Good morning, Netizens...

David Brookbank has summarized a great deal of what happened yesterday. Although his comments were so filled with fascinating, relevant references to various other sources, most of which I read, perhaps what he wrote that most struck me square in the forehead was toward the end.

David Brookbank wrote:

Let's just be open. There are banned individuals on the outside of the Virtual Espresso bar, banned from entering because of some crime of excess of words or passion with words or imprecision of words or perhaps precision of words. Are there also people excluded from entering because they smell bad, or spell bad, or can't pay for the internet access or are banned from the public library?
Sure there are. But these are just virtual questions for the virtual free speech forum at the virtual S-R. An S-R staff person wrote on a blog thread I still can't find that the ability to write here is not a gift of the constitution, it is a gift of the publisher.

Yesterday probably ranks right up near the top of the number of strategic and/or personal mistakes that have crept into my administration of Community Comment since its inception over three months ago, because I committed the unspeakable crime of forgetting that Rocketsbrain was banned from all SR blogs. I have committed a lot of strategic, literary and procedural gaffes since this all first began, but fortunately most of them do not rise up out of the concrete and macadam to where everyone points and looks, saying, “Oh look, Missy! Dave Laird has blown it again!”

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