@#927:
I really, really hope this whole thing has nothing to do with VB writing about sex. BB is a directory of wonderful things, and sex is certainly a wonderful thing. That's not all it has to be about, sure, but a little sexiness here and there is great. Besides, the worst tragedy I could think of for the site is fort BB to give in to the prudish censors that want to block their blog because one out of ever couple hundred posts mentions sex or shows a tit in a piece of art.

The bit on zenarchery.com (the link is in post #827) is the best thing I've read about this whole fiasco so far. IMHO the guy seems intelligent, experienced, level-headed and not insulting. Seriously worth taking a look at Boingers, if you haven't already.

As someone who's been following all this mess since the beginning, back when VB first made her post, my feelings about this whole matter have shifted in the past day. I've read BoingBoing almost every day for over four years and VB's blog regularly for the past few years. In the past day I've come to feel I don't know either blogger(s) quite as well as I thought. I've already commented twice, so I won't repeat my initial impressions. Now, I'm a little more skeptical of VB's intentions and a lot more sympathetic to BB's dilemma. I don't envy you guys having to be in this situation. Before, I couldn't quite understand why you would ever do what you did, but now I see some valid reasons. But I think the heart of all of the drama is that no matter what anybody did, a lot of people held BB up to standards that were not met. Whether or not BB should be held to those standards is a much larger question. Perhaps this is where the making of policies for the site comes into play. I do think changing/deleting/unpublishing/whatever without any sort of notice is in bad taste and feels like it goes against the spirit of BB. It is completely within your right to do, but it just doesn't sit well. I think a lot of people just wanted BB to be better than that. But no matter what, I still love BB and they can't help but learn from this situation.

I would also like to say something to all the folks that complain that this post has gotten almost a thousand comments but that more important topics get very few. You're right that there are more egregious things going on in the world that people should be concerned about, but I think the reason those posts get less comments is not because people don't care but because people already know that those things are wrong/horrible/etc. and it's not that surprising when someone like Bush does something to take away our rights. There's not that much to discuss because people are mostly on the same page already. But what we have here is totally different. There is no clear right or wrong. There is no definate bad guy. There is no specified reason. There's a whole lot of grey area here and that's what spurns on the discussion. BB has taken actions that plenty of people didn't think they would ever do. That is the surprise. That is the issue.

I would also really love to hear from Cory about this. His voice is strangely absent.

OMG...I found a unicorn puppy...I really didn't think that would happen.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/101/261147868_916c3159b4.jpg?v=0

Yay! Puppies! (Almost as good as unicorns.)

Almost as good, but not quite. What we need are unicorn puppies.

I had also always thought the 'Disemvoweling' was done by the poster. Like spammers spelling things oddly to avoid detection by a filter. It wasn't until today when I clicked a link to this post that I realized it was the moderator's doing. I feel so...silly. I've been reading BB every day for years and only just now find this out. Doh!

No matter what issues were raised by initially making this post, how can it possibly help anything to start calling Violet a liar and accusing her of trashing BB?
I see no evidence of her doing either those things and to imply she is only makes it seem like you are insulting her, which you claim to be trying to avoid doing in the first place.
So, you don't want to trash her by revealing the reason behind this whole fiasco, but you're perfectly willing to call her a liar in the comments?
Shamefully unnecessary. Either get some proof or stop calling her names.
It's doubly offensive that these insults are coming from a moderator; they're supposed to be above all that pettiness. I really hate to see something I like as much as BoingBoing being represented by someone so willing to resort to name-calling.

Just my tiny opinion:
I'm glad to finally hear something from BoingBoing's side but now I'm just more confused than ever. And sad. I love BoingBoing. I really like Violet Blue. I respect both. To see these two entities taking a stance that's any less than cooperative really boggles my mind. Why must two sites I really like be against each other? What could Violet have done to get deleted by BoingBoing? I didn't know that anyone could do anything (besides incessant spamming and trolling) to get totally deleted like that. I totally respect BB's right to do what they choose on their own blog and I can understand the urge to keep certain things quiet, but now there are even more questions and the silence seems suspicious. Was the issue that original caused her posts to be taken down really worth all this bad publicity and animosity now? I've previously agreed with all of BoingBoing's policies, but now I'm not so sure. In the past few days I've seen several different blogs comment on this situation and they all make BoingBoing out to be the bad guy. I really don't want to believe that, but without more information what am I to believe? Maybe there are issues you don't want to reveal, but if you have a valid reason and don't reveal it, it appears as if you have no reason at all.
I still love BoingBoing and I'm not trying to be over critical. I'm just really confused and hurt. It's like two good friends are fighting and I can't hang out with both of them because they refuse to be in the same room together. I know that's not literally true, but that's what it feels like. I don't know what's going on, I don't know who to side with, and I really just don't want to have to choose in the first place.

I used to leave mine open all the time, but it seemed to be running slow. Of course, I live 5 blocks from campus in a college town so I'm sure there were dozens of people on it all the time. My compromise was to make it password-protected and only a few of my friends and neighbors I've actually met have the password. Of course, I'm sure others will slink on to it eventually at which point I'll just change the password and only notify the trusted people.
But I'd never really considered being implicated in anything illegal until I read these comments. I'll probably keep my setup as is, but it does make me wonder what my neighbors are up to...downloading and what not. Maybe I should just lock it all up.

