I have twice deleted a post I have written. On the first occasion, it was a personal account about a friend’s difficult relationship with his mother who happens to be a titled lady and it later caused him some embarrassment, though he was in full agreement at the time.
On the second occasion, it was because a teenage missing girl I had highlighted had been found and the young woman at the centre of the investigation requested it. I was loathe to do so, believing it was pointless as it would still be floating about in blogosphere, but my blogging mentor Geoff advised me it was the right thing to do.
I thought about this after reading Iain Dale‘s account of how he accidentally pressed the "publish" button and was unable to retrieve his post 10 seconds later. It led to him breaking an embargo and apologising to Sky and Adam Boulton.
I wonder if there is no way of ever retrieving a post from the dark labyrinth of blogosphere? Do they really lurk there for ever?
I wonder what your experience has been about this. Who hasn’t pushed the "publish" button at the wrong time and instantly regretted it. What are your views about deleting published posts?
Deleting a published post is fairly irrelevant, in the sense that someone could still have got a screenshot of the post before it was deleted – meaning that if you said something out of place you will still get in trouble for it (unless you are seriously quick off the mark!).
http://lettersfromatory.wordpress.com
Totally no way Ellee of retrieving a post, – the only hope is that, eventually, it will drop into the darkest holes of the net.
The reason I recommended deleting the post in question was because search engines that govern a post’s importance by the number and authority of links (google) will keep the post high up in the rankings. Hopefully, now any stored versions of the post will disappear way down the index.
Well, if you are too slow, Google will cache it and then there is nothing you can do. The fact of the matter is, every post you publish you must be able to defend publicly.
That’s why anonymous blogging is in decline. If you put your name to something, people tend to believe you.
As for deleting old posts, I don’t like the sound of that. How about a correction?
Oh crikey I’ve made so many mistakes, where do I start??
We have to remember we are human and actually are NOT the machines at the end of our fingers.
Will Google replace God?
What a scary thought that would be if the (human) powers had their way.
I’ve never had to delete one but I would rather correct it than do so. I don’t understand all the technical part. I’m more likely to press “send” and send an email I’ll regret, though!
Reminds me of sending a text message to a former girl friend on a Saturday night after a few drinks! Ooops!
Or sending one to your son that was meant for gf. Double Oooops!
I never ever considered that my blog musings were lurking out there after they had been “deleted”.
Hi Elle, two choices.
You can save it as a draft, which I frequently do after publishing – if I decide I want to publish another post for that day …
or
you can ammend (edit) the post … instantly
even if it has been ‘saved’ by google, it will be refreshed by the updated version.
Of course if someone saves something you published – and edited or removed – it would have to be damn important for them to attempt to prove that what they have existed online, if it has been deleted, replaced, or ammended. Even if you are the most read blog with the highest google ratings (hits).
After all,
unless I were on the ‘secret services’ radar
I could publish very specific instructions online … at an exact time … and replace them with everyday blogging ten seconds later, and only those who logged in at that exact time would know the exact directions to the best ever Xmas rave in three weeks (for example).
They may be in an irretrievable place on your computer, or their cyber atoms can just have vanished into nothingness.
The Enterprise Christmas Party is now running!
I’ve recently done an embarassing post on Guido whilst I was drunk as you well kno’, Ellee.
I left it because people had already commented on it and it wouldn’t have been fair to withdraw.
I’ve posted something just for you on my blog.
I don’t really know what to say in your case but since I use both bloglines and google reader I know that even if you delete the posts they have been captured and appear in both feeds. With bloglines they disappear once you have clicked on them and read them but with google reader they stay there in my list. I have even told some bloggers that I read about this. One lady I know does it regularly. She has second thoughts and then deletes. She was unaware and still does it anyway. As long as she realizes that it’s could be still out there.
I think Melanie Phillips and Stephen Pollard would like to “damn” The Daily Telegraph.
Kevin, glad to see you are smiling again. Don’t beat yourself up over your post, I’m sure it’s all but forgotten, or will be very soon.
Ellee said “Don’t beat yourself up over your post, I’m sure it’s all but forgotten, or will be very soon.
Crikey I wish mine was!
Don’t worry Kev, I’m sure worse happens on Guido’s blog.
And as if by magic we can see an apology for a blog post published on Peter Hitchens blog at the end of todays post about the film The Golden Compass.
The presentation of this apology to blog readers is so smug it’s vomit inducing. But do not imagine that I do not admire his skill with words, and my personal admiration for him is positively Shakepearian in it’s poetry; like that of Titania for Oberon. But when he launched the strong voice from his chest, and words came driving on the air as thick and fast as winter snowflakes, then, as Odysseus, he could have no mortal rival as an orator!
Sadly I do not have the beauty of Helen of Troy but, it seems, all of the effect.
I have published really embarrassing self-pitying posts from time to time – I have left them as kind people had commented sympathetically on them – and it seemed to me that deleting them would only make things worse…
Angry comments yes, posts no. I tend to mull them over longer. Still awaiting your apology Jeremy or are you unrepentant in your chauvinism?