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No they didn’t.

… is missing.

Actually, what you cut out is what was missing – Person B responding to a statement by asking “Why do you think that?”

That is what is missing. The fact that Joanne is a female writing about this and the vehemence of the responses to her post is the entire point of what I’ve posted here. You don’t seem to be interested in understanding that.

Speculating about whether sexism MAY have played a role in this purging is not “a serious accusation”. Wondering about a possibility is not an accusation.

And in any case, I don’t myself believe sexism had a role, there’s plenty of other scenarios. In any case, do give your pals at Boing a high-five. They’ve awarded Violet microfame, and tarnished their brand, with condescending smugness towards their community. Well done.

Whether it is sexism is debatable. Which is why I opened it up to debate in the second paragraph there. I still haven’t seen any satisfactory counter-argument. Ed, a man, who noticeably received no response, said it best here:

Bandying about the sexism charge is perfectly reasonable, because simply eliding Violet Blue’s entries without explanation suggests that her contributions are in some sense inferior to the other contributors.

Feel free to google the hundred thousand op-eds from last month on the topic: Did HRC experience sexism during her campaign or is it just because she is a certain kind of woman? Because that kind of relates to this. Ian since you are in the UK you probably haven’t seen most of them.

No comments for the dudes who seem to think I really believe Boing Boing said in a team meeting: “Hey Violet Blue is a woman. We don’t like women. Delete! Delete! Delete!”

But why can’t you conceive of it, Dave? What makes you think that?

Person A: Example X, instance Y, item Z

… is missing. There is no instance Y or item Z in what Joanne is saying. All there is is:

A: Violet is a woman
B: Boing Boing have removed Violet’s posts,
C: Therefore, Boing Boing are guilty of sexism.

All that amounts to is “Example X” in your description. There is no other evidence than that. And that isn’t sufficient.

There was no situation that fostered an environment where Joanne (pardon my presumption here for a moment, I am going on what I feel might happen) felt as though any evidence she had would be listened to or regarded.

I’m sorry, but if someone is making accusations then it’s their job to present the evidence upfront. Or are you saying that Joanne was intimidated into not presenting her evidence prior to her post? Given the tone of her post, she doesn’t sound like the kind of person who’s easily intimidated – certainly not to that extent.

Whether or not what happened here is sexist isn’t the point.

Actually, that is the point. Very much so.

Every single argument that I have responded (and at least one that I didn’t) that was a variation on “Shut up, it is NOT” IS THE POINT because the idea is to shut me up rather than have a conversation about why I’m wrong.

Well, certainly from my perspective, I’m categorically not asking you to shut up. In fact, what I’d like is for you to say more – to expand on why you think Joanne has a case. Or, for that matter, to say that you don’t think she does.

And what I am most curious to listen to you talking about is why you think you’re right. Expand a little on that, and we’ll have a conversation going, and I think that would be a good thing – don’t you?