Tuesday, February 17, 2009  

Tumblr Goes Denby : The founder and CEO of Tumblr, David Karp, announced that five blogs in his "community" critical of Web personality Julia Allison have been taken down because they were "derogatory" and constituted "harrassment."  ... I suppose Karp can kick whomever he wants off his site--but that's exactly what seems to be going on here. It certainly smells like a CEO protecting a friend . (Allison says  "I haven't asked David to take down any sites in a long time." Oh.) ...   Note to tumblr bloggers Alex Balk and Elizabeth Spiers : Hope you stay on Karp's good side! .... P.S.: Allison sees Karp's action as applicable, not just to his "community," but the entire Internet: .

There is no reason the internet should remain in its current Hobbesian state of nature. Someone needs to begin the long process of setting basic standards of decency online.

This is an argument so new it's already old . But Allison is a peculiarly unappealing complainant, having attempted to build a career out of exposing her private life in public on the web . Now people shouldn't be able to criticize her with the same vigor with which she promotes herself? ... P.S.: Here's a google cache for one of the sites tumblr deleted , Reblogging Julia . Seems pretty tame--at least by Atlantic standards ! ... P.P.S.: Doesn't Allison understand that the only thing worse than having five sites devoted to trashing you is having four sites devoted to trashing you? [ I think she does!-ed You're not suggesting she'll be happy to see this item too? This item is vicious! She'll never recover from this item!] ...

Update : Karp (" This is really upsetting ")  has now caved and abandoned  his plan to rid his "community" of negativity."[W]e’ve decided to restore the accounts affected."... My theory : Spiers got to him. .. Or Sklar . ... Or this survey. ... Alternate theory : He just wanted some of that free Facebook  F___-up publicity. ... Problem with alternate theory: If he's that calculating, he does a really good job of faking immature angst . ... Plus he's done real damage and made his company look like a high-school operation. ...   11:26 P.M.

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Gran Salida Requires Gran Fudging?  Michael Barone notes how the relative decline in Hispanic immigration will increase the pressure on Latino leaders to make up for the losses in the 2010 census by getting the government to use statistical "sampling " techniques. ... The problem, of course, is that they may be sampling Latinos who are no longer there. ... Update: Mark Krikorian notes it's primarily illegal  immigrant Hispanics whose numbers are dwindling --but they apparently still count when it comes to drawing district lines and allocating Congressional seats. Krikorian worries that "the reduction of enforcement which Obama and Napolitano will order will likely stop the slide in the illegal population and maybe even allow it to start increasing again," especially "in the period immediately leading up to the census count." ...  10:40 P.M.

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So Obama's going to try to reopen the stimulus bill on the much-debated banker pay cap provisions** but not on the little-debated welfare-expanding provisions? That would not be the "populist" choice, in either case. ...

**--sorry, I mean he "looks forward to working with Congress to responsibly address this issue."  .... 10:32 P.M.

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