So, not too long ago, we had a bit of a heated discussion on the Blaugust discord which caused an article to get taken down, edited and republished – which then sparked I believe at least two posts on the topic of editing posts…

And well, today, I wanted to talk about that specific subject of editing posts, again, without trying to regurgitate what others have said too much.

Note: I couldn’t find fitting images, so I have drawn some cute animals.

Basically, someone wrote a post that was incredibly combative in its tone and phrasing. They were accusing others of being sensitive while at the same time invalidating their concerns and just trying to rage-bait. At least it felt like they were trying to rage-bait.

So, since they published this article and decided to share it in a public space, a lot of people, including me, criticized the article’s tone and combative nature which then turned into a heated discussion.

Personally, I felt invalidated and hurt. I wrote this post over here about the Hogwarts Legacy controversy, talking about how JKR’s politics are baked into the world which is why you cannot separate art from artist, and talking about much more than just that.

This post I wrote was essentially just the type of thing that the previous person that wrote that combative article labelled as “sensitive” and whatnot. The person that I won’t name essentially said they’d lose followers over playing the terf game and that people should just suck it up because they’ll play it no matter what.

And personally, I didn’t really mind the contents. If you wanna play the game, do it. I just won’t read any posts about it and I won’t support that by linking to it or sharing it with others. If I do end up feeling uncomfortable, I may even unfollow.

But the wording and tone of that post left me feeling hurt. They’re not talking about me but it very much felt like they were talking about me…

and after a bit of back and forth, the author of that post took down the post, edited it, and uploaded it again; now it was suddenly a lot less combative and much more about their personal experience rather things that other people apparently do.

So that’s the context for this.

Either way, I just now made some edits to this Hogwarts Legacy post. In a few sections, I added a side note correcting misinformation and I added a date there, too.

In another few sections, I split paragraphs into smaller paragraphs to improve the reading experience… and I also fixed typos.

The thing is that editing posts after publishing them is apparently a much bigger topic than I originally anticipated. After all, as I alluded to at the start of this post, both UV and Naithin talked about this.

Hence, before I get into this, go check out UV’s post over here…

…and then, I also recommend reading Naithin’s post over here which was a response to UV’s post.

So, UV’s post is titled “Unspoken Community Standards” and is about the “perilious minefield of unspoken community standards, and editing your own words”.

UV’s post starts out by talking about unspoken community standards – which I do agree are a thing in many different communities. On the Blaugust discord, for instance, I doubt people would just stay quiet if people started using slurs or whatever whereas other communities may pardon that.

But beyond that, I don’t think the Blaugust community is all that harsh in terms of some unspoken rules. Yes, for many people, Hogwarts Legacy, Harry Potter and Joanne are sore subjects… but I don’t think it’s to the point where you have to censor yourself or avoid the topic at all costs.

Even this last time when the topic came up, the conversation was relatively civil. Yes, it got heated, but the thing that got people heated wasn’t the contents of the post but rather the combative tone of the post in question.

That aside, UV’s post is not just about this but also about “changing the public record”. UV exaggerates a little bit and says that it apparently “is standard practice for everyone to change their published remarks and articles after finding out they aren’t popular” which just isn’t the case.

According to UV, editing a post after the fact feels like crossing an ethical line. When UV wants to change or alter something previously published, they add an addendum – which I agree with… but I don’t think that editing a post is all that bad, either.

And well, after the fact, UV added an Addendum to this post, stating that the post came across a bit more judgy than intended and explaining that certain assumptions weren’t UV’s intention.

Naithin talks about UV’s post in his post (linking again because it has been a while) and speaks about how he treats edits and how he feels about certain statements made by UV.

Anyway, those two posts sparked my interest to write about this topic and I figured that it would be important to deliver some context before heading into a longer post.

Either way, I don’t think it’s all that abnormal to want to edit a post in a way that is less problematic.

If, for instance, the choice of words somewhere is offensive in a way that it affects a lot of people (depending on your standards), why not change that specific offending word out for something else that means the same thing but is not as offensive? 

