Internet Censorship Hall of Shame

Arbitrary censorship, besides being generally reprehensible, tends to undermine one of the greatest features of the Internet: a quantum leap in the dissemination and discussion of ideas. Hopefully cyberculture will change to make arbitrary Internet censorship widely frowned upon.

Here is the list of dishonorees:

(1) Panda's Thumb -- multiblogger Darwinist blog. Practices IP address banning, which can block many people who share the targeted commenter's proxy IP address. PT created the hypocritical "Bathroom Wall", a place to dump undesired comments while pretending that those comments are not being censored. Has received undeserved blogging awards: a 2005 Scientific American magazine award and a 2006 award for being a finalist in a contest for best science blog. As a blog that practices arbitrary censorship, was arguably improperly cited in a law journal paper by Jay Wexler.

(2) Pharyngula -- personal blog of Darwinist PZ Myers. Has a "killfile dungeon" which lists banned and unwelcome commenters (I am at the top of the list). A very popular blog, getting about three times as many visitors per day as Panda's Thumb and Uncommon Descent, which are popular multiblogger blogs. Pharyngula received an undeserved 2006 award as winner of a contest for the best science blog.

(3) Uncommon Descent -- multiblogger anti-Darwinist blog. Darwinists have made many complaints that this blog practices arbitrary censorship. Unlike some other blogs that practice arbitrary censorship, UD makes no bones about it. Info about comment policy is here, here, and here.

(4) Dispatches From the Culture Wars -- personal blog of Darwinist Ed Brayton (this blog's posts about Ed are listed here and here). His blog has taken numerous potshots at me after I was banned there. Ed is also a blogger on Panda's Thumb.

(5) Austringer -- personal blog of Darwinist Wesley Elsberry. When I was unable to post comments there and asked for his help, he told me to use trackbacks instead of posting comments. It did no good to tell him that my blog service does not support trackbacks. When others said that they were having trouble with trackbacks, he said, "this is so-o-o-o not my problem." Elsberry is also a blogger (and, I have been told, is actually the blog owner) at Panda's Thumb. He has arbitrarily deleted my comments on both Austringer and Panda's Thumb.

(6) Thoughts from Kansas -- personal blog of Darwinist Josh Rosenau. When I was unable to post a comment on his blog, I asked him to do me the favor of posting the comment for me. He rudely refused, saying that my problem was due to my "incompetent inability" to post comments.

(7) Scienceblogs -- the blog service for many Darwinist blogs, including Pharyngula, Dispatches from the Culture Wars, and Thoughts from Kansas. When I complained to the Scienceblogs webmaster that I couldn't post comments, he told me that the problem was that individual bloggers were blocking my comments. When I told him that I couldn't post comments on any of Scienceblogs' approximately 50 blogs and that I therefore suspected that he was deliberately blocking my comments without telling me, he flew into a rage. On the two occasions when I was unable to post comments on Scienceblogs' blogs, the problems appeared to disappear spontaneously after a few days, apparently with no help from the webmaster.

(8) Kevin Vicklund -- frequently charges on another blog that a comment on that blog was posted by me under a false name. He has also been a frequent commenter on this blog, taking advantage of my no-censorship policy while he promotes censorship on other blogs.

(9) "Rilke's Granddaughter" -- a commenter on Panda's Thumb who is guilty of the same crime as Kevin Vicklund. Posted a few comments here in the first few weeks of this blog.