I am currently working on a project that uses tons of huge images... the raw source files alone take up about 40GB of hard drive space. I plan to purge the files immediately after finishing the project, which is out of line with my usual practice: Generally, I keep everything--all versions of drafts, all source files, correspondence--and keep it forever. This latest job got me thinking: How long should a designer (or any project manager) keep things, and should extended archiving be a (billable) service to clients?
It's not exactly easy to keep everything.
For instance, even years after being finished with projects and not having corresponded with clients since, I have full web development projects stored on my hard drive. A couple of times, this organization has come in handy--like when a client moved to a new hosting company but didn't realize all the files had to move to a new server. ;) This not only uses up disk space, but also makes it slightly harder to sort through files and slower to operate disk searches.
Since I find it hard to say no, I have answered emergency "I need help!" pleas from former clients at no charge... so simply keeping the files increases the probability of unpaid labor in the future.
In applications like Dreamweaver and Fetch, stored server login credentials and site set-up files take up space, which simply slows down scrolling when looking for a relevant site info.
I also have tons of login credentials (username/password combinations) stored in my browsers... so when I go to Facebook or Twitter or Blogger or TypePad or Livejournal or Dreamhost or Lunarpages, I have about fifteen options for signing in. If I'm in a hurry, sometimes I make the wrong selection, which is not a big deal, but it slows me down for a second while I log out and log back in.
Kind of related to this is the number of email notifications I get that are intended only for clients. Pretty much any client who has a sign-up form, opt-in form, or message function on their site receives a notification, while one of my email addresses is CCed. I set-up such scripts with my address to test its success and monitor it for awhile after launch, but sometimes, there is a long stretch between the launch and receipt of "real" notifications... and by that time, the client has moved on and not been in contact with me. Since I always encourage clients to change their hosting/server passwords upon completion of projects, I can't always correct this myself when I notice it's an issue. As a result, I get notifications from about ten sites whenever a form is completed. I don't even read them... I just know from the subject lines what they are and redirect them to a holding folder.
I'm thinking a deep Spring cleaning is in order.
It's not exactly easy to keep everything.
For instance, even years after being finished with projects and not having corresponded with clients since, I have full web development projects stored on my hard drive. A couple of times, this organization has come in handy--like when a client moved to a new hosting company but didn't realize all the files had to move to a new server. ;) This not only uses up disk space, but also makes it slightly harder to sort through files and slower to operate disk searches.
Since I find it hard to say no, I have answered emergency "I need help!" pleas from former clients at no charge... so simply keeping the files increases the probability of unpaid labor in the future.
In applications like Dreamweaver and Fetch, stored server login credentials and site set-up files take up space, which simply slows down scrolling when looking for a relevant site info.
I also have tons of login credentials (username/password combinations) stored in my browsers... so when I go to Facebook or Twitter or Blogger or TypePad or Livejournal or Dreamhost or Lunarpages, I have about fifteen options for signing in. If I'm in a hurry, sometimes I make the wrong selection, which is not a big deal, but it slows me down for a second while I log out and log back in.
Kind of related to this is the number of email notifications I get that are intended only for clients. Pretty much any client who has a sign-up form, opt-in form, or message function on their site receives a notification, while one of my email addresses is CCed. I set-up such scripts with my address to test its success and monitor it for awhile after launch, but sometimes, there is a long stretch between the launch and receipt of "real" notifications... and by that time, the client has moved on and not been in contact with me. Since I always encourage clients to change their hosting/server passwords upon completion of projects, I can't always correct this myself when I notice it's an issue. As a result, I get notifications from about ten sites whenever a form is completed. I don't even read them... I just know from the subject lines what they are and redirect them to a holding folder.
I'm thinking a deep Spring cleaning is in order.
