May 7, 2000
Untitled
Last week I asked about the potential ethics and guidelines behind going back into your weblog to edit or tweak previous postings. I didn’t really have a huge issue with the point, I just felt guilty doing it sometimes. Here are a couple of views on the matter:
Subject: ethics or guidelines for weblogs?
Date: 04/05/2000 02:21 AM
From: Jeffrey Zeldman, email hidden; JavaScript is required
To: Grant Hutchinson, email hidden; JavaScript is requiredi go back and edit stuff all the time.
it’s my site. it’s your site.
especially if something i wrote was incorrect, i reserve the right to fix it. perhaps it was even something potentially libelous. i look at it hours later, smack myself on the head, and change it. should i leave mistakes dangling forever in cyberspace, merely because i was foolish enough to post them the first time?
it’s really no different than correcting an html or javascript error that you missed. or replacing a lame graphic with a better one, a few days later, when you have the time to do it right.
thank god we CAN edit our work — as often as needed.
that’s my take on it, anyway.
jeffrey
And another opinion…
Subject: blog question discussion
Date: 04/05/2000 03:23 PM
From: Miles Baskett, email hidden; JavaScript is required
To: Grant Hutchinson, email hidden; JavaScript is requiredAnal? maybe not, I have _deleted_ stuff that I was embarrassed about, but even if on re-reading content it sounds “lame”, that was a valid thought at the time. That’s where the flavor of any given site comes from. I find it hard to come up with content every day and would rather let it slide than just throw something up and see what sticks. Ha, this may be hard to believe when I go back over some of the stuff I write, but that is that.
As far as correcting content by re-editing, I would add a later update (but thats just me). Link corrections are another matter, assuming you archive your previous posts. You don’t want someone trying to get at an out of date url. Or if a site is gone (whatever) cut it.
Anyway, I like you site. Haven’t had a chance to look at back posts, so don’t change them for a couple of days.
Miles
To paraphrase one of my replies, we are the creators and owners of our content, therefore we are responsible for it. We are fortunate that we have the capability to update, edit, recompose, adjust, noodle, and otherwise futz around with our work after the fact. At some point, we do need to leave it alone and move on to other things. The difficulty is knowing when to stop. I’m stopping now.
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