Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Blogging is No Place For Perfectionists

I've been reading through some of my posts from last year. You know, when blogging was new to me, and I thought I was being inventive or funny. Remember when you first saw a meme and thought it was such a creative and unusual idea?

Good times.

But anyway, reading through past writings has brought up an ongoing question in my mind.
Is it unethical or rude or whatever to rewrite posts?
Some of the things I wrote would have sounded so much better with a different ending line. A line that is -of course- obvious to me now. And there are little things in the wording that I wonder why didn't I just say it like this?

And the perfectionist in me wants to go back and change them.

What do you think? Is it bad to do that?



Because it matters so much.

And I have so much extra time to do it.

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

A little sanitizing of history, eh? Leave it unless it is horribly inaccurate or would cause someone to lose their testimony. In India, when the create Batik cloth they purposefully add an error into the cloth so as to acknowledge the singular perfection of God.

Yvonne said...

If it bothers you, why not?!? But maybe we could talk about WHY it bothers you ; )

It's your blog--DO WHAT YOU WANT!!!

Amy Peterson said...

I think it is fun to look back and see where you have come from, and what you have learned. It would be like changing your journal from when you were little, just because you know better now. I often find that my biggest laughs come from remembering that stage of my life.

Vern said...

I've rewritten a couple of mine before and I bear no shame.

Melissa said...

Hmmm... I would say leave it. It's a great way to measure how far you've come!

Jennie said...

I think that's the beauty of having your own blog. You control the content. I think that if you want to change it, go for it!

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

I plan on printing out my blog someday in book form. And I know I'll edit it first. =P

AppleNat said...

You past posts are HISTORY!!! Are you going to REWRITE HISTORY!!! D:

Heather said...

You are crazy, you know that right??

Caroline C. Bingham said...

just change it. why not. As long as the bulk of it's the same, who cares!

Besides, we all wish we could go back in time and edit things.... just do it.

Janell said...

I often review old posts and edit them for grammar and clarity. I fell like Winston Smith when I "rewrite the past," so I do try to keep the original spirit and point of the message in tact. That goal is particularly trick at times when I also have to make certain that the comment's other people posted still make sense in context of the post.

Super Happy Girl said...

I'm a Blog Purist. Yes indeed, I do not fix my posts even though I should like last week I noticed all the horrible spelling errors I had AND I called a cardinal (bird) a robin. But no, I shall not fix the errors 'cause that's juts part of my whole exotic self.

HEY! But you can if you want to :)
I'll let ya.

N.F. said...

I have read some of my posts from 2005/2006 and I laugh out loud at some of them!

Granted, I should be more concerned with grammar and the like, but I really am over it. I use my blog to just sit down and freewrite. It works, for the most part. ;)

Tori :) said...

I do "reruns" of my old posts occasionally for new readers who may have missed it. Go ahead. Make those endings perfect. And hurry - they've been bugging me. ;)

Unknown said...

Amen and amen. My blog is a dumping ground for my brain.

Unknown said...

Amen and amen. My blog is a dumping ground for my brain.

Heidi said...

I wish there were some perfectionism is in me. I seem to revel in mediocrity.

The Dillon 6 said...

It's your blog -- you get to do whatever you want to it...I think, though, that for US, it would be fun for you to RePost them and show us your new stuff. ;)

Busy Bee Lauren said...

I say go for it. I have actually considered doing the same thing. I am quite ashamed of some of my pitiful posts from two years ago haha!

Nancy Face said...

I'm a perfectionist, so I completely get it. It's your blog...do whatever you want!!!

Tracy Rambles On And On said...

I think it would be ok. You could even link to that post and say "This is what I really wanted to say" or something like that.

Love the chicks on your blog!

Rhonda said...

Haha....that was my same issue last month as I could not decide...so what did I, being the perfectionist journalist that I hope to be someday, do? I go and re-do one particular post so it makes more sense.

No question it was appropriate. The beauty is that no one else will ever know which one....unless you were one of the poor souls who read it the first time and had no idea where I was going with that post.

I mean, what if I decide to publish my greatness someday so that all my FIVE kids who buy the published edition will understand what the heck their mother meant????

Edit away!

goddessdivine said...

I consider myself a work in progress, and feel like I have evolved a little over time. I rarely go back and read unless I'm looking for something specific. I'd only fix spelling/grammar errors because those things make me twitch; otherwise I just leave it--but that's me.

You do whatever makes you happy ;-)

TheOneTrueSue said...

Go for it. I change grammar and typos and such all the time. If it reeeeeally embarrasses me, I just put it back in drafts. :>

RoeH said...

It'll be new to me. I can't remember what I read this morning.

elasticwaistbandlady said...

Are you really me? Or am I really you?

I re-write stuff all the time. I have blog OCD disorder. Even a friend of mine who claims not to care about her blog anymore continues to write and re-write the stuff she already has.

It's such a sickness!

elasticwaistbandlady said...

I was way over memes after only participating in 2. I started my blog because I had things I needed to evacaute from my mind and memes sort of defeat that purpose.

N.F. said...

Oh...if I only cared enough to do that!



;)

N.F. said...

I guess if you read my blog posts you'll see what I mean.

Maybe I *SHOULD* do better in my posts and maybe that will warrant more readers?

;)

Unknown said...

hi randi,
it's your party. it's your blog, you call the shots. whatever you want to do with your blog, do it. if you feel like spiffing up a post, then do it. enjoy yourself, kathleen :)

mindyluwho said...

For me it depends on the post. If it's one of my more meatier essays that I'll be putting in a book for my kids to read someday, then it bears fixing. If it's just a day to day post with grammatical errors, then there are just too many of those to mess with!