When people have conversations, assuming they are not recorded, people go back and forth and hash out perspectives feeding off each other. In the end, we may or may not agree, but often we know where each other stands.

Online, things are very different. Posts usually sit there forever, and many expect that all of the banter should remain untouched to be used against a person either in or out of context forevermore. Focus remains on the discussion participants more than the substance of policy ideas.

When someone deletes a Tweet, it is too often assumed that the person is trying to hide something nefarious. But people often delete online posts for various reasons, sometimes innocent. And so we present:

LIST OF INNOCENT REASONS SOMEONE MIGHT DELETE A TWEET:

1. There was little or no interest in my Tweet.
2. Found a more relevant or better place to post my Tweet.
3. I decided to remove the clutter of too many similar Tweets in a short period.
4. I removed the clutter in a general clean up of things no longer relevant.
5. I made an embarrassing grammar or spelling error, or it was likely just a bad typo.
6. I feel embarrassed that I tried to give the benefit of reason to someone obviously trolling from the start.
7. The Tweet above mine was deleted, removing the context.
8. Somebody else said the same thing or made a better comment so mine was taking up space, not adding anything.
9. Sloppy wording left my Tweet open to multiple interpretations.
10. My Tweet was more meant as a personal reply to someone else than as a general point to remain for posterity.
11. Too busy or lazy right now to do follow up based upon the replies or retorts.
12. Autocorrect got me again.
13. I made a big error, and it would be harmful to leave the Tweet standing.

On that last one, it is also good to allow people to change and improve their views without constantly crying ‘hypocrite.’