Archiving: Summary of Responses

[Michal Berman <Michal -at- TELAVIV -dot- DDDDF -dot- COM>]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my question about how long one should
store outdated versions of documentation. I got a lot of feedback very
quickly, and am very appreciative. Here is a summary:

There are a couple of deviations, but most people save one copy of
everything - forever. People have claimed to have searched for documents
created five, ten - even twenty! - years before, and were very happy to have
found them.

Here are the reasons why it is worthwhile to save:
1) Clients out there may still be using that version and may request the
books.
2) It can be very helpful if someone decides to sue you for plagiarism - or
if you want to sue someone else for plagiarism.
3)  If your company is ISO 9000 certified,  you may have to comply with
certain procedures which demand that you save the material for a certain
period of time.
4) Of course, good ol' Murphy's Law which states that as soon as you throw
it out you'll need it.

A lot of people only save documents electronically, which is a definite
space saver.

Again, thanks to all of you who responded!

Ms. Michal Berman
Fourth Dimension Software
Documentation Manager
michal -at- telaviv -dot- ddddf -dot- com