Don't Delete, Version

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Lately I’ve been toying with the idea of versioning. And I don’t mean versioning in the programming sense, although I really need to figure out Subversion one of these days. I’m referring to content management systems.

I don’t know why but deletion just bugs me. Maybe its my pack rat mentality but to delete is to lose. I write blog entries all the time that don’t get published and sometimes I completely rewrite them losing past versions. This seems more important in CMS’s where content evolves and sometimes needs to be step back. From what I’ve experienced this isn’t easy, or even an option in most cases.

Is this a needed feature? Wiki’s do a fantastic job of this. Writeboards by 37Signals are a great example (love the compare feature). But how often do you see a site managed by a Wiki or a Writeboard? I’d like to know your thoughts.