Thoughtful Thursday – Do you repeat past post ideas?

Posted September 25, 2014 by Emily in Blogging / 12 Comments

thoughtful

I really want to know what you guys think about repeating past post ideas in new posts. This week is Banned Books Week, and I was going to write up a new “Investigated” books on why the banning of books is so stupid and rant about why it is wrong when I realized I already wrote a post like that… last year, so I didn’t but it made me realize that I probably have duplicate posts out there (if I didn’t check my archive, I would have ranted about banned books… again). So here are some reasons why I want to make you guys read my thoughts on the same topic over and over again.

Same Occasion

This is the one that my banned books post would have fallen into. It would have been posted because it is Banned Books Week here in the US… just like it was Banned Books Week in the US last year when I wrote that post.

Changed Perspectives / Point of View

I personally think this one would be an interesting thing to write about. It would be like me ranting about “professional” movie critics a year ago, and praising them today. I think it would be interesting to see that contrast. But that also brings us to…

Similar Situations / Thoughts

Why I was ranting about “pro” movie critics was because they annoyed me on how little “research” they did but yet kept putting the book down along with the movie. Not to mention, when they did mention facts about the books, usually they were incorrect. I got mad reading their reviews about Divergent and getting all the fact wrong. Similarly, fast forward a few months and I’m becoming frustrated with all the nonreader movie critics getting their Maze Runner facts wrong. (Actually, while we’re on the topic of book to movie adaptations, every time one of them comes out, I always feel like I need to write a post on the pros and cons of book movies, even though I already have done so previously.

A Refresher

Okay, so I already wrote a post about this before… But that was so long ago and I need to update my thoughts…

So those “examples” are usually the reasons why I want to repeat / rewrite post topics that I’ve written about before.

Let me know what you guys think in the comments.
When is it okay to repeat previous post topics?
When is it not?
Where do you draw the line?

Emily

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12 responses to “Thoughtful Thursday – Do you repeat past post ideas?

  1. Well, it’s your blog… frankly, I think that if you wanted to copy and paste an old post you would be completely within your rights to do so! Although it’s probably a good idea to start with, “This post originally appeared on [date] blah blah” just so your older readers don’t think they’ve gone crazy. Heh.

    I sometimes do feel the need to revisit old post topics, especially when my opinions have changed or I have new insights to add. It can add a whole new dynamic to the blog, especially by linking back to the old post!

    • I’ve never thought about linking up old posts… usually I forget they even exist. Lol. But I definitely think writing a post on updated opinions and views is important.

      Thanks for stopping by Megz! 🙂

  2. I’ve accidentally wrote a blog entry similar to one I wrote in the past– it was about a Harry Potter re-read, and I totally forgot I had written one a year or so prior. It made me take a step back and think– I’m always going to re-read Harry Potter…so how do I keep that content fresh? Then again, I may not have the same readers that I had a year ago, so then that blog post actually would be fresh to them. Still, at some point, I’m going to grow tired of writing about the same topic year after year when my opinions haven’t really changed.

    It’s always worth talking about why banning books is dumb, but how do we keep that topic fresh when we’ve written about it in the past (along with many other blogger friends?) Instead of focusing on the practice of banning books as a whole, why not showcase the value of specific challenged books? Like, Book X was banned because of this, but Book X should be read because this, this, and this. (Plus, instead of just one post, you can celebrate all week long with different books!)

    Jackie recently posted: Weekend Review: Pig-a-palooza
    • That’s a great idea! I’ve never really thought to showcase a specific book when talking about banned books. Keeping content fresh is definitely always a challenge.

      Thanks for stopping by Jackie! 🙂

  3. I think it’s ok to repeat past post topics because you probably have different examples/situations you want to talk about. Plus, can anyone honestly remember exact discussion posts from a year back? Or even 6 months? From someone else’s blog? I have a hard time remembering the clothes I wore last week haha. If you want to refresh an old topic with your new opinion, most people won’t remember what you wrote in your last topic. Blog followers are always changing too. In a year, you’ll have new followers who have never read your previous posts. In sum, if you want to write about something, then you should write about that 🙂

    Stephanie@ThesePaperHearts recently posted: Discussion: How Do you Picture Characters?
    • Thanks for the advice! You do have a really valid point – I can’t even remember the cloths I wore two days ago, forget last week. I guess I was just afraid of boring people with similar content every now and then.

      Thanks for stopping by Stephanie! 🙂

  4. This is definitely a hard one since if your opinion hasn’t really changed, you could just go and promote the previously posted topic. I think it would be cool to do a now/then opinion review though. So write up your current thoughts, then link to the previous post and compare the two. Or if something was mentioned briefly then a post going into more detail can be a good idea. So topics can be the same but approached in a new way.