Friday, July 01, 2005

Ethics of Tweaking

Yesterday, I read The Weblog Handbook by Rebecca Blood which I had purchased on eBay for 99 cents. While well written, it is VERY basic and has little to offer to someone who is already blogging. However, the book does have, what for me was, an interesting discussion of blog ethics. I was particularly struck by Blood's assertion that is unethical to change posts once they have been published. Blood takes the position that changing entries destroys the "integrity of the network". While she doesn't specifically deal with post-posting edits for spelling, grammar, or usage, she implies that even such changes are inappropriate without annotation.

Well, I see Blood's point. It is certainly something for me to think about given that I have been somewhat generous with small post-posting edits--little fixes. In my case, one of the reasons for engaging in blogging is to improve my writing. Permitting myself to go back to a post and change it to be better read--tweaking it, if you will--is that unethical behaviour in the world of blog publishing?

Please comment. I would like to know your opinion.