Housekeeping post ahead —
I saw something that really bugged me yesterday. Remember that Kim Hall “FYI” thing I talked about the other day? Well, while I was reading this way cool response to it (yes, it’s the HuffPo piece; it’s the same writer), I noticed in the blog’s comments that Hall has done something very naughty in blog-ness, namely that she seems to have edited her original piece so that it isn’t quite so awful and in places now says something quite different in tone from when I saw it and quoted it. I just want to go on the record as saying that is not okay with me.
If I ever make more than a typo change or an obvious correction, I’m going to make a note of the correction. If I turn out to be wrong about something, as has happened here once or twice, I’ll happily correct it with an ETA type of note. I’d rather err on the side of caution than look sneaky.
I’m new to blogging, but even I know not to make substantive changes to a blog piece once it’s “published” without an edit note. Before this blog even took shape in my mind, this story about a similar situation, a Christian blogger caught even more substantially editing his post, came out and scandalized the religious-blog community. Well, kind of scandalized us. I’m afraid most of us non-Christians weren’t really surprised to see a Christian behaving badly. But that’s when I became aware of how important it is to maintain integrity by avoiding the appearance of evil–sorry, I’ll replace y’all’s irony meter now (I loved that phrase; it’s from an old comment-board buddy of mine). Maybe I’m kind of spazzing out about it, but I’ve got just enough journalism and communications classes under my belt to be sensitive to that kind of thing. Changing her kids’ photos is one thing, because they’re kids, and this is the internet, and it was just so shockingly weird that she used the ones she originally did. But the text? Ugh. No, won’t happen here. I promise.
I don’t say this nearly often enough, but y’all are without question the finest group of readers I’ve ever seen on the internet. I mean that. I’m so proud to have you as guests and commenters. This has been an unbelievable last few months for me and I’ll never, ever lose this sense of awe and wonder that you’ve chosen to travel with me. We’ve barely gotten started. Turn up the music, roll down the windows, and put on your shades. The road beckons. Next we’re going to be talking about why non-Christians can’t just let it go already and I’d love to have you here.
