Violet Blue loses control

April 12, 2006 6:20 AM

She's Lost ControlIn one of the most bizarre posts I have ever read, Violet Blue weighs in on the Xenisucks.com debate and it's mention in the New York Times (Bugmenot). And then again after Dan Marshall (NYT) responds. But in a response to Violet Blue (about middle of the page), Matt Sharp (Xenisucks.com) says she has fabricated much of what she has attributed to him.
posted by gnash (128 comments total)

Seems like Xeni sentiments run to extremes.
For example, here on Mefi when this site was first discussed, it was evident many guys want to have her babies.
posted by nofundy at 6:26 AM on April 12, 2006

Yeah, threats of lethal violence are a totally reasonable response to a parody website, Violet.
posted by jack_mo at 6:30 AM on April 12, 2006

I'd like to have Violet's babies. But then, she'd probably beat me to a pulp for saying that. *cringe* I'll be a good boy.
posted by thanotopsis at 6:37 AM on April 12, 2006

For context, and because I had a heck of a time grabbing the NYTimes piece , I'll quote it below. Matt/jess feel free to nook my post if you'd like.

Note, this is the 'online' grab bag sort of colum at NYTimes. So it wasn't an article specifically about xenisucks. What strikes me about this versus "Violet Blue"'s response is how distorted her perception of it is. It doesn't seem like a pat on the back to me?

NYTimes:

WORST. HATE BLOG. EVER. Matthew Neal Sharp, a programmer and blogger, has concluded that he does not think much of the peripatetic technology journalist and blogger Xeni Jardin (NPR, Wired News, Boingboing). So Mr. Sharp decided to create a blog dedicated to continually dipping her virtual pigtails into the digital inkwell. The site is replete with nasty, sarcastic invective delivered in spot-on Comic Book Guy tone.

Ms. Jardin tried to be a good sport, posting on Boingboing that Mr. Sharp's blog is "a total hoot." But that only enraged Mr. Sharp further.

You can see the love — er, that is, the hate — at xenisucks.com. An interesting side note: Mr. Sharp plays in a band, Mathgeeks, with Ms. Jardin's colleague, Rick Karr, who reports technology and culture for public radio.

:NYTimes


FWIW..

posted by cavalier at 6:37 AM on April 12, 2006

Never heard of her.
posted by DieHipsterDie at 6:39 AM on April 12, 2006

What the fuck are this Violet Blue, et al so worked up about? What violent fantasies? I don't really care for the site, but they're making way to big a deal out of a non-issue. And this whole "he's a misogynist because he hates one person who happens to be a woman" thing is crazy fucking dumb.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 6:47 AM on April 12, 2006

These bloggers just love publicity.
posted by NationalKato at 6:51 AM on April 12, 2006

Who are these people and why should I care about their squabbles?
posted by MegoSteve at 6:52 AM on April 12, 2006

Who are these people and why should I care about their squabbles?

You mean you've never heard of the Xenisucks.com debate???
posted by DieHipsterDie at 6:58 AM on April 12, 2006

I think I like this Sharp guy: "You're [Violet Blue] fucking lame, just like Xeni is, and it has nothing to do with your ovaries. Don't use them as an excuse, and don't try to frame everything with your persecution complex. You had a crappy childhood. Too fucking bad for you."

Any press is good press, huh kids?
posted by cedar at 6:59 AM on April 12, 2006

dipping her virtual pigtails into the digital inkwell

Come see my new site nytwritersmakemecringe.com. Jesus fuck, that was awful.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 7:01 AM on April 12, 2006 [1 favorite]

I'm really fucking annoyed that I'm now wasting neurons on the existence of one "Violet Blue", and her stance on "xenisucks.com."

This is internet drama at it's finest. Which is to say it's runny feces.
posted by I Love Tacos at 7:03 AM on April 12, 2006

You know the best thing about the internet? Neither do I, but I'm pretty sure it's not this.
posted by Optamystic at 7:03 AM on April 12, 2006 [2 favorites]

Ugholicious.
posted by stinkycheese at 7:06 AM on April 12, 2006

As lame as Violet Blue comes off, the xenisucks dork comes off worse. Did you notice the CC: line of his email to her posted in that comment? I'll copy it here:

From: mns[@]mnslab.com
Subject: Greetings
Date: April 11, 2006 4:55:36 PM EDT
To: violet[@]srl.org
Cc: legal[@]mnslab.com

Did you catch that? The bullshit threat of "legal" action? Oh noes! He's going to sue us all!

Totally weak and undermines any respect I would have had for the guy's argument.
posted by mathowie at 7:06 AM on April 12, 2006

Why is xenisucks.com getting so much more attention then corysucks.com? Is it because he finally stopped posting the anagram subway maps?
posted by Afroblanco at 7:09 AM on April 12, 2006

Ok, at the risk of sounding like sour grapes (I too have a blog which is visited by maybe six people per week, including myself) but the OMG INTRENET WAR!1!1! dramas are becoming more annoying by the week. I didn't know about Xeni and Violet before reading about them here so outside of the MF confines, they mean even less. It's actually sort of embarrassing on some level; like watching a Civil War reenactment in the parking lot of a Denny's (sorry Bob and David).
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 7:09 AM on April 12, 2006

You mean the Civil War didn't take place in the parking lot?

