There is drama on the internet once again. The varied reactions to a recent “controversy” at Boing Boing surprised me. Several accused Boing Boing of censorship, but the thread was also replete with references to 1984, FISA, and numerous other things the commenters found unsavory. The issue at hand has been completely blown out of proportion. The facts are as follows:
A step-by-step look at Boing Boing’s actions
- Following some incident, certain posts that involved input from one “Violet Blue”, including one about — how funny is this? — Google’s “censorship” that resulted in several adult-oriented blogs dropping in rankings was “unpublished.”
- Note: Her posts were not deleted. They still exist, essentially, but the posts cannot be accessed from Boing Boing itself.
- Some sites catch a whiff of the drama about to be let loose. Remarks are made about Boing Boing’s integrity, including (many) references to Communism and revisionism.
- Teresa, one of the site’s moderators, posts an explanatory post, claiming that:
It’s our blog and so we made an editorial decision, like we do every single day. We didn’t attempt to silence Violet. We unpublished our own work. There’s a big difference between that and censorship.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden: “That Violet Blue thing”
At this point, there’s little more to be said that hasn’t been said already. Here’s my take on the controversy: I believe that Boing Boing is perfectly within its right to delete and remove posts from public view. Because Boing Boing is not actively preventing people from reading the posts (they even mentioned that the posts in question are still available in the WayBack Machine), this does not even come close to the suppression of the 1st Amendment, or whatever else enraged commenters were spouting on about.
However, removing the posts does not create a good journalistic standard. The posts in questions were written over a year ago (some of them nearing two years old), and for a site of Boing Boing’s size and volume, that equates to eons ago. Those who addressed the controversy were not really concerned that the posts themselves were missing. I doubt their absence would have been noticed by many if it had not been for Boing Boing’s popularity — and thus inherent magnetism towards drama — and more importantly, its intense advocacy of free speech, free press, and free action. An accusation of censorship for Boing Boing weighs more heavily than, perhaps, on an online news site or magazine where such standards are considered commonplace.
Instead of unpublishing the post, Boing Boing could have just as easily posted a redaction of their support of Violet Blue, and have people judge for themselves whether the posts were even worth the concern. It would have saved Boing Boing’s face and a whole lot of fuss and anger. Boing Boing may have acted under the pretense of quietly resolving an incident, but it could have chosen words as a medium, not their absence.
The hardest part about going to college is paying for it. Very few people can pay for college straight out of their (golden and diamond-studded) pockets. So the rest of us turn to scholarships. Or occasionally, pirating, but that’s hardly worth mentioning. Doubloons don’t bring in as much money as they used to, and unfortunately, neither do coconuts.
Three doors, one waste of time
If you ever need a scholarship, the best ways of getting them are as follows:
- Official scholarships: Straight from the college itself. Brimming with confidence and the hope that one day, you will contribute to the shiny new library on campus. If you get a scholarship from your college of choice, don’t take it lightly. Accepting it will save you a lot of trouble in the long run, unless, of course, you don’t want to go to that school at all.
- Scholarships from tests or corporations: A high enough score PSAT will give you the chance to not only get money from big companies in the area but also colleges, which usually offer a special bonus scholarship exclusively for National Merit and National Merit Commended Scholars.
And then, there’s always scrounging (nature has always had a soft spot for scavengers), which is where FastWeb comes in. At first sight, this clustered, immensely busy site seems like a godsend, but it is not — not at all. Not only are the scholarships themselves often past their deadlines and of no use to me (I am not over 18 nor am I majoring in Neurolinguistics — although that sounds pretty interesting), but in order to access a great many of the scholarships, you have to click past an advertisement for an online college, the Army, or the Spanish Olive-Growers Union (if only). This is both tedious and annoying. It makes me feel as if FastWeb values its advertisers more than its users, and the only thing motivating me to continue using the site is the fact that college is expensive, and I would rather not live on Guadalupe Street in Austin selling oranges to passerby in order to earn my keep.
At the very least, I would sell sopapillas because of their crumbling, sugary goodness.
Continue reading "The extra ton of cash" ».
Just when I figured that I had the English language down pat, I started adding prepositions at the end of my sentences. The little abuses of this like, “What are you talking about?” or “Are you going inside?” are pretty unavoidable and consequently harmless.
But today I uttered a full-blown, “Which entrance are you at?” while waiting for my dad to pick us up from Target. I wish (only slightly) that I had said, “What ho, guardian, whither hast thou parked?” or “Admiral Nebulon, where have you docked your vessel?” instead. I would have enjoyed that so much more.
“What entrance are you at?” indeed. I’m afraid there’s no hope for me now. I’ve receded to the grammatical capabilities of a lemming, which, despite being a fairly smart creature, has no skill with subject-verb agreement or the placement of quotation marks. I’m better off moving to Finland and mining voles out of the forest.
