> I should not have to manually initiate the dropbox backup
I'm pretty sure you only have to start it once. After that, anything you Gimme gets put into your Dropbox folder right away. At least, that's how my Gimme Bar works.
I originally thought you had to had to go to Gimme Bar's website each time you wanted to back up, like you said, but recently (maybe a month ago?) files started being automatically put into my Dropbox folder as soon as I Gimme'd them. I'm not sure what happened, but I'm glad about the change.
So, tl;dr: Dropbox backup definitely works the way it should.
As for future-proofing, I think this Gimme Bar does a pretty good job. If Gimme Bar ceased to exist, you'd still have your library in your Dropbox folder. If Dropbox ceased to exist, your Dropbox folder would still be a folder on your computer, and your Gimme Bar library would still be there.
So, for you to completely lose your entire Gimme Bar library, all three of the following things would have to happen:
1. Dropbox would have to shut down,
2. Gimme Bar would have to shut down, and
3. The hard drive on every computer you had Dropbox installed on would have to fail, as would every back-up of every one of those drives.
If you wanted to go to Siracusian lengths, I guess you could install Dropbox's server client on a VPS. That way, you'd have your Dropbox stuff in your own cloud as well as in Dropbox's, so even if all three of the above things happen, you'd still have access to your stuff.
I'm pretty sure you only have to start it once. After that, anything you Gimme gets put into your Dropbox folder right away. At least, that's how my Gimme Bar works.
I originally thought you had to had to go to Gimme Bar's website each time you wanted to back up, like you said, but recently (maybe a month ago?) files started being automatically put into my Dropbox folder as soon as I Gimme'd them. I'm not sure what happened, but I'm glad about the change.
So, tl;dr: Dropbox backup definitely works the way it should.
As for future-proofing, I think this Gimme Bar does a pretty good job. If Gimme Bar ceased to exist, you'd still have your library in your Dropbox folder. If Dropbox ceased to exist, your Dropbox folder would still be a folder on your computer, and your Gimme Bar library would still be there.
So, for you to completely lose your entire Gimme Bar library, all three of the following things would have to happen:
1. Dropbox would have to shut down, 2. Gimme Bar would have to shut down, and 3. The hard drive on every computer you had Dropbox installed on would have to fail, as would every back-up of every one of those drives.
If you wanted to go to Siracusian lengths, I guess you could install Dropbox's server client on a VPS. That way, you'd have your Dropbox stuff in your own cloud as well as in Dropbox's, so even if all three of the above things happen, you'd still have access to your stuff.