Wait, lemme guess... non-smoking? Or, no, the salad bar!

The men's room?
posted by nebulawindphone at 7:13 AM on April 12, 2006

As lame as Violet Blue comes off, the xenisucks dork comes off worse.

I agree. Cow feces is much better than horse feces.
posted by I Love Tacos at 7:14 AM on April 12, 2006

Eh?

What does MNS hating Xeni have to do with her sex?

If it isn't okay to make fun of girls, does that imply that it *is* okay to make fun of boys?

I call SEXIST SHENNANIGANS.
posted by CheeseburgerBrown at 7:16 AM on April 12, 2006

I watched this unfold, and I have to admit, I am a little puzzled by Violet's response. She seems to have taken the NYT piece as a "hyuk hyuk all in good fun hyuk hyuk" take on xenisucks.com, which is not how I read it, and she seems to have taken the troll who writes xenisucks.com for an instane rapist stalker, which is not how he came across to me.

Is there any truth Violet Blue's statement that Sharp threatened Xeni, or that he posted her home address &c? If so, could someone provide a link?
posted by hob at 7:17 AM on April 12, 2006

Wait, lemme guess... non-smoking? Or, no, the salad bar!

You jest but let us not forget the Battle of the Lumberjack Slam®
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 7:20 AM on April 12, 2006

Wow, she really is off her rocker. Where the hell is she getting half of her accusations from? Is it from the commenters on Xenisucks.com? If so, being as "tech savvy" as she is, you would think she would understand the difference between the opinions of a blog owner, and those of the commenters on his blog. I found Xenisucks to be mildly entertaining for a post or two, but it's quickly grown as tired as Ms Jardin's writing. And Xenisucks is clearly a copycat of Corysucks.com anyway.

Having said that, Xeni looks like Seymour Butts in drag, which is really scary. People that ugly should not be allowed to be "sex writers".
posted by antifuse at 7:21 AM on April 12, 2006

I think the real problem with BoingBoing starts with C and rhymes with "Ory Doctorow". I can't even read Boing anymore because of his day-long DRM rants and endless self-whoring.

The Internet needs to fire homeboy.
posted by Mikey-San at 7:25 AM on April 12, 2006

I'm having violent fantasies about all parties involved. I'm picturing them working on a construction site in Dubai 14 hours a day for $0.30 an hour which they only get after three months.
posted by funambulist at 7:27 AM on April 12, 2006 [1 favorite]

The internet constantly proves that the people you never heard about before it existed you didn't want or need to hear about anyway.
posted by HTuttle at 7:28 AM on April 12, 2006

You mean you've never heard of the Xenisucks.com debate???
posted by DieHipsterDie...

Oh, the irony.
posted by GuyZero at 7:29 AM on April 12, 2006

bloggers talking about each other's blogs. yawn.
posted by poppo at 7:30 AM on April 12, 2006

You mean you've never heard of the Xenisucks.com debate???
posted by DieHipsterDie...

Oh, the irony.

Oh, the missed sarcasm.
posted by grex at 7:37 AM on April 12, 2006

Anybody have a spare shit? I don't have any to give about this.
posted by papercake at 7:39 AM on April 12, 2006

If girls can't pee standing up, how can they piss in the wind?
posted by ninjew at 7:41 AM on April 12, 2006

One of the downsides of the "mystery link" style of FPP is that by the time you've read all the sources you don't care any more.
posted by craniac at 7:50 AM on April 12, 2006

University Blogger politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.

That said, I'm with Violet on this one.
posted by allen.spaulding at 7:50 AM on April 12, 2006

internet feuds are so interesting.
posted by 3.2.3 at 7:56 AM on April 12, 2006

I gotta call bullshit on wasting a perfectly good Joy Division song title on that link.
posted by jdfan at 7:58 AM on April 12, 2006 [1 favorite]

Ah, the best of the web.
posted by klangklangston at 8:00 AM on April 12, 2006

Papercake: I love that and I'm going to steal it.
posted by The Bellman at 8:06 AM on April 12, 2006

Well, there's nothing so entertaining as watching lunatics and assholes argue with each other. Wasn't that why the Internet was invented?
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:07 AM on April 12, 2006

Mikey-San: I think the real problem with BoingBoing starts with C and rhymes with "Ory Doctorow". I can't even read Boing anymore because of his day-long DRM rants and endless self-whoring.

Unfortunately, Something Comes to Town, Something Leaves Town reads about the same. Chapters of not-bad urban mythic fantasy separated by chapters of free-speech = free-bandwidth screed.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 8:09 AM on April 12, 2006

Further proof bloggers are just as valid commentators as professional journalists, eh? When the revolution comes Violet Blue will the one shooting at you.

I really wish the NYTimes would stop feeding these trolls in an attempt to be 'tech savvy.'
posted by skallas at 8:15 AM on April 12, 2006

I think the real problem with BoingBoing starts with C and rhymes with "Ory Doctorow". I can't even read Boing anymore because of his day-long DRM rants and endless self-whoring.

The Internet needs to fire homeboy.
posted by Mikey-San at 9:25 AM CST on April 12 [!]

