Have you ever gone back over your old posts and decided that you needed to make some changes? I know that a lot of people go back and do updates to the bodies of posts. I've done small updates once or twice (literally).
What about going back to add some more labels/tags/keywords/ whatever you want to call them? I was reading old posts and I noticed that a lot of them (perhaps unfortunately) involve me talking about Gamer ADD. It's sort of scary how often I seem to be inflicted by that rough beast that slouches toward the gaming table to be born (apologies to Yeats). So I decided to go back and add "Gamer ADD" as a label for those (and future) posts.
So, what's your personal feeling/policy on editing old posts (with regard to text, labels, whatever)? I'm pretty comfortable with adding/removing/changing labels. I sort of obsess about labels. I should probably consider some advice on how to label posts effectively, if such training exists! But going back to edit swathes of text seems somehow a violation of what I was feeling at the time a post was written.
And how far back do you go? I added the "Gamer ADD" label to some fairly old posts!
Anyway, thoughts?
I'll edit grammar and spelling mistakes, add tags and if I need to add something new all together, I will note that it is an "edit".
ReplyDeleteI'm going to "+1" Tenkar. That's pretty much exactly what I do.
ReplyDeleteWhen I have extensive editing, I usually write an entirely new post about it, and link each post to the other one.
I don't like to "over edit", because the temptation is there to remove my own stupidity (which does occur). If I have facts wrong, I'll add the correction as an additional edit, but I leave my screw up in - that screw up probably led to the response that led to the correction. If I remove the screw up, the responses make no sense.
ReplyDeleteBesides, it keeps me honest.
It's the same reason I don't delete posts... and boy, have i wanted too ;)
Yeah, I either write a new post or more commonly add an "Update" section to the end.
ReplyDeleteRe tags and labels -- I go back and add them too. sometimes you don't know that a topic will be cropping up again and again until later.
Re how many/what kind: Among librarians, the rule of thumb for subject headings (and this is a gross simplification but a start) is add the heading (tag) if at least 20% of the text/material is about the subject, and when you have a hierarchy of possible headings use the narrower headings if it is up to three; if you'd be tempted to use 4+ just use the broader heading (so, if it's about orcs, goblins, kobolds, and hobgoblins, use "humanoids").
However I'd use any proper names as tags as needed and screw the rule of three.
Thanks guys for chiming in! @mikemonaco: that seems like a pretty good system, I appreciate it! I am going to try and use that from here on out.
ReplyDeleteAs far as editing goes, I axed a bunch of my controversial posts. I decided that in the end I just wanted to focus on game content and to leave the pissing and moaning for, well, no one wants to hear it anyway. So I guess I won't post it at all.
ReplyDeleteI, too, have completely erased posts in the sober light of morning. Grammar is fair to fix, but I think content changes deserve their own post. Labels are important, more so than titles once posts are archived. Though, I don't have a system yet.
ReplyDelete