Truth in quality content beats revisionist history every time
Historically, revisionist history has gotten a bad rap and maybe deservedly so — case in point in the tweet below. There are those who will forever be in pursuit of denial disguised as their pursuit of the truth, and vice versa.
Which begs the question of whether or not Mark Twain actually uttered the line about denial in the first place…
It’s human nature to question everything
As a society, we should strive to collectively turn a corner and learn to accept all the different angles a story can come from. Some of us may have even pointed and laughed at Florida, circa 2006, when then-Governor Jeb Bush and his Florida House of Representatives banned the teaching of “Revisionist History” in public schools.
It’s no laughing matter.
Every milestone, both good and bad, in the thirst for knowledge is a part of the process and should be appreciated as such. It’s a chance to step back, view the bigger picture and consider the source of any new evidence before buying into a story — because you just never know. Plus, there could always be something to be learned from the reject pile. There is nothing inherently wrong with revisionist history, as long as it’s truthful and factual.
Truth Matters
Praxeology — the science of human action — dictates that all action is directed toward some end. It takes Newton’s third law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction — and gives it an arbitrary deadline.
And what writer doesn’t love a soft deadline?
The end game must still result in something of quality
Clickbait is effective as a short-term solution in driving traffic your way, but truth in quality content beats revisionist history every time. Comedic films such as The Hangover take this theory to new heights as a parody of our own lives. Let’s face it, we all have “that” friend in our closest social circles suffering from selective memory — the one who remembers events differently than everyone else in the group. Whether some form of inebriation is involved is a story unto its own; you have to decide for yourself whether said friend is a reliable source.
Producing quality content online for your business isn’t so different. Before anything goes live to be consumed by the masses, there can be an endless amount of revisions that the end-user never sees nor should be subjected to. Content creation teams bear that brunt and wear their badges proudly.
You’ll rarely meet a writer who doesn’t want credit where credit is due and on the flip side, every good writer owns up to their mistakes. There may be no “i” in team, but the source of each edit matters. Accountability and credibility matter in a team environment because building trust is crucial.
Version history is good for the digital environment
At Story Chief, we provide a means to an end to the countless edits and revisions with a feature called version history, a must-have for any editorial team. Transparency in the form of a bird’s eye view, of all the changes made in a story, is no longer a luxury but a basic need. Every member of the editorial team must have the ability to swoop in ad hoc, or go back and restore or recycle previous versions. Updating and relaunching “old” content is now “new content,” and the responsible thing to do in the alarmingly saturated content library of the world wide web.
So, we’ve embraced the beauty of the creative process and feel the same pain everyone else does in seeing ideas get tossed around and inevitably tossed completely, with an endless trail of dead darlings killed off à la Quiller-Couch. Yes, Quiller-Couch, and not Faulkner. A reminder, again, to always check your sources in case you don’t believe us.
But what if you could bring your darlings back to life?
You can, at Story Chief. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel because your hub and all its spokes will always remain in version history. We make revisionist history great again. Join us and see for yourself.
This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by 320,924+ people.
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