personal files on it, mostly Atariwriter documents: several chapters of a science fiction novel in progress, a number of love poems, etc. No name anywhere, but most are dated sometime during 1985.

 

My question is: what should I do with this stuff? I'd feel bad just trashing it. But I'm not sure it's appropriate to archive it on the internet, either.

 

I've been thinking about it like this: if I found some documents or love poems written on paper stuffed behind the wall of my house, they might have some historical significance, or at least interest. I wouldn't just throw them in the trash. Does it work the same way for computer files? If you found someone's undistributed game written from scratch (not a magazine type in) would you try to archive it?

 

What do you all do if/when you find personal files?

I've been looking for the disks that my brother and I sold with our original 800 to get and ST in 1986. Those don't necessarily sound like ours, but I wish more people would do what you are doing. i had loads of basic games I made and all kinds of stuff and it all just went with the sale. I'm still gutted that we did that.  Any names on the poems? any title to the Scfi story? 

[Mclaneinc]

I don't think there's any harm in reading what is on the disks, if it gets too personal you have the common sense to stop reading it if it bothers you or as I said, do a Google search with a snippet of the story using unusual character names and see if you get a hit, if you do then there's a very good chance you will be able to contact the person (as long as they are alive) or pass on the stuff to family.

 

To just blank the disk would feel very rude to me..

[jhd]

4 hours ago, scitari said:

 For example, I have several masters theses which absolutely should not be destroyed. I will probably rip and release these at some point because they are part of the scholarly record. I consider myself a responsible custodian.

 

These may already be available online or otherwise in published form: 

https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/services/theses/Pages/theses-canada.aspx (for example)

 

Where I was an undergrad student, the University library held a massive collection of thesis (and dissertations) dating from the 1890s  through the present that was open and accessible (albeit not very well catalogued). There was also a massive microfilm collection of thesis/dissertations created at other institutions. It was interesting reading the early work by well-established scholars in the field. 

[Asaki]

I've got a bunch of stuff like this...some of it's just boring homework reports, some are letters from a girl who went overseas to work, some is a little more heartbreaking...a collection of honeymoon photos, and a hidden, password protected .doc titled something like "why our marriage cannot be saved".

[+davidcalgary29]

8 hours ago, Asaki said:

I've got a bunch of stuff like this...some of it's just boring homework reports, some are letters from a girl who went overseas to work, some is a little more heartbreaking...a collection of honeymoon photos, and a hidden, password protected .doc titled something like "why our marriage cannot be saved".

Please tell me that the honeymoon photos are amazing examples of ATASCII art. And get cracking (literally) on that protected file! It may not be too late to save that marriage!!!

[Asaki]

5 hours ago, davidcalgary29 said:

Please tell me that the honeymoon photos are amazing examples of ATASCII art.

It was a Windows PC actually, not Atari. So lots of primitive digital photos from a camera that I'm sure cost a pretty penny back in its day.

[bfollowell]

On 7/13/2020 at 3:36 AM, ggn said:

If the original owner cared about the files, he/she would have recovered them or ask someone to do it for them. So personally I'd just wipe everything. To me this is invading someone else's privacy, and to be honest I would be very unhappy if I found out that someone has personal documents of my own (or even put them online to add insult to injury!).

Well, like you said, if they cared, they would’ve taken care of them, so they’d really have no right to be upset if the new owner has them or went through them. I mean, if they were concerned, then why let them go in the first place. I agree that posting them online would be a completely different story though.

 

[graywest]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Sounds like the best thing is simply to archive it in my personal collection in case someone comes looking for it.

 

And on that note... if you're British and wrote part of a science fiction/fantasy novel about an epic alliance to save the universe, an alliance between man and machine, concerning characters named Porlt, Zenov, and Ragnar, Prince of the Eastern Realm, hit me up. I have your files from 1985. ?

Edited July 16, 2020 by graywest
spelling fix

[+davidcalgary29]

1 hour ago, graywest said:

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Sounds like the best thing is simply to archive it in my personal collection in case someone comes looking for it.

 

And on that note... if you're British and wrote part of a science fiction/fantasy novel about an epic alliance to save the universe, an alliance between man and machine, concerning characters named Porlt, Zenov, and Ragnar, Prince of the Eastern Realm, hit me up. I have your files from 1985. ?

Please tell me that you're going to incorporate all of this mystery into your awesome game, Lost Cat. "You are Zenov, and are on a quest for your lost cat, Porlt, who was chased away by Ragnar, Prince of the Eastern Realm, when he destroyed your country in a desperate attempt to save his marriage. On your quest, you must search old Atariwriter files for SSNs, love poetry,and  homework assignments. If you succeed, you will be rewarded with Ragnar's honeymoon photos and save the universe."