You were saying?
posted by ninjew at 8:20 AM on April 12, 2006

Did you catch that? The bullshit threat of "legal" action? Oh noes! He's going to sue us all!

Totally weak and undermines any respect I would have had for the guy's argument.
posted by mathowie at 7:06 AM PST on April 12 [!]

Actually, Matt, the grain of salt I read it with kind of took it as more a defensive posture than an offensive one. I spotted the ruse immediately and dismissed it, but if you had a potential whack job threatening physical violence at you, at the very least it could be seen as a minimal or subtle hint that you are reminding them there's a line where physical threats become legally binding and thus illegal. That's kind of the vibe I read it as at least.

I mean, he's definitely Comic Book Guy, the bitter intelligent chap, but from what I've read on xenisucks I wouldn't think him to be all legal FUD up in his antsy pansty*.

* -- sorry, shenanigans got me thinking of that movie...
posted by cavalier at 8:22 AM on April 12, 2006

And I'm sorry my blockquote apparently takes 5 lines of CR, at least on Firefox. It's the only way I know how to quote in this darn dear html..
posted by cavalier at 8:23 AM on April 12, 2006

violetbluesucks.com
I kid. Please don't shoot me.
posted by boo_radley at 8:23 AM on April 12, 2006

If nothing else, crap like this make the rest of us seem more sane by comparison.
posted by crunchland at 8:29 AM on April 12, 2006

booradleysucks.com
Violence is for the weak.
posted by nebulawindphone at 8:33 AM on April 12, 2006

Xenisucks.com-guy and this violet blue character both gots issues.
posted by Drexen at 8:34 AM on April 12, 2006

I'm disappointed they haven't found a way to milk another post about the Sony rootkit out of all of this.
posted by Gamblor at 8:35 AM on April 12, 2006

You know the difference between a BoingBoing and a Metafilter? A BoingBoing necessitates the emergence of a XenisSucks, because the hate must flow freely for the internet to function, just as currency must flow freely for capitalism to function. Whereas Metafilter just has Metatalk. We're all douchebags together in here.
posted by nanojath at 8:36 AM on April 12, 2006

Your excessive metazation of the issue has confused and frightened me, nebulawindphone. And I'm not sure what you have against violet with this "violence is for the weak" business.
posted by boo_radley at 8:38 AM on April 12, 2006

Did you catch that? The bullshit threat of "legal" action? Oh noes! He's going to sue us all!

Totally weak and undermines any respect I would have had for the guy's argument.
posted by mathowie at 7:06 AM PST on April 12

If someone writes a post about me, complete with pictures of people aiming guns at the viewer, makes false statements about my own posts, and threatens violence, yeah, I'd probably CC to "legal" as well.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 8:39 AM on April 12, 2006

Cc: legal[@]mnslab.com

Did you catch that? The bullshit threat of "legal" action? Oh noes! He's going to sue us all!

Gosh Matt. Did you not read this as the goofball tongue-in-cheekism that it was?
posted by glenwood at 8:44 AM on April 12, 2006

I definitely think comments are the issue. When you post a 'log' or a 'weblog' or a 'turd' or a 'personal prophecy' the established protocol is you invite comments. When they started getting so (insert 'biased', 'one sided', 'factless', whatever floats your boat) that they felt they had to remove the comment section because they were getting called on it.. that absolutely laid the foundation for sites like xenisucks.

I think your observation, nano, is dead on.

Maybe xeni or mark..daminit..where'd his username go.. would like to respond?
posted by cavalier at 8:52 AM on April 12, 2006

Did you guys miss that he owns mnslab.com? That MNS stands for his own initials? So cc'ing to [e-mail] just sends a copy to himself? There is no legal team here, and why I think it makes him look like a jackass. It borders on barratry.
posted by mathowie at 8:54 AM on April 12, 2006

I spent some time reading XeniSucks one day a few weeks ago (give or take - time stretches and dilates on the Internet). I don't recall reading any violent fantasies of any kind - just some adolescent's version of 'sarcasm'. Violet seems way off base here, though buried in her ranting is a valid point (i.e. actual violent fantasies should be taken more seriously than they are) that of course gets muddied when you sexualize it (cf. differnece between pedophilia and pederasty).

The fixation on BoingBoing is really striking; no one there is a first-class writer or a particularly earth-shaking thinker, and the lame-tech nostalgia wears thin after the first million identical 'Gosh! Wow! Old video games and clocks!' links.

I'm sorry to see Violet Blue's reaction splayed all over like this; her response to the NYTimes journalist was deeply unprofessional and unserious, and she'll come out of this with a few new things to be embarrassed about, not least her disquieting violent fantasies and their far more disquieting personal correlatives. I'm sorry for her that she was stalked - though I get the sense she gets satisfaction from rejecting pity of that sort.

[The following is not meant as a backhanded denunciation of feminist rhetoric, just a little bitchery about the way people misunderstand the nature of critical writing.] It seems to me that 'the personal is political' is about as dangerous as any such mere political slogan: people with a deep need and a tendency to vicious reaction will read it wrongly, i.e. 'the personal is the political' - get the difference? The first formulation says, what happens in the home and the head matters, and manifests larger social tensions. The latter too often translates to, 'My personal hobby-horse can and should be read as a synecdoche for all that ails society.' My problems must be society's problems; my bogeymen must be gnawing at the very fabric of civilization.

