Hold the Mayo

August 12, 2008

Casting Dispersions on The One

For the first time that I know of in the entire time I have been reading and commenting on blogs, I have had a comment deleted. (I've left comments at a few lefty blogs in the past and never went back to check on them. They may have been erased for all I know.)

The post is at a blog called Design Observer. It's a group blog written by a bunch of designers who mostly write about design. Every now and then a little politics slips in, and in this case, the two subjects merged.

Written by William Drenttel, the post is offering for sale the URL designersforobama.org.

Last February, in the heat of the primary campaign, Winterhouse got (very) excited about Barack Obama's candidacy, and we asked what designers could do to help his campaign. We wondered whether there wasn't some opportunity for collective action, or for a specific initiative, or for a news source about the campaign focused on design issues, or maybe even a citizen journalism project. So we rushed out and bought this historic URL — designersforobama.org. (As fortune tellers, we're one-for-one: we also bought designersfordean.org in 2003. We let it expire if anyone wants it.)

Apparently they aren't planning on doing any actual designing for Obama so they are looking to sell (give?) the URL to someone who will "do something powerful or influential or collaborative with it."

Being a designer and being definitely not for Obama I did what I felt necessary and left a comment. I wanted to note for the record that not all designers were under the sway of The One. I didn't save a copy of what I wrote bt it was something like:

Of course if you're not into higher taxes, socialized medicine and Carteresque foreign policy designersagainstobama.org is also available.

I went back today to see if my bit of snark had generated any conversation. My comment was gone. There were in fact no comments on the post at all. Appended to the end of the original text was the following:

Note: comments on this post are limited to ideas or proposals, and discussion thereof. General discussions of politics, dispersions on Obama or this URL, etc., will be removed. Constructive comments required.

Thus I learned the First Commandment of Hope and Change: Thou shalt not cast dispersions upon The One.

I left another comment that will likely be gone soon too:

I guess I broke all the rules. But then they weren't listed when I left my earlier comment - which has been removed.

UPDATE: My second comment was, of course, deleted and the author of the post added this to the comments:

We've received two thoughtful proposals today. Thank you. Keep them coming. We expect to make a decision by the end of the week.

We've also removed three comments as being irrelevant to this discussion.

Two of them were mine. I wonder what the third had to say.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 01:59 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment

1 So much for open dialog. So much for design. Sheeple can be difficult, aye? BTW: I'd also like to see DesignersAgainstMccainAndObama.com as well, because we're toast either way. Pick your poison.

Posted by: Wayne at August 12, 2008 02:27 PM (IGF0m)

2 Wayne,

I agree completely. Every time an event occurs that I think makes it less likely that Obama could win the White House I am sobered by the thought that Obama losing means McCain winning.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at August 12, 2008 06:41 PM (R7LgM)

3 Thank you for those comments. It is troubling to see how so many Republicans - and even some bloggers - are [seemingly] enthusiastically backing McCain.

I recently followed a link - I think maybe from Electric Venom, another weblog that I haven't been to in quite awhile, but was glad to see it's still online, and current - back to your blog, which I'm glad is also still online, and current.

Note: Actually, I think the referring link was from your comment at this entry of Patterico's from 2005, in which I was mentioned.

As I have said before, I am one who does not like change, and it has been upsetting to see how so many weblogs and websites have changed, or even worse, have gone offline, in recent years.

Thank you for keeping yours online and current. Please keep this up, for awhile to come (even though I do like the white stuff... as I may have said, in a comment when I was here last - whenever that was).

Incidentally, I was just needing to go to the kitchen, for an omelet sandwich. If no mayo, it will definitely have Miracle Whip! :-)

Posted by: Aakash at August 16, 2008 03:57 PM (5OH41)

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