Here's a quick tip on how to gain or maintain your credibility online as a blogger: stand by what you write.
And if you decide you want to change or delete your defamatory words, then disclose it.
Yes, it is your blog. And yes, you are free to edit your words.
But when you call a father and son (whom you identify by surname) "equally dysfunctional" in an emotionally-charged post (read by more than a thousand people daily), and then later remove that phrase, then disclose that fact in that blog post itself.
That's the credible thing to do.
Some people call other people names (i.e., delusional) even in public microblogging environments such as Twitter, and then quickly set their twitter messages to private after the object of their name-tweeting, I mean, name-calling finds out about it and raises a ruckus online.
In another case, a high profile blogger (with mere suspicions and not enough facts) will help set-up a minor during a party/gathering, and then subsequently hold up to online scrutiny a father and his 14-year old son and publicly question the father's ethics and morality.
Later, when the online pressure increases, the blog post is deleted.
It would have been better if that web page remained online, with a simple paragraph explaining why it was removed, plus a link to the apology page. If you call someone names and later regret it, then correct it credibly on your website if your apology is truly sincere.
This emerging habit of tweet and hide, or hit and delete (without clear disclosure in the blog post itself), erodes blogging credibility.
In the end, it is your blog. Your are free to express yourself. You are also free to destroy your credibility and refuse to repair or regain it. The choice is yours.
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