Data Hoarder

I’ve been collecting genealogical data for the last 15 years. You better believe I keep that organized, otherwise I would be screwed.

Honestly this might be your opinion, but for me it actually is enjoyable. The whole putting everything in it's place, documenting it all and all that stuff that's where I get the actual enjoyment.

I agree. As I get older I want more out of my hobbies than just fun and stress reduction. I want to grow, learn a useful skill, engage with media that resonates with me emotionally. Organizing files accomplishes none of those things. Low value way to spend my time.

Is that what remuxing means? How do you do it?

I do it to make other people happy. Seeing them happy brings me joy.

Like for real I never watch any of my content. I don't watch media in general I just play video games and ride my motorcycle.

I use a desktop app called Neofinder which scans any hard drive. As long as there’s at least a name (I add a date as well) that helps you find something, then it’s easy to search for it and find it using the app. It also shows me how many copies I have which lets me help decide if I can erase a drive if I need space.

I just use filebot

If you did it that long, you probably on some level enjoy the busy work. You might just be burnt out. I know when something needs fixing on a software level I can spend infinite time just trying to fix it. Way more than I'd ever use said software too.

I don't think your efforts should be seen as "pointless" just because you're the only person who would ever be able to appreciate the fruits of your efforts. Self-actualization is an important part of finding peace with your mortality. Whatever it is you gotta do to get there, you gotta look within yourself to find that. For some people, creating a personal art museum that nobody else but them will ever see is what helps them get there.

I’ve never considered organizing beyond the 5 primary folders that I use. Never saw a point to micromanaging every file.

Just 5 main, simple categories, for all data.

The simple fact that redditors here feel the NEED to downvote anyone who agrees with me, shows that they're emotionally conflicted with their unhealthy obsessions, and they're looking for a way to COPE by downvoting people who have taken control over their lives. Because those redditors know deep inside that they have no control over their OCD habits, and seeing those who have claimed control makes them feel uneasy.

Collecting things is fun. If you don't turn it into obsession

Here's one way I look at it. You could spend countless hours meticulously going through every file and grouping, renaming, etc. Or. You could take time, create a script to automate it all for you. This does a couple things:

1. You get some experience learning how to script dealing with file organization
2. You save time since you're automating a lot of formerly time-consuming activities thus freeing up time to do other things.

Also:

I will also delete stuff that I've watched/played that I didn't enjoy. I've come to a realization there's no point archiving it if I'm never going to use it again.

BLASPHEMY!!!

because I believe that in the future, the governments will make it very difficult to share copyrighted media online

How do you believe this will happen? I hear this sentiment a lot but never a well put together explanation of how one thinks this is possible...

If you enjoy doing it,

why does it matter?

I just do the most basic lazy cataloging like music, shows, games etc. Some people like to do the extended cataloging, it's a hobby for them, so I say if it's fun for them then why not? It's not a waste of time then. If not then yeah, you don't have to force yourself just for sake of clarity/ocd.

/r/lostredditors ?

renaming the files

Can be automated

grouping them into folders by franchise

Should be managed in database rather than filesystem, and automated

remuxing videos so they would only have one audio and one subtitle file, reencoding videos that I considered bloated, reencoding videos that had flac or 5.1 audio to opus stereo

Waste of electricity and requires you to backup the file itself rather than a torrent, as you no longer have exactly what others have. Also a minor point you will kick yourself if you ever buy a surround sound setup and/or discover the wonders of headphone virtual surround

putting all my files into a spreadsheet along with other information

For any media category there almost certainly exists a database system that can do this for you automatically. You mentioned anime, in which case an example is Shoko

--

tl;dr you're complaining about a problem you created, and solving the problem by scorched earth-ing the entire problem

nah i enjoy collecting music and sorting things 😤😤😤

Did you recently have a wake-up call that made you think death is coming soon? I have, and it made me re-evaluate my archiving, in the sense that:

(1) For me, it's only worth organizing if I can find some memories later.

(2) There are some great tools like Hazel (on Mac) to auto-sort.

(3) Otherwise, it must be autotelic.

There is joy in being AUTOTELIC, when you enjoy the process of something for its own sake. No one else has to know or understand, as long as it matters to YOU!!! I want everyone who sees this to know this word, it's very powerful and meaningful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autotelic

I'm not going to stop hoarding anytime soon.

I don't like not being dependent on subscription streaming services and DRM platforms like Steam.

I'm caught in this trap and it's turned my love/hate of hoarding into hate/love. I currently have 40TB+ of files to organize, but put it off because it's such a chore.

But, I do it because not organizing it would mean I wouldn't know what I have and where to find it. With proper organization and tools like Everything and VVV (Virtual Volumes View), I can find anything within seconds, as long as I know something about what I'm looking for.

