Persistence of Content

There is really only one big caveat, which is that I have in mind a restrictive definition of the word “content”, namely, the content is the bodies of all the essays. The hierarchical arrangement of the essays is subject to change, and as a result it may also be desirable to change the titles of the essays.

Even with that caveat, there are still exceptions. I will freely correct typographical, grammatical, and factual errors, but I won't change the phrasing, even if a clearer form suggests itself. I may also sometimes add links to completed essays by turning words or phrases that are already present in the text into links. The final, trivial exception is that as new batches are released I will update the corresponding link on the root page.

Actually, there's another caveat, which is that I may sometimes add to an essay without changing what's already there. When I do this, the new part will be separated from the old by a section mark like the following.

The big caveat, above, has a caveat of its own: the content is the essays, not the information about the various works and actors. Since I will freely correct factual errors, basically everything about the works and actors is subject to change … assuming, of course, that it's incorrect. I also won't hesitate to adjust my ratings of the works.

So, as far as the works and actors are concerned, the only guarantee you get is that I won't entirely remove any of them from the site.

I forgot to mention the original reason for my rule that the content won't change. It's pretty obvious. When I've found something worthwhile on another site, what I'd like to do is just bookmark it. However, because I don't know the site dynamics, I can't rely on the same content being there in the future … maybe it will change, maybe it will be removed. As a result, I waste my time saving copies of the really good stuff to my local disk. Following the golden rule (from Familiar Quotations),

Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

I have adopted my rule about content not changing in order to save others the same hassle.

Later I thought of another reason the rule is worthwhile: it prevents me from wasting my time revising things I've already written.