As a historian, I can actually say without a hint of irony that nearly everything humanity has created has historical value and purpose. I've worked in physical archives before. You would not believe the incredible historical value of the most boring, inconsequential shit. https://twitter.com/oj_wilk/status/1253868936082403329

Ao3 actually IS an archive. It seeks to compile historical and contemporary transformative works to save them from purges which would cause us to lose whole histories of culture and dynamic human creativity.

I didn't painstakingly organize thousands of boring-ass photographs and personal correspondences in museum archives during my college days to have some fuckwit on Twitter claim what is or isn't a "legitimate" archive. I think I'd know one when I saw one.

This interaction was lost to their deletion but fortunately, I worked as an archivist. ;3