Shots Across The Bow

Banned by Randy. Again. And a BlogFest Announcement

All this over a silly poll?

Let's recap. SayUncle saw a slow news day thing happening at KnoxViews, so he constructed a quick poll about lame Superheroes and posted it to his KnoxViews blog. What he didn't know was that Randy Neal, proprietor of KnoxViews, had spent hours and hours researching and writing a complex post on cable television legislation, and had posted mere moments before Uncle's poll was posted. The result was that Uncle's poll pushed Randy's post 'below the fold' as it were, and it couldn't be seen unless you scrolled down.

This simply wouldn't do, so Randy pulled Uncle's poll and made it a sidebar item. After all, scrolling is an esoteric and rarely used operation in internet browsing, and Randy wanted to make sure his post would be seen by everybody.

It was just that good.

Uncle took offense to having his post pulled, and made an issue of it, even though it was clearly still visible on the front page, and according to Randy, was still generating more buzz than Randy's cable post.

Which probably didn't help matters.

The discussion became heated, and as a result, Randy, as is his wont, redesigned his site to, I guess the word would be refine the front page content. He created a "Trusted User" category and restricted content creation to those who he felt would post in keeping with a liberal democratic point of view, while restricting differing viewpoints to commenting only.

Here's where it gets interesting.

I've been a member of KnoxViews since shortly after its inception. I rarely post, since Randy specified that it was a progressive community. In fact, the vast majority of my posts have been about BlogFests, where I encourage East Tennessee bloggers of all political persuasions to come together and enjoy good food and lively conversation. Apparently, encouraging an atmosphere of civil discourse, and humanizing the blogosphere is not in keeping with 'progressive' ideology, because I was stripped of the ability to create content at Knox Views.

And I didn't even vote in Uncle's poll!

So, recognizing that it's time for all good bloggers to get together and remind ourselves that there are actual human beings behind the pixels, and that most of them are pretty nice people, it's time for another BlogFest.

We had the last one out west, and got a pretty good turnout, so I'm proposing that we do that again, only this time, I'm going with Barry's suggestion. We appear to have some issues with buried aggression surfacing, and in order to work them out, without resorting to physical violence or flame wars, I think we should meet at Laser Quest in Knoxville, for some all out warfare, followed by dinner at Calhoun's.

Here's the plan:

WHEN: Saturday,April 21
WHERE: Laser Quest
WHEN: 3PM

Followed by Dinner at Calhoun's in West Knoxville at 6PM

If you want to skip the Laser Quest, no problem; show up for dinner. We're not picky. I will need a head count though so I can let both businesses know how many people will be coming. I'm going to try and reserve the upstairs area at Calhounss so we won't be in people's way again. Reply in comments here or send me an email.

By the way, if you are reading this, and have posting privileges at KnoxViews, create an event over there so they will know about it. I may not be welcome in their sandbox, but they are all still welcome in mine. For those of you in East Knoxville or downtown, I can pick you up on my way through.

See you there!

Posted by Rich at April 11, 2007 1:51 PM | TrackBack