Burn the Books
So, as I predicted when I booted all of my subscribers and converted this blog without copying old posts, my Google PageRank has plummeted (to 3). I have actually brought back most of the old posts, but the URL format is a bit different (although the file at http://www.netcrucible.com/blog/2002/12/22.html exists on the filesystem, WordPress returns a 404). So more than 99% of post permalinks over the past 6 years are broken. Watching the 404s pile up in my error log is heart-wrenching; I feel like Li Si presiding over the burning of the books.
I recently discussed this issue with Jeff Sandquist. In the context of “e-mail retention policies”. Some companies have such policies, which are really “e-mail deletion policies”. Lawyers think it’s a good idea to have clear and consistent processes for deleting e-mail, so that people are not tempted to delete e-mail in ways that arouse suspicion. On the other hand, people like me argue that the “delete” button is obsolete anyway, and deleting things is anti-human and destroys institutional memory. Jeff tends to be rather pragmatic, arguing that “it’s not that big a deal when you get used to it”. And he’s right. But I prefer to argue from a religious standpoint. As I argued in “Renmin Voice“, one of the two fundamental principles of semantic web is that people’s voices are indelible. Or, as this photo of Google’s master plan (see, even lies are preserved!) jokingly states, the real master plan is “don’t erase”. This week, Qwest communications called for mandatory data retention policies at online service providers; and in this case they really do mean retention (not deletion). Qwest’s reasons were exactly the ones I used in defending Google, “When Privacy is Bad“.
The other fundamental law of renmin voice is that voices are audible — that is, no artificial barriers to your voice being heard by someone who has ears and wants to hear what you have to say. Again, Jeff is right when he says that a private blog is still a blog. But speaking religiously, anything that gets in the way of future humans hearing what you want to tell them, is unethical. Depending on the circumstances, such barriers could include DRM, security ACLs, and proprietary closed formats for data like social networks.