Should blog posts be reformatted to past tense after an event?
A writer is doing blog coverage of an event which is time sensitive (happens annually). The writer uses present tense for the coverage posts. Should the writer go back and reformat the old posts to past-tense after the event?
I am a webmaster for a company that does this kind of coverage for their own events. Generally after an event they request that all posts be changed to past tense. For example:
"The event is kicking off on August 20, 2013 and will continue through August 26, 2013. John Smith will be having an autograph session during the event."
becomes
"The event kicked off on August 20, 2013 and continued through August 26, 2013. John Smith had an autograph session during the event."
I was wondering if anyone else does this, or if it is standard to leave time-sensitive posts as the tense they were originally written in.
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1 answer
One of my business clients has a similar issue, although not with blog posts. They leave the information in present tense and do not change it after the fact. This sometimes means that they are posting an interview in August which reads "On July 1, the following will happen..." because the interview took place in June and it took until August to work its way through bureaucracy and legal.
As a casual reader of a blog or a series of clearly dated press releases, it wouldn't bother me either way.
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