Corrections
Kaye Trammel has some rules for corrections in weblogs.
Never delete a post. Never. If you no longer agree with the post then use the strikethrough HTML option: [strike];. If you post something controversial one day & then pull it down the next you are telling your readers that you don't have the backbone to say what you say on your blog. Say it & stand by it.
In other words: Do as I say. Do as I say. If you no longer do [x], then do as I say. If you do [y] & then do [z], then you're a coward. Do as I say & do as I say.
If she found a way to make it in my interest to do something (or at least explained why I should do as she says), I might be a little more open minded. Granted, she does tells us what it looks like (“that you don't have the backbone”) when you delete something. Yeah, thanks.
And why “never”? Surely there are cases where deleting a post is a good idea. Say, you were drunk or high and you wrote a post mentioning where you live. Or that after a fight you wrote that your girlfriend is a bitch (or the word that starts with C), something you don't even truly believe, and need to get rid of it before she reads it. Or you are blackmailing someone by publishing personal information, and they paid the money. Why give the prosecutor evidence? There's no sense in giving someone a noose to hang you with. And besides, you're already engaging in unethical behaviour. Why compound the error by leaving it up for everybody to see? (The last five sentences are intended to be humourous. But seriously, isn't it in your interest to cover your tracks if you're committing a crime?)
Note changes to your posts. Hours after your post if you find that you didn't spell something right or got a number wrong then you should fix it. However, you should put a note somewhere on that post telling readers what was fixed & when.
In other words: Do as I say. If you didn't do [x] or did [y], then you should do as I say. However, you should do as I say.
Again: why? Or how is it in my interest to do so?
The third "tip" is much, much better. In fact, it is not a tip at all, but rather information:
It's okay to make minor changes your post right after uploading it. I give myself about a 5-minute window. As hard as I try, I can't proofread HTML. So, I publish the post, read it through, make sure the links work then call it a day. You do not need -- as long as you are only making small edits -- to post a note with updates for this.
You can do [x]. I do [y]. I also try [z]. I do [v]. You don't need to do [u].
In the third one, she's giving options rather than telling you what to do, then explains what she does. Not why she does what she does, but that's not really important. You can follow her example if you want to.
Kaye concludes by saying: “I don't agree with Jill Walker when she starts her post by announcing "I'm happy for individual bloggers to edit or delete posts from their blogs." Because I'm not happy to have that happen. I think it breaks a pact you make with your readers & it just won't happen here.” What pact? Most weblogs are about individual voices saying what they want to say. Some, yes, are intended to increase their audiences because of ego or financial concerns, and in that respect, if you're not giving the audience what they want, then no hits for you. (Come back, one year!)
If you're in it for the love of the game, and you're paying the hosting fee, then—limited of course by the long reach of copyright, libel/slander and other laws that should be limiting your speech—you get to say what you want. Earlier this year, I wrote a response to some Golden Rules of blogging (the original rules are no longer available). Basically, you can do whatever you want on your site. If you delete or substantially change something that I linked to and responded, then chances are I'll be upset about it, because if it's gone, it would look like I was engaging in a straw man argument. (Goodness knows I've done that enough without people changing what they wrote.) Do it once, and I'll think that you had a good reason to do so. Do it a couple times (you only get two strikes) and you will have lost a reader. But I don't have the right to tell you how to run something you pay for.
I applaud Kaye for her ethics in making substantial changes obvious. But by telling me that I should do with my weblog without saying how it benefits me doesn't sit well with me.
