Let’s Talk Bookish – Updating Old Content

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where they discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and spread the love by visiting each others’ posts.

MARCH 11: UPDATING OLD CONTENT (NICOLE @ THOUGHTS STAINED WITH INK)

Prompts: Do you ever go back and update older content on your blog? For instance, after getting new graphics or going self-hosted? Why or why not? Do you sometimes curate/clear out old posts that you no longer want published, or rewrite/update them? Do you think people should periodically clean up their old content and update/delete things that don’t align with their current positions/beliefs?

Welcome to another week of LTB, everyone! While I continue to await the arrival of spring, let’s all settle in for another (hopefully) chill Friday and discuss a little bookish topic. Today’s topic is certainly one that I’ve thought about, but haven’t done much of. That being said, maybe there is a time and place for it.

I think older content rarely gets looked over unless it’s one of your main pages or if it’s something that a lot of people are encouraged to link back to. Thus, in the modern day of algorithms and all that, I think that time spent updating old content may not get as much “bang for your buck” as you’d might want, since no one may see it.

Even when I pre-write a post and accidently pre-date publish it, I am usually left wondering why no one has seen it. Usually, Andge rescues me saying that I dated it weeks back and republishes it for me. Thank goodness for her! But also, why is that even a thing, I published it “now,” shouldn’t it alert my readers?!

But that kind of thing is exactly why I don’t usually curate or bother with old posts. Unless I suddenly spot an egregious mistake or something, most of the time I won’t go back and fix it. I do try my best to make sure I edit posts before actually publishing them though, so that I won’t have to go back and edit it.

I think curating and perhaps archiving old posts can help create a cleaner blog sometimes. That being said though, unless you are guiding your readers everywhere around your blog, or if you have a messy front page, I don’t find this to be particularly necessary either. Blogs are meant to be grown, so some trimming here and there might be useful, but I think overall it’s nice to see how a blog has grown too!

The last prompt is quite interesting. I would expect people to curate and change their blog as necessary to fit their current views. I don’t think I have too much against that—after all, is a blog not the reflection of your personality and therefore your views? One definitely should have the freedom to express themselves in a way that matches, in my books! Besides, people change over time and I think a blog can certainly reflect that if they want. I think there’s a charm being able to see the evolution of someone through their blog as well, like a little time capsule.

What do you all think? Do you curate your old posts, or leave them be? Should people be changing them? Why or why not? Let me know in the comments below!

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