When online content doesn't age well

Are content creators responsible for how their content ages?

In this photo illustration, a Youtube logo is displayed on a...
In this photo illustration, a Youtube logo is displayed on a... | SOPA Images/GettyImages

By now, most of us know that the concept of "the internet is forever" doesn't always apply. The powers that be technically have the authority to wipe content completely off the digital landscape at will, leaving little to no trace of it behind. But what happens when a content creator publishes something that, over time, ages poorly? Is it up to them to decide whether that content stays online forever or disappears into the ether as if it never existed?

I recently wrote about a video in my Vlogbrothers Rewatch series featuring and titled after Neil Gaiman, in which I deliberately didn't want to dwell on the subject matter because wow, that video aged poorly. But it wasn't the creator's fault for uploading that video nearly 18 years ago. Nor is it probably worth it to take the entire video down in light of recent events.

There are a few ways to handle this, of course, and I've never believed that just wiping the thing completely or editing ot certain content -- of course depending on individual cercumstances -- is the best way to do it. There are exceptions, of course. But I've always found it much more authentic to edit in some kind of acknowledgement that, put in more elegant terms, this thing didn't age well and we're aware of how problematic it is now.

Creators are not responsible for the subjects they create content around becoming controversial. But are we in some part responsible for acknowledging when new information puts things into a different perspective? Maybe we are. Maybe we aren't. Maybe it depends on what we're dealing with, a case by case evaluation of whether or not more needs to be said about something that wasn't known widely before.

Perhaps there isn't a right or wrong way, but instead the best possible way, to handle these things.