(image courtesy of Violet Blue)
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; blogger 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 racking 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 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, it's usually "a serious no-no," said Eve Batey, Blue's friend and Chronicle editor. "That's just against 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.
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