flashposting and continuity in online community talk

I came across a reference to flashposting the other day. Apparently you write an entry, wack it up, then delete it/take it down a little bit later. Say, 24 hours later. I'm not sure what I think. The point - apparently - is to muck about with the whole linear narrative/temporal lahlahwhatever.
Point is, it reminds me of the things I was thinking about blogging and honesty.
About the way we're expected to blog with honesty, probably because blogs are supposed to be 'online diaries' or online journals. This idea interests me. Especially when we're talking about blogs with mega-readerships. I mean, think how devastated all dooce's readers would be if they discovered she'd made up everything she'd ever written on her blog.

Generally I tell the truth on my blog. I really can't be bothered lying, for the most part. There are a few evasive comments, a few less-than-accurate descriptions. But generally I'm telling the truth. Mostly because there's no reason not to.
Does this clash too terribly with this entry I wrote a while ago (note to self: permalinks on date archive pages)?

So what does the whole flashposting thing to do this issue?

I remember how divided people were over the issue of being able to block particular posters on Swing Talk. Some were for it, some weren’t. In that situation, those of us who were for it (like me) had had enough of wading through posts by people who drove us nuts. My problem was with the hardcore trolling that was getting about (ie people provoking arguments and generally stirring up shit for their own viewing pleasure) as well as with some of the more offensive, sexist or socially retarded (read: rednecked) male posters. I felt that a blocking facility would make it possible for me to read without flying into a fury.
There were those, however (including The Squeeze) who really didn’t like this idea. Their argument – basically – was that it would disrupt the narrative and linear flow of the discussion.
The other issue with similar themes was the practice of making posts ‘gone’ – posters going back and deleting posts, leaving only the word ‘gone’ (read about this issue here).
The argument against these was as above – it disturbed narrative flow. Another argument, which The Squeeze makes, is that it rips holes in the record of this community. I can see how that’s a big issue in a community which exists entirely online, but in our case… I mean, we’re only partly online. We’re mostly face to face. At any rate, the rubbishy search function on Swing Talk and the fact that when you read back over a thread you can’t also read through the other threads and posts that were active at that particular moment already disrupt the ‘history’. I’ve taken to linking to concurrent threads/discussions to avoid that type of problem on Swing Talk – I want to hang onto some sort of wider meaning or intertextuality/multimodality. But as a semiotics type of person, I’d argue that we all interpret the posts and the 'history' of the board on our own terms anyway...
But the idea of not-deleting posts has merit, I think...

Ok, so back to blogging.
Blogging’s not like posting on a discussion board. When you blog, you write for yourself, and you don’t have to follow any rules. So what would be wrong with flashposting? Besides getting cranky because you missed out? I think immediately about things like people cutting and pasting from your work and posting it elsewhere (say, on their own blog). As on Swing Talk, this gets around the whole 'missing content' issue. And, as on Swing Talk, it would also have its own issues. I think about the times when people have removed or edited posts on Swing Talk to ‘apologise’ or remove offensive content. That’s all very well, but what if their original post has been quoted and is still visible on Swing Talk?

Hmmm… it’s interesting.