dipity

A falling out between sex writer Violet Blue and web magazine BoingBoing's correspondant Xeni Jardin resulted in Jardin "unpublising" all of BoingBoing's stories that referenced Blue, and created a PR crisis nightmare.

Created by shabbir on Jul 14, 2008

Last updated: 03/11/10 at 10:18 AM

• Dipity Timeline Created
  Jul 28, 2008 4:56 PM

• Violet Blue posts a video commentary on the conflict.
  Jul 19, 2008

  Continuing to draw the whole thing out, Violet Blue posted a video in which she retold the conflict by quoting selected comments posted from an online discussion on MetaFilter.com.
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJLjfJgrqIU

• BoingBoing posts a "lessons learned" statement.
  Jul 18, 2008

  BoingBoing editor Xeni Jardin posts an e-mail that apologizes for some of their actions and describes some of the lessons they learned in this crisis.
  http://www.boingboing.net/2008/07/18/lessons-learned.html

• Columbia Journalism Review covers the conflict.
  Jul 10, 2008

  CJR writes a piece discussing the conflict and the ethics of maintaining an archive.
  http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/its_all_over_now_violet_blue.php

• boingboing users get creatively moderated
  Jul 10, 2008

  People commenting on boingboing, like Will Shetterly, that annoy the editors start finding their comments have been edited to have all the vowels removed, instead of deleted.
  http://shetterly.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/crm-nd-pnshmnt-or-immoderate-moderation-at-boingboing/

• Chicago Tribune writes about the incident.
  Jul 9, 2008

  The Chicago Tribune's Steve Johnson writes about the incident.
  http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-boingboing-hypertext-0709jul09,0,4360232.column

• CNBC blogs the conflict
  Jul 7, 2008

  CNBC blogger Allen Wastler blogs about the conflict.
  http://www.cnbc.com/id/25571306

• New York Times covers blogs about the incident.
  Jul 7, 2008

  Noam Cohen of the New York Times runs a piece about the incident.
  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/business/media/07link.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&ref=business

• Canada's Globe and Mail covers the story
  Jul 4, 2008

  Jack Kapica writes about the story in Canada's Globe and Mail.
  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080704.wgtfridayreads0704/BNStory/Technology/home

• G4 TV covers the controversy.
  Jul 2, 2008

  G4 TV runs a web only piece (not on cable) about the conflict.
  http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/686800/New_York_Times_Debates_Internet_UnPublishing.html

• LA Times interviews boingboing editor Xeni Jardin.
  Jul 2, 2008

  The LA Times publishes a set of questions and answers with the boingboing editors about the incident.
  http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/webscout/2008/07/xeni-jardin-and.html

• LA Times interviews several boingboing editors.
  Jul 2, 2008

  The LA Times interviews several boingboing editors and transcribes most of the interview in a blog post.
  http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/webscout/2008/07/boingboing-blog.html

• SF Weekly blogs the conflict.
  Jul 1, 2008

  SF Weekly blogs about the conflict (unattributed author).
  http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2008/07/boing_boing_speaks_out_on_blue.php

• LA Times blogs about the incident.
  Jul 1, 2008

  David Sarno of the LA Times blogs about the incident, but fails in his repeated attempts to get someone from boingboing to speak to him.
  http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/webscout/2008/07/violet-blue-s-1.html

• BoingBoing posts acknowledgement of depublishing.
  Jul 1, 2008

  Teresa Nielsen Hayden posts an acknowledgement of the crisis and confesses to depublishing entries that reference Violet Blue.
  http://boingboing.net/2008/07/01/that-violet-blue-thi.html

• Violet Blue announces she has been unpublished.
  Jun 23, 2008

  In a passing comment amongst many others, Violet Blue announces entries that refer to her on boingboing.net are missing.
  http://www.tinynibbles.com/blogarchives/2008/06/digital-notes-and-errata.html

• Last record in Internet archive of Violet Blue post.
  May 28, 2007

  Although the posts didn't disappear all at once, one that I tracked from June 2, 2005 had it's final day in the Internet archive on May 28, 2007. After this date, it was not present on boingboing's site.
  http://web.archive.org/web/20070528084217/http://boingboing.net/2005/06/02/violet_blues_teledil.html