A longtime net friend has just taken down (almost all of) his blog.
Though he didn’t say so, I suspect one reason was that he hadn’t updated it in almost four years. The larger reason was that, like all growing people, his values and sensibilities have evolved over the past decade or so, and he didn’t like having things out there that don’t reflect who he is today.
I can relate to this. I’ve written of it before. I’ve tacked steadily right on abortion my entire adult life, for example. One of my most popular posts—click Amy Fisher in the left sidebar—is (I hope) clearly tongue-in-cheek and not particularly heinous, but it’s not a post I’d make today.
Sometimes it’s rather recent. There are multiple declarations out there that I would vote for any Republican nominee even if it were Donald Trump, and that didn’t (and won’t) happen either. I’m sure there are other instances.
It concerns me enough that I include the following in my site bio:
Several years of my thoughts are represented here, and evolution in a position of mine is not unheard of. If you have questions, ask.
(Of course, someone has to read the site bio to encounter that, which can hardly be assumed.)
So far I find more value in leaving my blog intact as a life document than I would in trying to go through each post and adjust my some-years-ago self to my current self. (Plus, that would take forever. This is the 3,490th post on BoWilliams.com.)
The only post I ever deleted was one that I feared could be interpreted as a threat to the president. It wasn’t, but upon consideration I thought the chance of unwelcome law enforcement attention was non-negligible. So I took it down. I have made very occasional edits after a post is published, but they have almost always been to correct grammar or spelling errors. When I have made the (extremely rare) content change, I have explicitly noted it.
Other than that, here is what I’ve chosen to make public over what is now more than a quarter of my life. Wow. Thank you for riding with me!
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