Violet Blue scratches her head over BoingBoing purge
Incongruously, the forward-thinking, free-culture-touting blog BoingBoing has apparently deleted from its giant archives more than 100 posts related to, written by or containing the name of Violet Blue, the San Francisco Chronicle sex columnist, contributor to Gawker's Fleshbot, and otherwise prolific writer about the nasty.
No one, including Blue herself, has any idea what's behind the scrubbing. BoingBoing has been conspicuously silent; despite considerable confusion in the blogopshere, the site has not posted about the issue or said they planned to. Blogger and long-time BoingBoing contributer Xeni Jardin did not respond to an e-mail from me, and several other bloggers and writers reported non-answers too.
Almost all of the deleted blog entries, according to Blue, were posted not by her but by BoingBoing writers highlighting and linking to her work. (Here's an example of a scrubbed post, courtesy of the Wayback Machine.) Blue said that none of the her-related posts were particularly scandalous, illegal, or "disgusting." Not all were even about sex. The one post Blue did write herself — also deleted — was edited by Jardin before publication.
"I’ve been wracking my brain thinking of what issues I might’ve come down on the wrong side of," Blue told me on the phone. "There’s been no argument, there's been no disagreement, no flame war, none of the usual things."
So she didn't kick BoingBoing writer Cory Doctorow's dog — there goes my theory. Any other possibilities?
"I haven’t blogged positively about anyone they hate. I haven’t decided that DRM is awesome. I’m not totally pro-AT&T wiretapping. I’m just trying to figure it out," Blue said. "If there’s an issue they have with me, they haven’t told me. If it's someone I've made friends with that they don't like, no one's said, 'Hey, this person's really hurt us, and we're no longer comfortable associating with you.' Or whatever. I'm just making it up as I go here."
It's bizarre that BoingBoing has failed to take any steps to clarify the situation.
For one thing, post-snuffing is usually "a serious no-no," said Eve Batey, Blue's friend and Chronicle editor. "That's just against the rules of the blog world."
But there's also the fact that BoingBoing has often presented itself as a stalwart of cultural openness. Doctorow himself is a well-known copyfighter — a crusader against restrictive intellectual property laws. He has removed a post at least once before — when writer Ursula K. Le Guin asked that an excerpt of her book be taken down — but he immediately wrote a long, apologetic explanation of the incident.
In the case of Violet Blue, no such explanation has been offered, and at least one person has claimed that a comment he left on BoingBoing regarding the issue was "quietly censored."
Given that there is no apparent ill will, that the Blue posts were not illegal or obscene, and that BoingBoing has plenty of other sex-related posts that it hasn't removed, this situation will remain inexplicable until the BB crew feels like cluing us in.
Meanwhile, rumors go undisputed — free to fuel plenty of conspiracy theories and speculation about BoingBoing's intent.
top photo courtesy of Violet Blue used with permission, bottom photo of Xeni Jardin and Violet Blue in better days by justin via flickr
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There's been much discussion about Boing Boing's deletion spree today, with plenty of the site's defenders tossing out "it's their site and they can do what they want, and they don't have to offer an explanation to anyone." That's quite true. However, given the Boing Boing editors' stance on transparency and openness, their actions (or lack of actions) regarding this matter really have lessened their credibility in my eyes. Boing Boing may still preach about transparency and openness, but it will ring hollow. Oh well, it's their reputation to damage.
Posted by: DB | June 30, 2008 at 08:36 PM
This is front page news? An independent website deciding not to post links to a sex columnist anymore?
We're three hours from SAG's contract expiring and the only story I've seen from the LA Times is about George Clooney's involvement. Cover your town's industry, folks. If Detroit's auto workers were going on strike, you better believe their paper would have a story.
Posted by: Paul | June 30, 2008 at 08:57 PM
How can anyone -- anyone -- pretend that BoingBoing has any relevancy or credibility after this? It's a site of shameless self-promoters who lie to their audience on a more embarrassing level than the corporations they go after.
Posted by: Nobody | June 30, 2008 at 09:01 PM
Boing Boing now sucks. *plonk*
Posted by: richard schumacher | June 30, 2008 at 09:39 PM
Personally, I find Violet Blue to be unrepresentative of human sexuality in general. She appears to be an "enabler of the sleazy straight guy fantasy". She basically promotes female bisexuality as a normal accompaniment to heterosexuality yet she doesn't apply the same acceptance notion to male bisexuality.
We can do without the Violet Blue's of this wortd contributing to discussions about human sexuality. She is one the proponents of the bisexual double standard, a double standard which is marginalizing and segregating gay and bisexual men from society in general. I'm not shedding any tears over Violet.
Posted by: jason | June 30, 2008 at 10:03 PM
Censors create their own irrelevance.
Posted by: Paul | June 30, 2008 at 10:52 PM
Wow, this piece of journalistic excellence covered the spectrum from "puff piece" to "self-indulgent whining." Does anyone actually care that a group of bloggers no longer wants to be associated with another blogger? Wow.
Posted by: SarahR | June 30, 2008 at 11:07 PM
Comments that posters make on Violet Blue's own website are apparently subject to moderation and a careful screening process which appears to be censorship. Violet Blue is in no real position to complain.
Posted by: samuel | June 30, 2008 at 11:13 PM
David,
As a student of Cory's seminar when he was a visiting Fulbright prof. at USC and as someone who sat next to you when I interned at LAX last summer, I am sure there is an explanation.
My guess is that, as Kara Swisher has written, there's the Silicon Valley Echo-Chamber effect going on.
I love Violet's site; she gave CrushedPlanet's new series a rave review, but all these people came up in the same SF tech scene. It reminds me of when I began working in Hollywierd in mid-90s when indie/Sundance blew up. It's incestuous; of course there has to be some history and BoingBoing is being stubborn, and in my opinion, lame and self-sabatoging by waiting to comment on this.
I heard Swisher talk at an Ogilvy PR panel and she was ripping all the same start-up herd mentality. Funny how the Nocalers look down on Socal and yet their herd mentality/group think VC mentality is just as bad as ours.
Oh well, there goes the future of the Internet........
Posted by: Lewis | July 01, 2008 at 07:18 AM
What a terrible pity! How did BoingBoing just up and turned into Fark (where "censors creating their own irrelevance" lives) overnight? That's really a shame!
Posted by: Durante | July 01, 2008 at 08:22 AM
Samuel: Moderating comments (to weed out disgusting, racist and otherwise vile postings) is in no way comparable to deleting postings on your own blog months and years after the fact. I'm quite sure you recognize the difference.
The fact that the subject is Violet Blue (whoever she is) or anyone else is irrelevant. BoingBoing has just sacrificed its credibility.
Posted by: bigyaz | July 01, 2008 at 09:38 AM