Internet Archives Checklist

For more detail, see my guide to digital preservation of Actual Play

For less detail, see my simplified checklist lovingly titled "Getting stuff on the Internet Archive fast for tired AP producers"

  1. Create an account on the Internet Archive
  2. Contact me
  3. Collect show files
  4. Collect other files
  5. Decide how to group files
  6. Copy files to a single folder
  7. Rename files
  8. Create documentation
  9. Select files to upload
  10. Fill in Internet Archive metadata
  11. Start upload
  12. Verify upload
  13. Send me the link

The Checklist

  1. Create an account on the Internet Archive
    • Go to archive.org and click “Sign Up” in the top right corner.
  2. Contact me, and let me know that you're doing this. I can help if you get stuck!
    • Message me on BlueSky or email me at annethegnome@gmail.com
    • Send me your IA handle! We'll be a super cool archive club
  3. Collect your show files
      4. Best case:
    • Find the original files in the highest quality possible (.wav, .flac, .mov preferred)
      Good-enough case:
    • Bulk download your podcast using podcasttomp3.com
    • Download your show from YouTube from the creator interface

    If you can't find all your files, or this task seems too daunting, start with the first couple episodes! You can always add more files later.

  4. Collect other, *additional* files
    • If your AP is only audio, upload a thumbnail image so that it appears on the browse screen

    ~ bonus ~

    Imagine someone stumbles across this record in 50 years. What additional information can you add, in terms of files, that could be useful for helping them understand the context, or enriching their experience of the work? Consider cover images, trailers, promo material, game supplements (ensure you have the copyright), transcripts, fan art (with permission)

  5. Decide how to group your files
    • Ideally, we want to have a collection that contains a bunch of APs that people can browse. This means that we want to avoid having people upload every episode of a show with 500 episodes as seperate records, it'll dominate the whole collection.
    • If your show has under 25 episodes, consider putting them all in one record.
    • If your show has over 25 episodes but has multiple seasons, consider making a record for each season.
    • If your show is really just 500 episodes with no real grouping, consider making an arbitrary grouping, like "episodes 1-50", "episodes 51-100" etc.

    Role Playing Public Play Podcast created one record with 67 episodes, another with one 26-episode campaign, and another with just one 20-episode season of a multi-season campaign. By contrast, most of my shows are short, limited series under 10 episodes, and can easily be put into one record. These are all great ways of grouping files! Consider what will be most useful to someone trying to discover the show in the future (which is probably everything in one big record), but balance that with your own capacity. This step will also affect how to document your show.

  6. Copy a group of files to a single folder (if possible)
    • If you don't have the hard drive space to make copies, check for dependancies (is anything referring to these files?) and consider making an exact copy elsewhere, like a flash drive.
  7. Rename files
    • If your files are already consistently named, just leave them. Good enough.
    • If not, name your files: ShowName-# (for episode number) or ShowName-YYYYMMDD, or create your own naming convention
    • Whatever file naming convention you choose, keep it consistent! If it’s not obvious, consider adding a line in your ReadMe explaining it.

    Some tips:

    1. Use CamelCase instead of spaces (it makes computers happy but it still fairly readable)
    2. Use YYYYMMDD as the date format to avoid confusion and allow for easy sorting by date
    3. Include the show name in your file name - this can be a shortened version if you have a long show name, but put the full name in the metadata
    4. If you have a show that has multiple arcs, you can do ShowName-ArcName-# (e.g. Dimension20-OnABus-1.mov)
  8. Create documentation
    • Create a file in notepad called ReadMe.txt (using Notepad or TextEdit) or use this template. TRUST ME ON THIS! The upload interface frequently 'eats' your input: save yourself the headache. Write it in a text document, not directly into the upload interface.

    The template will ask you for:

    1. Release title
    2. Release date
    3. Producer or studio, including email contact
    4. Distributor name (if relevant)
    5. Distribution platform(s) (such as twitch, youtube, spotify etc)
    6. Country of origin (if relevant)
    7. Language
    8. Cast names (full names, if possible, and handles) and their roles
    9. Crew names (same as above — record the names of anyone who contributed) and their roles
    10. Game system used (including version)
    11. License information (see licensing)
    12. More optional bonus stuff!

