A Tale of Two Blogs, the First Amendment, and the Word "Official"

There has been some drama lately in my neck of the indie book universe. And you know what, I'm just going to be honest with you, I like drama. I like following drama (I'm a recovering gossip rag addict), and I even like being involved in drama, at least when I'm in control of my involvement. I bet, if you're honest with yourself, you probably like drama a little bit too, although you may avoid engaging. I don't always take that path, like now. I was actually going to stay out of this drama because I thought it was over and done with last Friday, but it resurfaced today, and I don't want to be quiet anymore.

You see, two bloggers, from separate blogs, that I am quite fond of, are currently being maligned, largely because the person maligning them does not seem to understand that words have meanings, specific meanings. If you want to know half of the full story, you can read this post by Joood - Hooligan (it has a link to the original post from the maligner too, so really, it's almost a one-stop shop for the whole backstory, both sides). And for the third half of the story, you can read this post from T of IABB.

 If you don't want to read those posts right now, basic summary of the situation is that things got a little tense on a confession on IABB on Thursday, and a person was banned from the page (because she was the one escalating the situation and making/keeping things tense). She wrote a ranty blog post (I love ranty blog posts and make them from time to time myself, like now) about how her First Amendment rights were being violated because she was banned. Joood - Hooligan took it upon herself to write a reply to that blog post on her own blog, Platypire Reviews, defending T. When T got back online a couple hours later after regrouping from being attacked on her own Facebook page, she wrote her own response, of sorts. Most of us thought it was over at that point. Everyone said their piece, it was done. 

Until this evening when the banned person decided to send an email to Joood - Hooligan (since she'd posted the "official" reply to the original ranty blog post...Are you still with me here?) You should all be familiar with Joood - Hooligan around here by now, and the fact that she's with Platypire Reviews, at least if you've read any of my Joood's Reviews you will be. She does not run IABB, so she is not in the position to be posting official responses to anything on IABB's behalf. She helps out with the graphics (along with a slew of other volunteers) and I believe she is also a page editor, largely for helping to make sure confessions get posted every Thursday when T isn't around (because we addicts suffer some serious withdraw when we don't get our confessions.) But she was speaking as herself in defense of T and IABB in her post on her own blog (you can clearly see that if you choose to read it). 

The screenshot you see above was posted on her profile, and you can clearly see that she is continuing to harp on the First Amendment right to freedom of speech. Just to be clear, this is what the First Amendment says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." Congress shall make no law. But as many people on various posts throughout the inter web (many of them not even remotely related to this issue), freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences. The First Amendment does not prevent a Facebook page owner from deleting comments that they don't want posted on their page. It doesn't prevent them from banning people that are consistently troublesome. It doesn't do those things, because Facebook page owners are NOT the government. The government is who the First Amendment protects you from, not average citizens. And if you check out T's post (linked above) you will see a screenshot of the rules of confessions, which clearly state that negative confessions that name drop will not be posted under any circumstances (and since this issue was blown up so big to begin with, I imagine T is deleting any confessions that might possibly allude to it, name dropping or no, because it would be pretty obvious to us addicts who those confessions are about to begin with.) 

This brings us to the word "official." Like I said, Joood - Hooligan is not in a position to be posting any official responses because she is not in charge of IABB. She can post all the responses she wants to on her blog, Platypire Reviews, but that doesn't make them "official" responses. It just makes them responses. Like this, this is not an official response to anything. This is just me stepping up to my podium and telling you my opinion on this issue. And I obviously need to state that, so that certain parties don't think I've posted an "official" response to their Facebook wall posts, even though I have no actual affiliation with either Platypire Reviews or IABB aside from friendly ribbing (because my Joood's Reviews are really just making fun of Joood - Hooligan after all.) To reiterate, these are MY opinions, and only my opinions. They do not reflect the opinions of Joood - Hooligan, Platypire Reviews, or IABB. This is totes not official. 

I realize some of you are probably thinking I should have just left this alone, because you know, don't feed the trolls. But like I said at the beginning, I like drama, and sometimes feeding the trolls can be fun. 

Katie out. 

P.S. Joood - Hooligan is super sexy. (She made me say that.)