Introduction

This blog (KHarbaugh in the Fray)
contains a selection of the posts I made to the discussion group of Slate
(called The Fray)
as either “neanderthal-2” (my original frayname) or “KHarbaugh”
between July 2003 and December 2004, when I was banned.

Please note that,
on the evening of the day that it was announced that
the Washington Post Company had purchased Slate
from its founder, the Microsoft Corporation,
all that I had posted to the Fray using the name KHarbaugh
was flushed,
and my IP address was banned:
in other words, any attempts to register with the Fray
(at the time, that required opening a Microsoft Passport)
under a new ID
and post a message using that new ID
were also met with the statement:
“Sorry, you are banned.”

Fortunately, other (unbanned) Fraysters immediately noted
that I had been banned,
and queried the Fray Editor on why that had been done.
His response, given here (also reprinted below),
was to denounce me as a “one-note hate monger,”
pronounce my contributions as “racist tripe” and “virtual spam,”
and suggest that allowing me to continue to post
would cause the boards to which I posted to be a “shit magnet.”
Boy, now that’s a rational argument.
He concluded his fatwa with

Good Yontif everybody.
I'm having the traditional Jewish movie-and-Chinese-food Christmas tomorrow.
May each of you have a safe and healthy holiday with those you love.

My brief response:
“Thanks a lot, Jews.
You people can criticize everyone else, but no one can criticize you.
No wonder you have so many enemies.”

I really don’t have the time now to make a longer analysis of the situation,
but will post in this blog a selection of the posts to the Fray
that the Fray Editor described as “racist tripe.”
The dates on them are the original dates that they were posted to the Fray.

Below this line is the full text of the Fray Editor’s message,
as a record
in case it gets deleted from the Fray at some point in time.

(By the way, my main blog since April 2005 has been KHarblog,
located at kwharbaugh.blogspot.com.)

---

Subject: RE: Kevin
From: kevinarno
Date: Dec 24 2004 1:17PM

On the matter of KHarbaugh…

Here's my general, unofficial, and personal take on the Fray and free speech:

I see my position as Fray Editor less as circuit judge who must safeguard the precious virtues of the First Amendment and more as the guy who screens calls for talk radio -- or who selects which Letters to the Editor are going to run in tomorrow morning's paper.

I've been reading KHarbaugh's monotonic posts for the better part of a year, much as I read SpiderMBA's posts, etc. My general philosophy on one-note hate mongers is this: Here's a long leash – at least for the first three months – so long as you stop short of genocidal psychosis. The second three months, there's a little less rope.

After that, if offending poster hasn't broadened his range beyond unreasonably racist tripe, then it's goodbye. I realize this unofficial policy places me squarely in the category of censor, but consider:

What if there were 10 KHarbaughs? What if TeamHarbaugh comprised not 2% but, say, 20% of BOTF? 30% of BOTF? Each individual KHarbaugh may not be violating the rules of the road vis-à-vis the more objective "first amendment policy." But what would Slate be offering the whole of its readership with that kind of Fray?

That's why I'm mindful of the broken window theory when culling the Fray: Let a board slip into neglect and it becomes a shit magnet. I don't have to get specific when suggesting that certain boards fell victim to this dynamic far before my arrival. And it took some radical vigilantism on my part to restore Chatterbox to some semblance of order – a place where intelligent people could comment on Tim Noah's column.

So that's why KHarbaugh was finally banned. He got his say for about seven months; he neither modulated nor improved upon his message; it's virtual spam at this point. Like it or not, one of my mandates is to attract our readers to the Fray, not repel them.

Good Yontif everybody. I'm having the traditional Jewish movie-and-Chinese-food Christmas tomorrow. May each of you have a safe and healthy holiday with those you love.

ka