July 08, 2004

Aww

by PG

Congratulations to former co-blogger Unlearned Hand.

July 8, 2004 01:36 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Thanks! We're very happy.

Posted by: Unlearned Hand at July 8, 2004 03:35 PM

I don't understand this at all. For loyal readers, this is a reminder of the individual that unilaterally took down the previous (apparently-in-name-only) 'group' blog site, EnBanc, isn't it? It didn't escape many readers, nor several authors in the blogosphere, that it wasn't the classiest, nicest, or most rational of maneuvers on said individual's part. On top of that, certain long time readers and surely not a few DeNovo contributors themselves, might recall the heavy-handed, indeed at times peculiarly bitter, approach said individual took to censoring perfectly reasonable and oftentime interesting comments from EnBanc's "comments" sections. Presumably, simply because rather than respond to dissenting views -- or cheeky but well reasoned retorts -- he thought the delete key was easier and quicker. In fact, after the fiasco some of us can even remember certain of you posted mentions that he wouldn't even negotiate transfer of that domain name and let you good folks continue using it as the remaining/surviving portion of the group. On top of everything, for those who have failed to notice, he then removed all posts from the EnBanc archives that were not his own. That last bit was truly just GROSS, destructive, and I will say direspectful not only of your works but of your readers' interest in them -- hopefully, you have archived copies of your own.

Why do you remind us of all this? Why do you even continue to link to his personal blog?

Never mind; I don't want to know, but I sincerely wish you wouldn't.

Speaking only for myself, I can say that the four of you appear to be good people, judging from your posts alone, and more to the point, good writers -- each unique in your interests, styles, and contributions. Quite simply, you're better off now than before -- even putting all the unnecessary drama he inflicted aside, his posts never captivated my interest, never seemed worth the screen space or bandwidth (apparently, I wasn't alone in that view, judging from the rare smattering of comments his entries received relative to others' posts, though perhaps he received more that he'd simply delete). Anyway, we can only guess the damage that change inflicted on your readership simply from having to re-establish a new URL "brand," along with the administrative back-end chores burdened onto the multitude of folks known and unknown to you that had previously linked to that site and to your now no longer archived posts there.

There's a pattern there: he obliterated readers' comments, your archived writings, and the site itself -- all at his whim.

In keeping with his tradition, I wish you'd obliterate links and online reminders of him.

Posted by: Name at July 8, 2004 03:47 PM

Congratulations, UH!

As to the comments made by "Name," sorry to write this, but you have not a clue as to the many, many discussions had after-the-fact between the members of En Banc. UH has, both privately and publicly, apologized for the manner in which his decision was implemented. To my knowledge, all of us have accepted that apology and moved on.

Jeremy, PG, Nick, and I enjoyed putting together a new place and starting a new brand. If people like it, they'll be here. If they don't, they would have left at the old place as well.

Finally, UH is a great writer and thinker. On that point, I think you're just flat-out wrong. I occasionally was not interested in his posts, but even those were well-reasoned discussions of a topic that just happens not to be of interest to me.

Posted by: Chris Geidner at July 10, 2004 02:52 PM

I'll just chime in to echo Chris. I've certainly made peace with UH's decision to end En Banc, and I now consider him a friend and a respectable blogger.

Posted by: Nick Morgan at July 10, 2004 05:41 PM

Actually, it sounds like I did "Name" a favor. He no longer has to sift through my tripe!

Posted by: Unlearned Hand at July 10, 2004 06:27 PM

I want to echo Chris too. UH didn't kill anyone. I think we were mostly just taken by surprise with the suddenness of the end of En Banc, but I'm cool with UH and what happened and consider him a friend. There are worse crimes than ending a group blog. And more important things to worry about.

Posted by: Jeremy at July 11, 2004 08:35 AM
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