HACKER Q&A
📣 totetsu

Suggestions for archiving extended families photographs etc.


I would like to set up an archive for my family and extended family's photos, videos, or other things the next generations might like to have. I am looking for suggestions for self hosted projects, or user respectful services.


  👤 mceachen Accepted Answer ✓
I'm building PhotoStructure to solve exactly this problem for my own family. You can read more here: https://photostructure.com/about/introducing-photostructure/

The main advice I'd give though, will be true for whatever tech stack you choose:

Know that you're fighting a war with irrelevance.

I've got boxes of unlabeled old family photos, but I recognize only a few of the faces, and annotations are sparse and frequently illegible. Everyone that could add relevance to the images in those boxes have passed away.

Before that happens to you, gather the metadata that you can. Answer as much of the "who," "what," "where," "when," and "why" that you can. Get help, if you can.

Any details you add to your photos and videos will help people in the future understand the significance of what they're looking at, and glean value from the collection.