If you’re like me and introduced people to the internet years ago, you probably had the admonishment
Be careful what you put on the internet because it will be there forever
It turns out that might not necessarily be true – at least on Twitter.
Witness this from yesterday
Now, I’ve been around Twitter for a long time – it was a workshop with Will Richardson about the effective use of social media that got me started.
After reading Mush’s Twitter message, it got me thinking.
There are many accounts that I relied on for interaction and news from long ago that are no longer around. It was always kind of interesting to think that, even if they weren’t there, at least their wisdom at the time would continue. If the threat above happens, then there goes that wisdom.
There definitely are people that I’ve followed over the years that areen’t active any longer. I could go in and blow them away, but somehow I always talk myself out of it. Maybe they’ll come back. For some of them, it may be the only way to contact me.
On the other hand, I understand that it’s a business and there are costs involved in keeping accounts alive, even if they aren’t active.
It also got me thinking about another passion of mine – Ontario Educational Bloggers. I’ve curated a terrific collection over the years. But, like the Twitter message, many have become dormant, stale, and some have just plain deleted them.
Every now and again, I feel like I should go through and weed out the accounts that have been abandoned but, how do you do it fairly? I suppose the fairest way would be to draw a line in the sand and, if dormant longer than that, blow them away. And yet, every now and again, someone will visit their blog and throw in a post. I’d miss it if they were “maintenanced” away.
I don’t have a perfect idea in my mind about this. I wonder if Musk does as well?
What are your thoughts?
doug -- off the record 
Please share your thoughts here. I’d enjoy reading them.