Did you notice SlideShare removed a certain feature from its platform?

Or were you like me and caught napping while the feature went poof?

Your awareness may depend on what kind of SlideShare user you are.

• Power user with lots and lots of uploads (lots is a technical term)
• Ebb and flow user who rides the wave of creativity then gets swept away by life
• The What is SlideShare user where ignorance is bliss

If you are a power user, you are probably aware of the removed feature.

But if you are an ebb and flow user (like I am), here is what you may have missed. Or not.

Removed SlideShare Feature

Prior to the most recent change, the biggest shift occurred when LinkedIn bought the professional content sharing platform. In 2016, Microsoft acquired LinkedIn.

I was a premium subscriber paying for additional features. Not long after the first acquisition, LinkedIn offered free access to all SlideShare features. You knew something had to give. Reupload was one of those casualties.

Reupload Feature

The reupload feature allowed users to post a revised or updated copy of a prior upload. Think of it like revising an old blog post.

• You can update old information or correct errors
• The URL remains the same, which means you keep your SEO mojo (views, comments, downloads, etc.)

With the feature removed, the only way to post revised copy is by deleting the old version and uploading the new one.

Hear that sound? It’s all that lovely audience activity being flushed down the drain. Embed codes attached to the URL create broken links around the web.

I am in the middle of redesigning this site. I have a new logo and planned on updating most of the 58 uploads on my SlideShare account. If I do that, I lose the URLs associated with nearly 13,000 views in the last year and hundreds of SlideShare actions.

LinkedIn’s reason for removing the reupload feature?

We’re always looking for new ways to improve the SlideShare experience for our members. This sometimes means eliminating features to invest in others that offer greater value. As a part of this process, we are removing the ability to re-upload SlideShare files.

You will still be able delete your older SlideShare files and upload new presentations. However, once you delete a SlideShare file you will not be able to retain the file URL, or view the file analytics.

Power to the User

One power user urged others to send feedback to SlideShare (no small task as it goes through LinkedIn). In his post, he also discusses another feature that appears removed – the ability to download in a PPT format. Updates to the above post indicate LinkedIn acknowledged the “known issue,” implying it’s temporary.

Removing the PPT format from downloading would be a huge change from the original SlideShare platform. Users shared editable versions of presentations to team members and targeted audiences.

I have not seen that the issue is “fixed.” If anyone has any knowledge of the status, please share what you know in Comments.

What do you think about the removal of the reupload feature? Mistake? Or no big deal?

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