brentashley

There’s a bit of a hooplah going on about modifying or deleting a blog entry or comment after it has been posted.

Scoble weighs in with his personal policy on the matter.

I often delete comments due to spam content, but never due to a difference of opinion. I suppose the main reason I might *want* to delete or modify something on my blog is because I’ve said something that I regret, and yet, I make it a policy not to.

For instance, I was somewhat snippy with a commenter recently. I dropped the f-bomb as I am sometimes wont to do, and I rather wish I hadn’t, however it was said and I don’t think it’s fair for me to a) unsay it, or b) change its tone after the fact.

If I really felt it necessary to mitigate every f-bomb on my blog, I’d go back and connect each one of them to their contributing factors – I’m pretty sure this particular one had some vintage inspiration.

I had an email conversation with a blogger recently who had disagreed with me (conversation via email because comments were broken). I pointed out how I believed he had misread me and his response was to remove his original post. I hope that once his comments are working again he reinstates it with my comment and his response to that.

Blogging can keep a history of discussions and not only their outcome but the mistakes we make along the way to finding the truth. It’s of benefit to those who follow to see the whole path, not just the end point.