One of the interesting features of NetNewsWire is that it tracks the changes to items in RSS feeds. If an author edits a post the new items are presented in green and the deleted items in red. Most of the time the changes are spelling corrections or minor edits. Mark Cuban is one great example. Mark will usually make a number of small edits shortly after he originally posts an item.
Every once and a while a major edit will take place. The following screen shot is Dave Winer's post about the Technorati situation.
Click photo for full size
As you can see there have been quite a few changes to the post. At first is was a rant by Dave against Technorati.
We've all cut them an enormous amount of slack for a long, long time, Doc. I don't know about the rest of you, but they've been taking my data, and snarking behind my back. Everyone says they like Technorati, until you admint that you don't really, then they fess up that they don't really either. One too many stabs in the back. Too much snark, not enough perf. They take from the commons and don't put back.
Now it just quotes Doc Searl's post. Should Dave have made this major change? Obviously he was a bit upset when he wrote the original post, then thought about it, and made the edit. Perhaps he should have kept the original item up and posted a 'further thougths' in the same post?
Visitor Comments
I don't necessarily mind someone having a change of heart and expunging something they regret writing. I t would be more honest to your readers if you left behind some record of what you've done, like "Insane rant that I now regret has been deleted".
However, if it's happening more than once in a while, the author should try counting to 100 before publishing. Amazing how much distance and composure you can develop in 100 seconds...
Posted by: Eric Eggertson | July 23, 2005 12:29 AM
I think that the quick, off-the-cuff remarks we sometimes see are a result of the ease at which we can publish via a blog. Perhaps we should call them Freudian Posts.
Posted by: Josh Hallett | July 23, 2005 9:47 AM
This isn't a casual edit of an off-the-cuff post. This is typical winer. He frequently rants in a vicious, meanspirited way and then edits his text after it's been up a few hours. He routinely writes provocative remarks, then when people react and post angry responses, he changes the text to something innocuous, so it looks like he is being reasonable and the others who respond are flamers. winer has done this for years, everyone knows it.
You should be aware that Mark Pilgrim once wrote a bot, "WinerWatcher," to track editing changes on scripting.com. winer had a fit and said he'd stop posting if the bot wasn't discontinued. I think Pilgrim was brilliant, he finally exposed for once and for all the way winer operates. But Pilgrim proved his point and discontinued the bot.
I think it's hilarious that Brett Simmons wrote a WinerWatcher feature into NetNewsWire, especially since Simmons used to be an employee of winer's. Maybe Brett got tired of seeing winer get away with his little tricks. Maybe that's why he quit Userland.
Posted by: Zaphodim | July 24, 2005 4:45 PM