The college I go to, University of Montana, has been doing this kind of thing for years.

http://umnewsmontana.blogspot.com/2007/11/art-at-university-of-montana-now.html

It's all part of this Day of the Dead thing that Missoula does every fall.

I think it's a great concept, and admire that it's recycled, but personally I wouldn't pay for it because my cat would just chew it up. I would, however, be tempted to make my own out of old boxes if there were some plans like #6 suggested. It initially seems like a pretty simple design, but then I try to look closer at it and figure it out and it just makes my brain hurt.

A "machete video camera"?

I want one!

#89, Bruce Arthurs Author Profile Page:
"Snapple Lemonade. Next question!"

Ok, well, what alcoholic beverage comes in a 16-oz Snapple bottle?

I don't know why I'm getting singled out when I'm making the same points as several other people...or why folks are putting words in my mouth that I didn't say...but hey, it's the internets, what can I expect?

SeamusAndrewMurphy,

When did I ever say he's not allowed to make mistakes? I never even went there...it's irrelevant because mistake or not the resulting action is the point. Yeah, it was a dumb mistake. But it was his mistake. No one else's. I never said he couldn't make a mistake. Make all the mistakes you want. I make mistakes. You make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. I'm know this. I'm no idiot. But mistakes aren't some magical state of being that grants you infallibility.

Mistake or not, it is his responsibility. That is the point. If he didn't want that responsibility, then he should have thought about that 7 years ago. He made a silly mistake at a ballgame and now he has to go through all this bullshit. It sucks, it's not fair, but that's his problem.

You really want to claim he did absolutely nothing wrong? It's okay for parents to blindly hand things to their kids without looking at it? Yes it was a mistake, a lapse in judgment in what is obviously otherwise a very intelligent man. But it is his fault for not looking. It's his kid, it's his job to look. I still maintain that he shouldn't have gotten punished so severely, I don't think he should have suffered at all, but he can't blame anyone else for letting that drink get into his kid's hand in the first place.

And please, leave my childhood out of it. That's just inappropriate and low. Not to mention irrelevant to the argument. But I feel obliged to say in defense that my parents did a great job that did involve some mistakes and I'm doing alright. No surprise, no biggy. I never claimed that this guy was screwing up his kid for life or being a bad parent. All I've ever said is that he just should have looked. He didn't. Oh well. Maybe he will next time.

Antinous,

I don't have any rules for people to follow. When did I ever state that I did? I'm just saying that as a parent it's his responsibility to pay attention. That's not my rule, that's just the way the world works. That's the way laws work. Not my laws, but the ones in place. You have a kid, it's your responsibility to look after it. That includes knowing what you're giving them. If you don't know, then it's your fault for not looking. No one purposefully deceived this man, he chose not to look at the bottle. It's not complicated, it's not some personal dogma I'm trying to shove down anyone's throat. I still think the authorities overreacted, but it all could have been prevented if the guy had just looked.

And if you think that believing parents should pay attention to what their children consume is some odd, personal rule of mine and not just common sense, then I don't even know what to say.

#43: Have you ever had Jones Cola? IBC Root Beer? Non-alcoholic drinks are served in beer bottles sometimes, and I wouldn't be surprised to see lemonade served that way.
And if you ordered a lemonade for your kid, would you be inspecting the bottle for its alcohol content? Of course not, you ordered lemonade.

Yes, I've had those and their very names clearly indicate 'Cola' and 'root beer'. No 'hard' in sight. Also, typically stadiums put all sodas/lemonades/kid-stuff in paper cups because it all comes from a soda dispenser. They don't usually serve premium sodas in glass bottles. And if I ever decide to have a kid, no, I wouldn't go searching for alcohol content specifically. But I would look closely at anything I gave my kid, especially if it said 'hard' on it, and in the process I'd see the alcohol content clearly printed on the label.

By the way, I don't think he "should of known better" by being culturally aware or a frequenter of the beer aisle. He just should of looked at the thing before he handed it to his kid. A millisecond glance at the bottle before he passed it off would have tipped him off. It's that simple. It's that easy.

edit to my comment:

While I do think that the incident is the father's fault, I do not in any way condone the way the authorities handled it. I agree with #15, he should have just been notified of the mistake, warned, laughed, and let go to enjoy the rest of his day.

How could he not notice? Sheesh. It clearly says "hard", "malt beverage" and lists the alcohol content. Since when does regular lemonade come in beer-sized glass bottles anyway? How could he not have known what it was? And I know prices at sporting events are ridiculous, but didn't he notice that this 'lemonade' cost several dollars more than plain soda? Also, I've never been to this location, but every stadium I have been to has a separate vending counter for food and sodas and another one for all the alcohol. How could an academic be so ignorant?

Yes, the authorities overreacted, but it's entirely the father's fault for not knowing what his kid was consuming. He doesn't need to be abreast of every latest alcoholic development, but he should have paid attention to what his child was drinking.

All alone at the '64 World's Fair
Eighty dolls yelling "Small girl after all"
Who was at the DuPont Pavilion?
Why was the bench still warm? Who had been there?

Man, I knew people would beat me to the Idiocracy reference.

@#41 I feel exactly the same way about not having kids. It's reassuring to know I'm not alone, but I do fear for the future of evolution (or lack thereof). I guess there's really no right answer though.

I believe you're thinking of the Uncanny Valley.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_Valley