Internet: srs bzns

[sigma7]

Wow. Just when I thought the Boing Boing 'unpublishing' some of its content because of burned bridges was ugly enough, the comment thread is rife with discourse I thought far, far below the average BB reader. Or moderator. (This Valleywag article was linked from a quickly-unpublished comment in said thread. Amusing, if not gospel.)

Okay, it was worth it for this: "Could we maybe actually discuss this, like adults or something? I know this is the internet, and that's a foreign concept here, but could we do it just this one time?"

One last edit: an interesting take on the little incident and the issues it raises. Another blogger writes she’s angry “because I know that — because Boing Boing taught me — that we’re supposed to call out sites that do shit like that. So that’s what I’m doing.”

Comments

[mark-jones-jnr.livejournal.com]

Sorry - sleepy!

Is the big issue over BoingBoing deleted previously published materials by Violet?

-shrugs-
If it's a 'personal blog' they can do what they want with it?
I think it would be different if Violet mirrored the comments and they forced her to take it down.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

More or less -- BB's clouding the issue by claiming that VB never wrote anything for BB, and that's only technically correct (Xeni posted at least once something to the extent of "Here's a list by VB" and then quoted her work in its entirety.)

It raises some really fantastic questions which are being shouted about in the comments to that thread. The answers aren't nearly as interesting as the questions.

-- Seriously, WTF happened? What triggered this? Is it a punitive move, to remove her traffic and knock down her Google Pagerank? Is it professional or personal? If it's the former, you should be damn well prepared to say why. If it's personal, maybe you shouldn't be doing it.

-- Do you go full disclosure or just clam up? BB does neither and ends up muddying the issue with unhelpfully vague statements. That's not helping.

-- Are you a community or are you a personal blog? I've seen a few lurkers comment for the first time in that comments thread, and they get shot down pretty quickly for never having been part of the "community" before. But the same people argue that BB can do what it wants, because it's a personal blog. Ghh.

-- Do the moderators have any nerves left? I know that the thread is long and huge and filled with instigators and vehemence on either side. But I think you can count the mods in that list, too. I've had a lot of respect for Teresa up to this point, but her attitude and approach in this matter is pretty embarrassing. I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt and thinking that it's more taxing than I realize. But she's certainly not helping matters.

-- Is there a more loaded term than "unpublishing?" I realize it's a standard CMS term for removing an article from the public view, not necessarily the same as "deleting." But some people don't realize the differences, and that's making the whole gulf of ignorance so much wider and deeper.

-- Is this something BB is going to do again? God, I hope not. The second you see your content and links as leverage to be used and inflicted (or uninflicted, as it were), you become part of the problem Cory has spent his professional life railing against.

I'm sure BB had a reason for what they did. I'm sure it wasn't reason enough, and I'm sure they're going to suffer because of it. They said they wanted to keep it quiet, and I don't see how you can reasonably expect to do that when it comes to a site of such stature in the blogosphere; that's naive or just unrealistic. The truth, whatever it is (and BB's not helping by not clarifying), has to be replaced by something, and that's a perception of BB as vindictive, hypocritical and conniving. That's utterly unfair, I know, but there we are.

I'm not defending VB in the slightest. But BB has completely screwed the pooch in their handling and execution. The only end benefit of the little enterprise is that comment thread, a towering shrine to the futility of arguing on the Internet.