Comments on: Blog Housekeeping – Should You Recycle or Purge Old Posts?

By: Pete White

Pete White — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:20:27 +0000

I like to think of my archive (over 5 years of blogging) as a sort of timeline – just looking back at some of my older posts and how bad some of the grammar can be is amazing lol.

By: doris

doris — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:57:40 +0000

I haven’t really thought about this but I did delete some old posts previously. Then after a while, I left them alone. But I tend to keep personal posts, no matter how old they are cos they are like ‘my journal’ which bring back memories.

By: webduck

webduck — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 07:06:47 +0000

Just today, PayPerPost asked me to delete an older opp that I had done for BizRate, saying that BizRate had requested it. Interesting, eh? I had gone through and deleted my last 6 months of posts prior to that request, but I also backed them up “just in case”. One of the things I have done too is when I have written an opp for PayPerPost I have “recycled” it by giving it a new name, etc., but I keep the bones of it because it was good in the first place.

By: Marios Alexandrou

Marios Alexandrou — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 16:12:10 +0000

I’m on the side of NOT deleting. Even posts that are out of date e.g. software review or best plugins should be kept and just updated to reflect your current knowledge.

Blogs aren’t like a bookshelf that run out of space. Useful stuff stays in the forefront by being closer to the “top” via links you continue to use to the posts. If something becomes less relevant it will move deeper in to your site and therefore be “out of the way”.

By: raj

raj — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 20:59:34 +0000

Easton: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a date change, but if you feel uncomfortable, put in a note at the top or bottom, in square brackets, indicating the original date.

By: Easton Ellsworth

Easton Ellsworth — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 19:30:48 +0000

Good questions, Char and good comments by everyone. I’ve often wondered whether it’s okay to change the date on a post – like Dec. 5, 2004 becomes Nov. 2, 2007. I guess it depends. Certainly it’s not a bad thing to repeat something you said before, so long as it’s useful to do so.

I also think it’s fine to delete forever those posts that have no use and most likely will have no more use.

By: Adam Kayce : Monk At Work

Adam Kayce : Monk At Work — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:06:22 +0000

It would be pretty cool if WordPress – or some excellent plugin creator! – could come up with an archive posts function that would allow us to archive those old posts so that theyâ€™re not taking up the time and space of the readers but still available for us to access if we have one of those Wendy moments!

What about creating an Archive category, and putting old/irrelevant posts in there?

My hunch (completely unfounded… just a hunch) is that having those posts lingering does something positive for us. Search engines, page ranks, who knows…

Otherwise, yes â€” recycle.

(Actually, a post on the 3R’s would be good; Reduce, Reuse, Recycle…)

By: Char

Char — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:53:05 +0000

Well it looks like recycle wins hands down!! Thanks for all of the insight.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 08:12:43 +0000

I haven’t looked, but I would guess the number of posts is either not limited at all, or it’s limited by what is normally a int(8) number, which will give you many many million entries. Good luck trying to fill it!

By: Aaron Weiche | Prime Blog

Aaron Weiche | Prime Blog — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 01:54:58 +0000

I’m with Raj and his #3. Give the post an update, tie something current into it and link back to the old post. If you’re considering recycling, there probably is something current to prompt you to update it, add a sequel or a new spin to it. I’m only 100 posts and change deep, but I’ve pulled this off a few times. It really just makes sense.