I don’t think people need to write a whole new post for that or create an extra paragraph just for changing a singular word into a different word, especially if it just stemmed from an error or misunderstanding.

A while ago, I called someone a “cunt” in a post and someone took offense to that. “Asshole” or “wanker” would have gotten the point across as well and would have been equally vulgar and insulting without triggering people that find “cunt” that bad… so, I just changed that word out and the comment calling me out on it is also still a thing. So that works.

In the past, I’ve also written posts that are riddled with typos and errors, as well as these huge paragraphs that are unbearable to read!

And whenever I spot a post like that nowadays, I just go back into the post, correct the typos… and then I split big paragraphs into smaller ones to make it more palatable and easier to read. 

These changes don’t change the meaning of the post or how it comes across. 

It doesn’t change the intention as they still convey what was previously conveyed… They’re just changes that are minor and serve to improve the reading experience.

Another time, I used “indigineous” instead of “aboriginal”, and a nice commentor let me know that the former has a “savages” connotation apparently, so I changed that and noted it down as an editorial note.

In these cases, the words in questions are small fixes that don’t require big addendums or a whole new post. Rather, I just wanted to get them fixed, and I still noted down what I changed in a little “note” to keep myself accountable.

Meanwhile, there are times where I slip up and a post goes out and is incredibly judgy and bad. 

I once wrote a post titled “Does Elden Ring need an Easy Mode?” which shipped out in a state where I essentially tarred the whole Soulsborne community with a brush tainted by the toxic yet vocal minority that keeps lashing out at any attempt to add accessibility to this genre.

Anyway, someone I respect, Naithin, reached out and was utterly disappointed. I reflected. I read the post. I edited it.

Leaving it as it stands would have not just caused grief and possibly hurt people… but it also would have perpetuated stereotypes about the community. It could have been used a source in toxic discourses. That’s not something I wanted.

Leaving it as it released would have done nothing but harm. The only way to fix it was to edit it. An addendum wouldn’t have been enough, a whole rewrite was needed! 

Hence, I did that. But I also didn’t want to dodge a accountability and sweep everything under the rug. 

So, I wrote another post, titled “Taking Accountability for my last Post and Editing it“, where I essentially talk about the intentions of the post and how I failed to express those. 

I listed reasons as to why I haven’t been more thorough in my editing. I also talked about how certain passages that were changed or removed came across and why I had to change them as well as how I changed them.

Essentially, that’s how I tried to keep in place the stuff that I said and hold myself accountable for them while also showing that I understand why they’re so bad and why they needed to be changed.

I think that in some cases this is much more important. Yes, it’s important to not just delete problematic takes. Rather, take I think that you can learn from phrases that were a bit problematic and you can change them.

And heck, opinions change. Many things I’ve said in the four years of blogging I did aren’t things I would say still… and if I remember any of them, I’d probably link back to the original post in a new post stating what has changed or how I feel about them.

In the case of this “kerfuffle” as UV calls it, the person in question wrote a post that was combative and judgy, at times, and other times it was incredibly offensive even. This sparked a heated discussion that was handled as well as I think it could have been handled at the time… and after some reflection, the person in question didn’t delete their post but rather change the sections that were offensive.

You could argue that this would be like “shade politicians” changing the public record but I feel like there’s no value to be had in a post offending people past the point. 

Rather, there’s value to be had in the lessons learned from it and it’s more important to edit a post that is offensive or overly combative since it probably will stick around for ages.

Blogs can stick around for ages, after all, and chances are that an old post may upset new people clicking on it even years later. Making simple edits, maybe adding a note here and there, can make the difference between a person getting pissed off at you… and a person actually listening to what you have to say and maybe changing their stance due to the perspective you gave them.

That’s not to say that that’s the goal of every blog or whatever… but if you share your opinion on something, you probably want people to read it or to take away something from it and you don’t want them to just quit halfway through, right?

At least, I feel that way.

This post was first published on Indiecator by Dan Indiecator aka MagiWasTaken. If you like what you see here and want to see more, you can check me out on Twitch and YouTube as well.