Still, this is a real teacup-tempest and not even remotely the Best of the Web - just one temporarily unhinged blogger's reaction to a dumb article on a dumb website. Happens all the time.
posted by waxbanks at 8:54 AM on April 12, 2006

I would find it pretty hilarious if anything sent to me from Matt was cc:'ed to [e-mail], so it must depend on the sender and addressee.
posted by mikeh at 8:55 AM on April 12, 2006

And I'm sorry my blockquote apparently takes 5 lines of CR, at least on Firefox. It's the only way I know how to quote in this darn dear html..

Can't you just use the italics button at the bottom right of the comment box? Highlight the text you want to quote once you've pasted it into the comment box, then hit the I button & you're all set to go
posted by zarah at 8:58 AM on April 12, 2006

As lame as the "dipping her virtual pigtails into the digital inkwell" phrase is, it got me thinking - once this whole thing blows over, and they both mature a bit, maybe they'll hook up.

(Of course that would just mean that we'd have to hear about one side in long pretentious details and one side in angry lame sarcasm, so perhaps it's best avoided. It might make a decent TV movie though)
posted by milovoo at 9:02 AM on April 12, 2006

mathowie says,"Did you guys miss that he owns mnslab.com?"

No, but it was immediately apparent that legal@ at a vanity site) bears as much weight as superpope@ or potus@ or supremecourtjusticesouter@. And it's a long way from barratry, which requires repeated legal actions.
posted by boo_radley at 9:05 AM on April 12, 2006

nanojath nailed it - and when BB ditched the ability to comment, I lost all interest. It's the difference between someone speaking in front of a crowd, and someone speaking in front of a crowd who all have gags over their mouths.

No thanks.
posted by stinkycheese at 9:06 AM on April 12, 2006

As lame as Violet Blue comes off, the xenisucks dork comes off worse.

I have to respectfully disagree. As lame as the xenisucks dork is, VB is way, way worse. There's nothing in xenisucks (as far as I've seen, and I freely admit I've only spent a few minutes there and have no intention of spending more) to justify the over-the-top hatred and threats she indulges in. As the dork says, she seems to have him confused with the guy who tried to rape her when she was 13.
posted by languagehat at 9:12 AM on April 12, 2006

In the future, everyone will be in high school for fifty years.
posted by mr_roboto at 9:24 AM on April 12, 2006

"Did you guys miss that he owns mnslab.com? That MNS stands for his own initials? So cc'ing to [e-mail] just sends a copy to himself? There is no legal team here, and why I think it makes him look like a jackass. It borders on barratry."

Man, for someone who runs such a cool website, you sure come off as a mighty pussy sometimes, Matt. Barratry? Either I'm missing your sarcasm, or you seem to be looking for new venues to proclaim your weenitude. I don't know your personal feelings about VB or XJ, but you totally seem on the wrong side here.
posted by klangklangston at 9:25 AM on April 12, 2006

"This is internet drama at it's finest. Which is to say it's runny feces."

written by I Love Tacos


i love metafilter
posted by hpsell at 9:32 AM on April 12, 2006

Is this the same Violet Blue that ruined Fleshbot? Or is there another one?
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 9:35 AM on April 12, 2006

It borders on barratry.
posted by mathowie at 8:54 AM PST on April 1

In what way? It's not even close. He probably just CC'd it to compile all the relevant emails at one address; I'm sure he gets a ton of other mail. Although the guy is kind of a jackass, this is in no way a big deal, and the real overreactors are BoingBoing/Jardin/Violet Blue - their inflated sense of self-importance is staggering.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 9:39 AM on April 12, 2006

I don't know any of the people involved in this blogger drama, never read any of them before today (and never will again & could I get that 15 minutes back please?). All I can say is I hope the person writing the xenisucks site is no older than 16.
posted by zarah at 9:40 AM on April 12, 2006

If DC is Hollywood for ugly people, then the internet is, I dunno, Scaggsville, MD. Metafilter is a little nicer though--like Burgos, Spain.

And I thought the hipsters-can-be-pervy-too thing went out a few years ago. God, I'm so behind the times. I haven't bought a buttplug in years. Maybe Violet can help me out.
posted by bardic at 9:42 AM on April 12, 2006

Is this the same Violet Blue that ruined Fleshbot? Or is there another one?

--PinkStainlessTail

Same one. FleshBot did get strangely lame, didn't it? Though in fairness it's exactly as lame as all the other Nick Denton sites (Gawker, Wonkette, et al.) - which have a canned, ostentatious-'spontaneity' vibe that's off-putting and tired.
posted by waxbanks at 9:46 AM on April 12, 2006

If girls can't pee standing up, how can they piss in the wind?

install a cpu fan in the toilet
posted by pyramid termite at 9:46 AM on April 12, 2006

Man, for someone who runs such a cool website, you sure come off as a mighty pussy sometimes, Matt. Barratry? Either I'm missing your sarcasm, or you seem to be looking for new venues to proclaim your weenitude. I don't know your personal feelings about VB or XJ, but you totally seem on the wrong side here.

HOLY FRIJOLES! Since when did personally attacking Matt come into the discussion here? Yikes dude.. just, yikes! We can debate without calling him, I can't believe I'm typing this, a weenie?