    Bonus:

    • Include additional information about the project's creation. Was it live? Pre-recorded? In studio? As part of a bigger initiative? All that context matters!
    • If you used others' material in your work, like royalty-free music or art assets, consider adding attribution if feasible.
    • You can also add content warnings or any other explanatory text here. Anything you'd like to communicate to someone who stumbled on this without context!
  9. Select files to upload
    • Go to archive.org and click "Upload" in the top right corner.
    • Drag the files from the folder to the uploader (or use the browse function to navigate to them). You can upload many files at once.
    Uploads fail all the time -- start with a couple files and add more after
  10. Fill in Internet Archive metadata

    11. Most of this information can be copied-and-pasted from your readme

    • Item Title: [The name of your show]
    • Page URL: [The name of your show, if possible, or the name of your show + AP]
    • Description: [A description of your show. Assume the reader is not familiar with actual play. You can copy information from your ReadMe here, such as cast names] Do not add links! Including linktree or similar links in the description will result in your upload being flagged as spam. Leave them in the readme, but don't add them to the description.
    • Subject Tags: add "actual play; ttrpg; tabletop roleplaying game;" [add additional tags that relate the theme, genre and audience for your show, such as LGBTQ, horror, scifi, fantasy adventure]
    • Collection: Community Movies [or whatever the default is for audio] (for now! we will have our own soon)
    • Creator: [The producer's name]
    • Date: [The date the show was first published -- if you're including multiple episodes, consider the first day of the first episode]
    • Language: [Primary language used in your show]
    • License: [I recommend "Creative Commons, Allow Remixing, Require Share-Alike". See more details about what these mean here)
  11. Start upload
    • If you are using a laptop, make sure it is plugged in. Try uploading 2 or 3 files at a time, depending on the size (I found that uploading too much at once lead to more errors). You have to babysit it a little!
    • If your upload gets interupted, don't panic! You won't lose the files that have already uploaded. Their uploaded allows for interuptions without having the whole upload fail.
    • Be patient. This may take several attempts.
  12. Verify upload
    • Check that the upload succeeded. You should be able to check the URL, click around. Make sure that the audio and video playback. Check that everything looks how you want. If something is off, you can edit it.
  13. Send me the link
    • You did it!! Email me at allmyfriendsarestories@gmail.com with Internet Archive in the subject heading and the URL to your record. I'm keeping track. Once we have enough, I'll use these as evidence for why we should have a collection!
    • Celebrate! That's quite a bit of work that you just did for the public good, the good of people you may never meet, and an artform that will outlive us all. Thank you! You rock! Have a little treat.

FAQ

My show isn't done! Can I upload the first few episodes and add to it later?

Yes! You can continue to add files to your record on the Internet Archive. You can also create a new record for another season of your show, if the number of files in one record is getting unwieldy. I say "record" to refer to the page that looks like this which contains all the descriptive information about the show, and can include many files.

I only have .mp3! Should I change the format?

Nope, you're good. The file has already been compressed in a lossy way, meaning that some of the data is gone. We can't get it back. If your files are in a lossy compression format, you only need to change it if that format is obscure or proprietary. We can't get into encoding stuff (the scope! it creeps!) so it's enough to say that your mp3 is probably stable longterm if we get it in the Internet Archive.

Completed entries

    My shows

  1. Wayward Autumnal
  2. Eldritch Disco

    3. Role Playing Public Radio

  3. Role Playing Public Radio Actual Play: Eclipse Phase - The Know Evil Campaign
  4. RPPR Actual Play: Masks of Nyarlathotep - a Trail of Cthulhu campaign
  5. RPPR Actual Play: The Spared and the Spoiled
  6. RPPR Actual Play: Duality - an Eclipse Phase Campaign
  7. Role Playing Public Radio Actual Play Podcast
  8. RPPR Actual Play: Heroes of New Arcadia - a Wild Talents campaign
  9. RPPR Actual Play: Fortunes of War - an Iron Heroes Campaign
  10. RPPR Actual Play: Tribes of Tokyo - a Night's Black Agents campaign
  11. RPPR Actual Play: The Final Revelation - a Trail of Cthulhu campaign
  12. RPPR B-Sides Volume 4: Unknown Markets
  13. RPPR B-Sides Volume 1

    14. Other contributors

  14. OATHSWORN