General: Mistakes

I was recently asked whether I change my old posts. My answer was No, but it's a qualified No.

My usual attitude is that what I've written is written. As soon as I click the Publish button my post is final; I don't change my post, even if I look at it a year later and my opinion has changed.

The most common way for me to change my opinion is my film rating. My ratings are very subjective, based on the way a film makes me feel, so it's common for me to change my mind about how good it is. Really, it's not a question of whether a film is good or bad, it's about how much it speaks to me. Sometimes I watch a film, and I have the impression that it's objectively a good film, but if it leaves me cold I give it three stars or less. If I think my rating was a mistake, I go back and watch the film again, and my new review has the new rating. When I change a rating, it's usually just half a star plus or minus. If I make a big change, as I did with "American Mary", I'll comment on it in my new review. But I still won't change my old review.

In a few rare cases I've added an addendum to my post with additional thoughts. This is something I only do shortly after writing a post. After a week has gone by, it's unlikely that I'll add anything to my post.

Sometimes I make a factual error in a post. That's also something I don't like to change. It's possible that I'll write an addendum to the post, but usually I'll put it right in my next post.

There was one case where a person left a comment asking for something to be removed from my post, because he said that what I wrote about him could be misunderstood. I read the post, and he was right, so I changed what I wrote about him. Then he commented again and asked me to remove his name altogether. I refused, because I found what I had written to be a fair description of facts. I offered that if he wanted to answer what I'd written, he could send me a text which I would insert as an addendum. He didn't take me up on this offer.

Sometimes I make spelling mistakes. That's embarrassing. On occasions I've found spelling mistakes in posts I wrote five or more years ago. That makes me feel dreadful. I correct the errors as quickly as I can, hoping nobody will notice. On rare occasions I've also made grammatical errors. Sometimes I've had to rewrite sentences in old posts, but I didn't change their meaning.

For the last five years I've added boxes to the bottom of my posts with links to purchase the film reviewed at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de. I've noticed that some of my links are now broken. Sometimes they link to products that are out of print, sometimes they link to non-existent pages. That bothers me, but I can't change it. It would be too much work. You'll just have to accept that the links are only guaranteed to be valid for a few months after I write my post.

If you have any more questions for me, that's what the comment box is for. Tick the box "Notify me" so that you know when I reply.