(zarah, thank you. I think I get scared that italics is not bold enough, but since you used it to good effect I think I will too!)
posted by cavalier at 9:51 AM on April 12, 2006

So, what will your reactions be when someone registers metafiltersucks.com with a separate subdomain and message board for every username?
posted by JHarris at 9:51 AM on April 12, 2006

"And I thought the hipsters-can-be-pervy-too thing went out a few years ago. God, I'm so behind the times."

Xeni and Violet always struck me as clinging to some weird mirrorshades/cyberpunk thing. Self-importance, overblown importance of the net, cyber-liberty-frontier, blah blah blah.
posted by PantsOfSCIENCE at 9:53 AM on April 12, 2006

I'm going to sue klangklangston for calling Matt a weenie...in England!
posted by everichon at 9:55 AM on April 12, 2006

So, what will your reactions be when someone registers metafiltersucks.com with a separate subdomain and message board for every username?

I would feel like I had finally arrived/pay people to post disparging comments about me, a 7k'er who never got the attention I so desperately craved.

And what's with this "Xeni"'s high Mefi user number, I thought Boing Boin people were supposed to be 1337.
posted by drezdn at 9:55 AM on April 12, 2006

In what way? It's not even close. He probably just CC'd it to compile all the relevant emails at one address;

I've dealt with a lot of assholes¹ that wanted bad posts about their company removed from mefi, and dozens of self-linkers that wanted metatalk threads mocking them removed, and the first sign someone is a complete tool is they start cc'ing legal@theirdomain as a passive-aggressive threat I'm supposed to start taking seriously. It's laughable, and why I'm laughing at this guy for doing it.


1. Bernie Shifman once did it to me, because I had a blog post linking to that page dedicated to calling him out as a clueless spammer. If you read about Bernie Shifman on that site, you'll see why I think cc'ing legal removes any credibility.
posted by mathowie at 9:57 AM on April 12, 2006

So, what will your reactions be when someone registers metafiltersucks.com with a separate subdomain and message board for every username?

Er... but we already HAVE that! It's called MetaTalk!


Xeni and Violet always struck me as clinging to some weird mirrorshades/cyberpunk thing. Self-importance, overblown importance of the net, cyber-liberty-frontier, blah blah blah.


Well, if Violet Blue and Susanna Breslin or Something Cowgirl or whatever her name was are the same person, then it sticks, otherwise as far as I remember Xeni's posts were always 25% Xeni and 75% Cowgirl in whichever form. It made me wonder why they didnt give the Cowgirl person their own spot on BB.
posted by cavalier at 9:57 AM on April 12, 2006

I would love to watch the pagehits for boing boing over the next few months. This feels like 'peak-boing' to me.
posted by leftoverboy at 10:04 AM on April 12, 2006

Showed up kind of late to this party, but two things in this unfolding comedy caused my core to shiver.

1. From Violet Blue's inarticulate little hate-fest:"This is the same kind of pschopathology that lurks behind the man who beats up the guy who just sucked him off..."

I'm sorry. What? Let's put this in context... so... Xeni sucked this guy off, and now he's beating her up? Or...wait. I completely fail to see how some dude in California's little anti-Xeni blog compares to actual physical violence.

2. (And, I should add, this not only cause me core to shiver, but I also screamed and clawed at my eyes):

I think the real problem with BoingBoing starts with C and rhymes with "Ory Doctorow". I can't even read Boing anymore because of his day-long DRM rants and endless self-whoring.

The Internet needs to fire homeboy.
posted by Mikey-San at 9:25 AM CST on April 12 [!]

You were saying?
posted by ninjew at 8:20 AM PST on April 12 [!]

From the link posted by ninjew:

Cory's moving to LA to teach at USC
I've accepted a Fulbright Chair at the University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy, starting this August. I'll be researching and writing a book on DRM called SET TOP COP: HOLLYWOOD'S SECRET WAR ON AMERICA'S LIVING ROOMS and teaching a course on the same subject.

I'm really, really excited about this! I'm moving to Los Angeles for a year, and I'll be dipping my toe in academic waters with more seriousness than I've had since I dropped out of the University of Waterloo...

What? Is this possible? My mom worked for decades in her field before she was awarded a Fulbright Chair, and has the academic credentials to back it up. Cory Doctorow is a bad writer of crap fiction. Does he even have the credibility to make this worthwhile?

Please, somebody tell me this is a joke.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 10:04 AM on April 12, 2006

Oh my god. I'm stabbing my eyes after reading that, Balrog. For the same reason. It burns. Oh god, it burns.
posted by cavalier at 10:05 AM on April 12, 2006

%derail% Though I guess if you want to die DRM to "Public Diplomacy", it kind of makes sense to fill the curriculum with extreme sides of it. Cory does have a valid point when he champions anti-DRM setiment, you just have to edit it a bit to cleanup the teenage angst part. %derail%. Game on... back to the Xeni focus!
posted by cavalier at 10:08 AM on April 12, 2006

... TIE DRM.
posted by cavalier at 10:08 AM on April 12, 2006

When is someone going to start the illovich sucks blog? I keep checking every day and it's still not there....

