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Re: editing posts after submission

Posted by Nadezda on November 29, 2009, at 14:59:45

In reply to Re: editing posts after submission » Dr. Bob, posted by Dinah on November 29, 2009, at 2:10:36

I do think that there's a possibility that we're punishing people too severely if we keep the posts unrevisable. I do get the feeling as I think about it, that part of the reason it is appealing to do so is that we don't want people to avoid so called responsibility for what they've written.

This is being argued largely in terms of preserving a stable reality. But the motivations for wanting posts to remain visible seem to be to be more complex than the simple one of not changing reality. This is because the consequences of keeping the post visible are multiple, not single. And to single one facet of this and to call it 'preserving reality' is overly rhetorical, and makes the preservation seem like an obvious good.

But is it preserving reality? or it is fixing the impulse and preventing reflection and thoughtfulness from having their due? Doesn't it profoundly limit the poster's process of reflecting on a response and realizing that it doesn't adequately, or well, represent her views-as well as having the free chance to rethink and reword feelings-- which is lost if the person is now in the position of having to focus on an apology for some wrong-doing?

There are always rules about written texts that are different from those of speech-- precisely because speech is impermanent and one doesn't have a record to refer to. So it's not subject to rules about revision and rewriting-- and having editors and review before things are published. And this process insures that permanent words are acceptable and well-composed.

One aspect of the internet is that it makes possible impulsive communications of personal or other information that were only previously possible in letters or other more long-term documents. And this may call for different rules from those governing speech or published texts-- intermediate rules. Yes speech can't be recalled--but it disappears forever; and a text once published is to some degree in the public domain--but it has had the benefit of much review by both author and editors.

Here, we do have the option of revising-- and after all, these are not gone-over or reviewed texts--yet they become as fixed as those that have been combed through in books-- In effect, they're as free flowing as speech, of which there is no record, and as fixed as published texts, for which there is revision and review.

So perhaps the best of all possible worlds is to take advantage of this potential for revision, within limits. Of course if many people have read, or someone has responded, a post becomes permanent. But why keep an unread, or unattended post permanent, without any chance for cool-headed reflection by the writer? Aren't we also truncating a potential learning experience of rethinking and revision of a response--and thereby becoming more aware of what one does or doesn't want to say, possibly learning how to write better first-draft replies? Shouldn't we also be protecting the rights of writers, ie contributors to the public space, as well as readers (who obviously have the option of fixing a post as soon as they've read it).

I simply don't think that making people take some imagined "responsibility" for impulsive words should be quite so stringent as to be limited to rereading the text before pushing the send button-- which as we know pressures the writer to make a split second decision. Punishing people by public humiliation, which seems to be involved in the notion of not allowing them to "save face" seems to me to be overly harsh for a forum which, as even you Dinah, have suggested, is populated by people who've suffered various forms of damaging hurt during their lives. Sometimes it's best to temper justice with mercy-- and it seems to me that this is one of those times.

Having a limbo, or suspend publication, position, while an interesting option, doesn't I think connect well to the internet's up-to-the-moment ethos of communication. It's much more to the point to allow some period of revision.

So while I have some reservations, it seems on the whole beneficial to have a period of using this option and seeing whether it produces a more helpful and supportive environment or not. And I note that anyone has the option of making a post they feel is uncivil or hurtful permanently visible, if they so choose.

Nadezda


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