Feb
12th
Fri
12th
Posterous Sometimes Spreads Information Too Efficiently (!)
I’m a big advocate of the blogging platform Posterous, which I use on a regular basis. It has two really great features that I like a lot. One is that an email platform can be used as the blogging interface; meaning, draft your blog posts with email, and then email them to Posterous and they are posted. Two, your Posterous blog can be automatically tied to other blogs (Tumblr, WordPress, etc.) and other ways of sharing (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) so that your information can spread quickly and efficiently and effortlessly across the Web. Sometime this process can be a little too efficient. A few days ago, I was drafting a series of Posterous blog posts within Gmail, and in one case, I accidentally hit “Send” instead of “Save Now.” Whoops. That blog post got out there in incomplete form, with only the core writing and none of the caveats and edits I tend to do later. In this case, I was able to delete the posts that got out there, but generally speaking, this is a risk of using email as the primary blog post editor (which Posterous encourages you to do). I don’t like to share much about the thought process behind how I write what I write, but in this case, I will share a little. I often have a core idea - something I see, something that irritates me, a sentence or a word I read - that sets me in motion to write, connecting that core idea with my previous knowledge, writing, and thoughts on a larger topic. Hence, the first draft is often, in effect, a rant about the core idea, and then the second draft (usually the final draft) is an edit which frames the core in light of the larger topic. The problem is that when a core idea is accidentally published as a “draft rant,” it can set people off if they’re invested in the core idea. Oh well. We all make mistakes, and this is a good time to reflect on giving people the benefit of the doubt when something weird is published on a blog or in a tweet - maybe it’s just a mistake. Perhaps the newspaper guys with cigars and typewriters are good role models for writing after all. Deep thoughts for your Friday.