/sob
posted by illovich at 10:15 AM on April 12, 2006

Metafilter: Hate must flow freely for the internet to function.
posted by keswick at 10:15 AM on April 12, 2006

Regarding the cc:legal nonsense...

He probably just CC'd it to compile all the relevant emails at one address

Except to do that you have this cool BCC: thing. Putting it on cc: is just the lame-o internet pussy version of resting your hand on your gun butt.
posted by phearlez at 10:16 AM on April 12, 2006

Please, somebody tell me this is a joke.

Jesus, I said the same thing when I read that: A Fulbright? Are they just giving those away to any jerkoff now?
posted by Gamblor at 10:17 AM on April 12, 2006

I used to think Violet Blue was just another one of those "look at me, I'm ever so free-spirited and shocking" annoying "sex writers" but I never suspected she was a nutcase.

This guy probably put this site together in ten minutes as a joke. They're giving him way too much credit.

Maybe she'll defend Rachael next.
posted by bondcliff at 10:17 AM on April 12, 2006

Mr. Sharp has a much clearer synopsis of his issues with BoingBoing in the comment section to the relevant post. I'll reproduce it here because it neatly sums up my personal dislike of the Gardener/Doctorow junta and its monopoly on information distribution related to "tech trends".

"Pescovitz excluded, they're all only marginally journalists, and none of them have anything resembling tech credentials, thusly their understanding of the subjects they "write" about (excluding all the vapid self-promotion, in which they're most decidedly experts) is non-existent. Sadly, this makes it twice as difficult for legit tech journalists to do their job and maintain the respect of those they write about. They're put in the awkward position of trying to explain complicated things to a wide audience, yet not dumb things down that they miss the point, or misconstrue what's actually being done, and then they have to deal with backlash from legit tech people who assume they're all like Jardin or Doctorow; poseurs, collecting advertising money to promote their friends, and their "projects", all the while pretending to comprehend the very nature of technology."

I should add, my cringing at XeniTech on NPR is akin to the emotion I feel whenever journalists need a "religious" opinion and turn to the nearest Evangelical they can get on the phone.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 10:18 AM on April 12, 2006

I think we should all write to the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars and tell them what a ridiculously poor choice Cory is for a Fulbright.

In what way is he even remotely a scholar?
posted by trey at 10:24 AM on April 12, 2006

If you read the USC PR, it appears his credentials are he's Canadian. And he writes about DRM. It's loosey goosey, but technically he IS an international... exchange?

THE THREAD IT DERAILS FURTHER!
posted by cavalier at 10:25 AM on April 12, 2006

Gardener

Hee!
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 10:27 AM on April 12, 2006

hob: Is there any truth Violet Blue's statement that Sharp threatened Xeni, or that he posted her home address &c? If so, could someone provide a link?

I'm also curious about the statement that Sharp "writes in detail *several* times a day including his violent fantasies about her, and her family (who he names)." I briefly looked at xenisucks.com and didn't immediatley see anything of that nature. Had the website been altered? It's very confusing rant in that it's not clear to me what this whole thing is about.
posted by bobo123 at 10:35 AM on April 12, 2006

Nothing spells cred like redesigning the site to remove comments and make everything above the fold 2/3rds ads. BB is a bit like robotwidom. They were early players who got it mostly right. The longer they do it the worse it gets and the more you get to know them the less you like them.

BB may be more like slashdot, its a fun site until you start taking the characters or the ideology too seriously. I have no problem with Cory and Xeni as bloggers, but as mainstream tech writers and now university level teachers, umm something is definitely wrong here. Is there no one else better suited for these roles out there? Are the media editors this lazy? Or is this another case of trying to cash in on fads/cred? Like WashPo getting that redstate.com moron to write for a couple of days? Dunno. To me, they fill that "wired.com" niche of quick and dirty articles for the semi-interested and the poseurs.
posted by skallas at 10:36 AM on April 12, 2006

Except to do that you have this cool BCC: thing. Putting it on cc: is just the lame-o internet pussy version of resting your hand on your gun butt.
posted by phearlez at 10:16 AM PST on April 12

Duly noted phearlez & Matt.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 10:38 AM on April 12, 2006

Ok, but what does Nikki Craft think about all this?
posted by furiousthought at 10:39 AM on April 12, 2006

...the Gardener/Doctorow junta and its monopoly on information distribution related to "tech trends"...

There is no useful meaning of the word "monopoly" I can think of that makes sense in that sentence.
posted by flashboy at 10:44 AM on April 12, 2006

Television and radio made their own stars, and so does the Internet. There's nothing to see here, other than annoying squabbling.

And now, back to our own annoying squabbling.
posted by davejay at 10:53 AM on April 12, 2006

"HOLY FRIJOLES! Since when did personally attacking Matt come into the discussion here? Yikes dude.. just, yikes! We can debate without calling him, I can't believe I'm typing this, a weenie?"

OH NOEZ I CALLED HIM A WEENIE!

AND NOW I DO IT TO YOU! WEENIE!

legal@* in the context of a PARODY blog is pretty clearly a fucking parody, and getting knickertwisted because some spammer did it to you once is weeeeeeeeenie.
posted by klangklangston at 11:05 AM on April 12, 2006

hob: Is there any truth Violet Blue's statement that Sharp threatened Xeni, or that he posted her home address? If so, could someone provide a link?