If you have as much fun organising your media as you do consuming that media, then that is time well spent.

    It makes me happy to look at my collection. Even if I'm not opening the files, just seeing a folder full of thumbnails of every issue of Nintendo Power magazine, or that dream collection of old console game ROM, brings out that eight year old whose family could afford to get me two NES games a year - one on Christmas, one on my Birthday, and that was a HUGE deal for me. It gives me this little spike of dopamine just see it and remind myself it's there. It's mine. It's a collection. I get a thrill from collecting it.

    A lot of people, they sit in front of a screen, they scroll Facebook, they seem gossipy bullshit about vapid celebrities, the same generic, memey "riding the wave of trends so you'll like me" reels made by people who will be end up the subject of some drama YouTuber's expose in a few years, and of course the ever-important "here's your super toxic thing of the day, make sure to get as furious as possible at this, while we go ruin people's lives for participting it, and then for agreeing with it, and then for disagreeing with it, but not loudly enough" shit that twists them into knots and re-affirms on a daily basis that the world is a horrible place and everything is bad and they should be fucking miserable.

    I sit in front of a screen and catalog and sort all the wonderful things that make me feel excited. So maybe no one else will ever see it. Maybe I'm not impressing anyone else. Who cares? We need to stop basing our valuations of things on whether or not it gets us attention or appreciation from others. This stuff makes me happy. That's enough.

Inside of me there are two wolves One wolf obsessively categorizes all files pertaining to their purpose.

The other wolf employs a search index service that annihilates the need for the files to be organized (for the most part).

I feed them both obnoxious amounts of time tinkering with their efficiencies. It gives me a sense of control in my out of control life.

The data hoard must grow.

Sometimes it's about the journey and not he destination. Enjoy what you enjoy and try not to think about it too much. Life's too short to second guess yourself.

This is just your personal issue, doesn't apply to others. Although the process you're doing is too excessive with the sorting and such.

To an extent, I agree. For me, if I was out of control, I'd label every single movie, short and episode file with release date and category.

Instead, I just have a folder for movies, a folder for each TV series and a folder for each producer/distributor of golden age animated shorts, that's good enough for me.

Oh and focusing on the media that is actually good and/or at least in my wheelhouse of interest helps in ensuring there's some space left on my 22TB hard drive, instead of downloading everything just because.

A similar disclaimer could probably be pinned to every single subreddit

As with everything, moderation is key.

I love organizing shit, and so I don’t mind giving hours of my life towards doing something I enjoy.

If you’re not enjoying it then yes, it’s a waste of time. For me, the setup is the hobby, and I throughly enjoy it.

Maybe I wanted to be the next Marion Stokes. Have you considered that?

I only organize what I have 'consumed' and it's totally worth it. Would be kinda hard to organize media not knowing what it is, so the problem of "doing something that's not enjoyable, instead of experiencing the media I've collected" is not something I have experienced :D

It becomes more with it once other people can consume the media. My son prefers streaming over my carefully curated collection, but he does say lost appreciate not having commercials.

Also, his taste in media sucks. Just have to say it.

You want to live filthy and unorganized that's on you, don't assume we don't enjoy what we do.

Just because you burnt out doesn't mean we're going to collectively pat you on the back for telling us what most of us already know.

Ps. archiving with no intention of passing it on is the real time wasted, and that's on you, why should they go to waste just because you're gone?

Time spent obsessively cataloguing = time not spent obsessively downloading new stuff

Over the last 2 years, I've noticed that I spend WAY more time carefully cataloguing my collections of digital media (games, anime) than actually experiencing those media.

Collecting is the fun part. Its the keeping up to date, that is the mindboggling dull part.

If you collect good comic series, well, ... trying to keep track of new releases that you want to read is annoying. Same with web series or web novels. Note: Non-US (EU) comic series are much harder to keep track off, as most programs focus on US comics.

On the contrary, don't be like me and lose vintage footage from simpler times that I can never get back due to sheer incompetence and laziness. Thankfully I still have my memories, for now.

Why collect/horde the amounts of data we consume and not index it up? Getting it is the easy part. Getting it Indexed, Data'd, Tagged, etc. is the hard part. We live for this!

I catalouge things because it is enjoyable and sometimes I rediscover things that I didn't know it exists. But I will take your warning.

yes, now i categorize like this

live service
playing
complete (deleted)
backlog

Nah. Life is short = do what makes you happy and feels good. If that’s cataloging your data then so be it.

A good reminder! I find parts of my organizing relaxing, but there's definitely a line to be aware of.

Collecting things as a hobby has been a thing since forever.

Collecting stamps, collecting coins etc.

How exactly do you "enjoy" a stamp or coin or a whatever collection?