Material online can seem ephemeral. Here's a welcome example of the opposite. Earlier this year a site called Deletionpedia launched with the sole aim of preserving all the pages deleted from Wikipedia.

There are already some 64,000 pages saved for posterity, with more accumulating every day. Some pages seem to have been deleted - and created - for political reasons.

A page listing the candidates for Vice President Who Have Favored The Dissolution Of The United States popped up on Wikipedia on 2 September. Sarah Palin stands out as the only woman on the list of five. She also differs from the other candidates in not having spent the past 130 years in the graveyard. The page was deleted from Wikipedia on 3 September and found its way across to Deletionpedia shortly afterwards.

Other pages were deleted for less obvious reasons. Perhaps Wikipedia were being uncharitable to delete a list of films with monkeys in them. At the time of deletion the list contained just three films - King Kong, Dunsten Checks In, and King Kong Vs Godzilla.

Arguably the last, which contains only a 'fictional mechanical gorilla', doesn't count. But the page had only been on Wikipedia for a few hours at the time of its deletion. From tiny acorns mighty oaks grow, and - who knows - the premature action of Wikipedia editors may have deprived the world of a whole new way to think about, and classify, films.

That is perhaps the point of Deletionpedia. Some suggest that the Wikipedia editors wield too much power. Almost a year ago CIO magazine predicted the appearance of Deletionpedia, an idea they dubbed a "Wikimorgue":
A Wikimorgue could be a small but powerful check on Wikipedia's editors, who might think twice about deleting articles if they knew that by routine practice and internal policy, Wikipedia preserved all deleted pages, including their histories and discussions.
And how are those Wikipedia editors reacting to this new spotlight on their practices? According to the Industry Standard, they're considering deleting the Wikipedia entry for Deletionpedia. Touche.