I looked at the entire Xenisucks.com site and did several searches a few days ago when I first read Violet Blue's post because I was wondering the same thing.

I found nothing.
posted by gnash at 11:10 AM on April 12, 2006

flashboy: When NPR wants to know about college students storing copies of their textbooks in .pdfs on their usb drives, who do they call first?

Maybe monopoly is too strong a word. I mean, I guess I do see stuff from that rocketboom chick once in a while.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 11:11 AM on April 12, 2006

lol @ klangklangston. right on.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 11:12 AM on April 12, 2006

Mathowie wrote: It borders on barratry.

Just like your comment borders on insight.

ILT/ILT
CC: LEGAL, SOMEIMPORTANTGUY, ILT-ARCHIVE
posted by I Love Tacos at 11:17 AM on April 12, 2006

CC: WEENIE
posted by I Love Tacos at 11:18 AM on April 12, 2006

It's a sad, sad world for Happy Mutants. Life used to be so easy: wandering around office buildings just to see what was there; buying sea monkeys; reading Dr. Seuss; listening to Tom Waits and The Residents. Now it's all self-promotion, technobabble, crappy Internet porn, and photos with Wesley Crusher.

Sigh. What happened, guys, you used to be cool.

We're still cool!

Nah, man, you changed. All except Frauenfelder. His Mad Professor Experiments book was old skool.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:37 AM on April 12, 2006 [1 favorite]

flashboy: I was wondering that myself having rarely read BoingBoing and the current front page only seems to have a link to a novilty USB flash drive. I don't think I would even know who Xeni was if it was not for metafilter gripes.

Although I'm rather astounded by the level of hypocritical invective spat at BoingBoing by mefi regulars. Its as if no one notices the routine badly written axe grinding and self-promotion that takes place here on a regular basis.

Baby_Balrog: I decided to check this out, and didn't find much at NPR referencing Jardin outside of her weekly spot.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 11:43 AM on April 12, 2006

The important question is did she claim he shouldn't be trusted because he wears diapers?

I have to say all this feels like deja vu. Are boingboing and her site losing numbers?

For the sake of those who are new to boing, blue, etc. please take a minute and read Phil Gyford's post from a little over a year ago: "With this greater audience comes a greater responsibility. If 100,000 people are reading your words you need to be more certain about what you say than if it’s just for a bunch of mates. "
posted by ?! at 11:52 AM on April 12, 2006

I've always thought that Violet Blue was kind of..err, overrated, to say the least. And I'm starting to question some of her writing now, too. "I filed a restraining order and they served it personally." she says. I may be wrong, but I thought that was a huge no-no. I had to file a restraining order several years ago and the Sheriff flat out said "DO NOT serve this yourself under any circumstances. You need to have a process server or us serve it."

Ah, and the State of California agrees.

So she's either embellishing her story a lot, making it all up, or she's just a blithering fucking moron. And she admits to brandishing a firearm at the age of 13. If it wasn't a rifle or a shotgun, then she's admitting to what I'm pretty is a felony. Or she's just making shit up.

Either way, this seems to be nothing more than a blogosphere jerk off session, and while amusing as it is, it'll blow over. At least I have something to read while I get some Red Hat installs going. heh.
posted by drstein at 12:28 PM on April 12, 2006

Ok, I apologize for posting this, but I thought it was too funny to not share. It's a quote from one of the comments at xenisucks.com:

"This isn't some sort of misogynistic agenda to push women out of the tech reporting industry. Its the agenda to push obnoxious sex-obsessed self-congratulatory mandroids out of the the spotlight. There aren't any amount of chained up blogger terriers that are going to scare this kind of thing into submission. "

The phrase "chained up blogger terriers" almost made me spit coffee all over my laptop. heh.
posted by drstein at 12:31 PM on April 12, 2006

"This isn't some sort of misogynistic agenda to push women out of the tech reporting industry. Its the agenda to push obnoxious sex-obsessed self-congratulatory mandroids out of the the spotlight. There aren't any amount of chained up blogger terriers that are going to scare this kind of thing into submission."

The part of me that is not jaded by the depth of earnest human stupidity is starting to suspect that xenisucks is a sockpuppet.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 12:51 PM on April 12, 2006

And I'm starting to question some of her writing now, too. "I filed a restraining order and they served it personally." she says. I may be wrong, but I thought that was a huge no-no. I had to file a restraining order several years ago and the Sheriff flat out said "DO NOT serve this yourself under any circumstances. You need to have a process server or us serve it."... So she's either embellishing her story a lot, making it all up, or she's just a blithering fucking moron.

I read that as the cops served the order, not Violet.
posted by lisa g at 12:55 PM on April 12, 2006

Metafilter: lunatics and assholes argue with each other
posted by redteam at 2:25 PM on April 12, 2006

Here is an element of explanation on why Violet Bue overreacted on someone directly attacking Xeni Jardin : (from the link section of Violet Blue's Weblog) "Xeni Jardin is a blog that represents the biggest crush I've ever had on a girl. She has lips like sugar." Reading this, i kind of understand her reaction.
posted by gatsugatsu at 2:50 PM on April 12, 2006

She has lips like sugar.

