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.
I would spend months carefully renaming the files, grouping them into folders by franchise, creating watch order files, 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, putting all my files into a spreadsheet along with other information, etc. etc.
Today I realized that my obsession is pointless. I’m just wasting my life doing something that’s not enjoyable, instead of experiencing the media I’ve collected. Who am I making those neat-looking catalogues for? I will never pass on my collection to anyone. I am just lost in my unhealthy obsession instead of enjoying life.
So yeah. Today I’ve decided to stop wasting my time. I will keep archiving (because I believe that in the future, the governments will make it very difficult to share copyrighted media online), but I will stop trying to make my collection look nice and tidy.
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.
Anyways, I hope this helps someone realize that obsessions with cataloguing your hoards are unhealthy and a waste of life.
I’ve been collecting genealogical data for the last 15 years. You better believe I keep that organized, otherwise I would be screwed.
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.
Go ahead and add this to your collection >!/s!<
More seriously though, I’ve thought about all the duplicated/overlapping work everyone here must be doing and wished there was a way for everyone to contribute to a central archive so the indexing/labeling/etc excessive manual labor components could be distributed without running into the copyright issues of sharing those files.
Your stuff isn’t being organized and titled properly automatically?
I have sonarr and radarr naming things exactly how I want them.
Mine’s tidy but not overly tidy. For example, I don’t rename every file. I have a folder called “TV shows live action” and folders inside that are the name of the show and years aired. Every season is one zip file as store compression.
I think this is reasonable and cuts down on clutter. I used to obsessively rename files in the past and it wasn’t worth the trouble.
Ok - you sound a bit depressed. I get it.
There is a part of you that is shaming you for ‘not being productive’. I have this as well.
You have to realize that there is another part of you that likes TV, movies, sex, games, hanging out with friends and video games.
All of these activities are a “waste of time” to the part of you that is torturing you.
But - there is another part of you that enjoys your cataloging. It is calming and relaxing. You get a sense of satisfaction putting things in order. It gives you some control in a world that is un-certain.
Question: Have you ever gone to the gym or had a trainer? They will make you exercise parts of your body that you normally do not use. This is to prevent atrophy of these less used parts.
Your hobbies and “Data Hording” is similar. You are organizing, working with the computer, deciding how to solve problems and interacting with us here.
Like exercising strange muscles - you are working things that are not really ‘productive’ or useful. But like the gym - it helps to do these tasks to keep yourself whole.
The one trick - time box how much time you spend. An hour in front of the computer - then an hour cleaning the room, kitchen, grocery shopping, etc.
Be aware of your balance.
Try to forgive yourself. Look at “stamp collecting” - you never ‘finish’ or use the stamps to mail things. The researching, collecting, organizing, cataloging etc. are all important parts of the hobby.
I also rarely read/watch the things I collect. But I love fixing problems, writing scripts to rename things, coming up with a ‘workflow’, etc. My mind is always active, I seek out “…how do you guys solve this problem?” posts here.
It’s not the destination that is important, it’s the journey. And sharing problems and solutions.
So let me ask: what was the last annoying problem you solved cataloging your collection? Is your solution more clever than mine?
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 just use filebot
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.
It also means that the people around us can more easily enjoy the media that we’ve collected, since they probably don’t enjoy the same collecting and organizing process that we do.
For example, I’m planning to re-organize my media for Jellyfin on TrueNAS, what with organizing the folders and file structures, and creating better ways to rip DVDs, Blu-Rays, and audio CDs. I enjoy that process, but it also makes it more convenient for my family members to access and watch that media when they would like to as well. So there’s more than just my personal enjoyment that’s increased from this.
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.
The data hoard must grow.
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.
Or maybe I’m just a rare case of a person who realizes that our time on this Earth is limited, and spending hundreds of hours doing OCD stuff is a complete waste of life.
How old are you? I’ve been having an existential crisis too.
Sooooo… What will you do next?
“I’m just a rare case o-” 8 billion people on this planet youre not a rare fucking anything, blow me. This is the quickest turnover of a post going from “Oh this has a sweet sentiment if a bit pretentious” to “Oh ok the OP is so self obsessed he jacks off exclusively into a mirror”
Fun fact, this post comes off way more OCD than any amount of time cataloguing. Like not “OCD enough to be a one-post diagnosis,” but still more. Because actually, OCD isn’t about keeping things neat. It’s quite often the opposite, like for example intentionally alienating a social group ^_^
i don’t think either of you know much about OCD
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.
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.