What does that even mean? That her lips dissolve in water? That her lips are harmful to diabetics? That her lips are "a white crystalline solid?"

ts as if no one notices the routine badly written axe grinding and self-promotion that takes place here on a regular basis.


Ahh, but here you can respond to that axe-grinding or ego inflation.

-Typed while on my way to shoot my next movie, after finishing my interview with Terri Gross. Now I'm going to drink some Pepsi Mauve (only available to celebrities) to get the taste of the hoi polloi out of my mouth.
posted by drezdn at 2:58 PM on April 12, 2006

hah. It did say "they" - I could have sworn that word was absent from the earlier text. Hrm.

Or, maybe I'm a moron. I can deal with that. :)
posted by drstein at 2:59 PM on April 12, 2006

Gawd, I just read her INSANE followup, where she posted the fairly reasonable and contrite email she recieved, all under a "BLOGGERS HAVE NO RULZ! ANARCHY" ethos which really summed up, well, why blogs AREN'T taken seriously. Nose to spite face, film at 11.
posted by klangklangston at 2:59 PM on April 12, 2006

I speak for all diabetics when I say that Xeni Jardin kills us.
posted by crunchland at 3:00 PM on April 12, 2006

I'm feelin' all smug for knowing where "lips like sugar" comes from. And then I saw that Coldplay covered it. And now I'm sad.

Fuck you Xeni and Violet.
posted by bardic at 3:12 PM on April 12, 2006

It's a violation of copyright to post someone's letter when they have told you not to, as Violet Blue did with the letter from the NYTimes writer. Every first-year journalism student knows that. But, then, she immediately says that blogs are not journalism. I initially read that as facetious, but now I think she may be explaining why we should not take her seriously.

I haven't found the threats again Jardin that she keeps referencing. Will somebody post a link?
posted by Astro Zombie at 3:29 PM on April 12, 2006

All this hatred and bitterness....

I'm calling for a cuddlepuddle.
posted by Sparx at 4:10 PM on April 12, 2006

Boing Boing jumped the shark shortly before Metafilter did.
posted by Mick at 4:16 PM on April 12, 2006

mathowie: "As lame as Violet Blue comes off, the xenisucks dork comes off worse. Did you notice the CC: line of his email to her posted in that comment?"

Yeah, totally lame. I mean, I can't believe he would stoop to CC'ing 'legal'! Can't we keep the level of discourse to threats of physical harm, accusations of violence and sexism, posting private emails, et cetera? Seriously, we're trying to have a civilized debate here and some guy starts cc'ing himself. The nerve!

Astro Zombie: "I haven't found the threats again Jardin that she keeps referencing. Will somebody post a link?"

I'm fairly certain they do not exist. Maybe they did at one point, but certainly not anymore. (Anyone browsed the Google cache?) Note that Violet Blue's accusations are completely devoid of links, of course.

Even if MNS has since deleted posts, I'd be interested in seeing how explicit these threats were. Were they as explicit, for instance as the following?:

I sincerely hope that if Matthew Neal Sharp or the New York Times writer Dan Mitchell ever visit San Francisco, someone lets me know. I am absolutely NOT afraid of them. But they should be, of me.
posted by rafter at 4:35 PM on April 12, 2006

Wow, everything about this lame drama only amplifies my comment in the original thread (right down to the comicbook guy jab):

Reading Xeni's petty, faux-composed response, along with Xenisucks' 27 paragraph comicbook guy-esque Usenet response, reminds me just how sad and inept social interaction on the Internet can be.

20 minutes of Miles Davis a day should be required for all routine Internet conversationalists until they learn to navigate their cyber-interactions with a little bit of cool and class. Just imagine a smooth bass line in the background before you hit post and think: 'is this rhythm congruent with my long angry string of sarcastic capslocked run-on sentences'?

The one major etiology shared by both autistics and psychopaths appears to be some form of "mind-blindness" - a kind of pathological solipsism. The Internet appears to be swelling with folks hovering in the borderlands of both conditions.
posted by dgaicun at 5:32 PM on April 12, 2006

dgaicun nails it. I saw this thread had 100+ comments. Wow. So I assumed that at least ONE of them would help explain to me this incomprehensible post because I never heard of any of those people. Reading the links made my eyes glaze over.

Nope. I still don't get it. And I don't care that I don't get it. Time wasted. Moving on.
posted by tkchrist at 5:48 PM on April 12, 2006

tkchrist is cooler than we are :(

...

BURN HIM!!!
posted by cavalier at 6:56 PM on April 12, 2006

Who are these people and why should I care about their squabbles?

They're the A-Listers who don't come here any more. *single tear*
posted by Space Coyote at 8:29 PM on April 12, 2006

it's amazing how technology has advanced ... way back when, we had to use a picket fence by a couple of clotheslines to hear this sort of trash talk and now we can use computers

who are these horrible people? why should i care?
posted by pyramid termite at 9:01 PM on April 12, 2006

I up your single tear with a full-sarc whaaaambulance.

Fuck'em.
posted by graventy at 9:02 PM on April 12, 2006

tkchrist is cooler than we are :(

If you say so. But I'm admitting to nothing.
posted by tkchrist at 9:14 AM on April 13, 2006