Utterly Meaningless

Adults, acting like children again, eh? Christians acting like homeschooling is theirs and theirs alone? Meh. Wake me up when something unusual happens.

Call us unsurprised.

I’m still trying to figure out what is offensive about that post.

After reviewing the rest of your blog I have decided to delete your entry from the Carnival of Homeschooling on the HSB Company Porch. This action was taken because HSB is a Christian blog host website and the members of HSB have a right to trust that the websites we are linking them to are safe for them to read. Profanity is not acceptable for our readers.

She checked the archives, found some curse words, and decided that unschooler.blogspot.com was unacceptable for all posts now and in the future. Only if she scrubs her archives of all profanity will she be considered worthy of inclusion in the HSB-COH.

And School of Thought is about unschooling. A big no-no in some circles. And she’s not all about Jesus. Etc. She just doesn’t fit the mold.

Good for her! 🙂

Nance

Perhaps the onus should be on the hosts to accept that they have a duty to publish what’s submitted.

Regardless, someone mentioned using the Country Fair Carnival again? It’s before my time but seems like a better model.

I thought we all agreed some time ago to quit going to HSB anyway.

I thought we all agreed some time ago to quit going to HSB anyway.

Yeah, hence no link. But that doesn’t mean that HSB owns the CoH.

As Dawn suggests, the host ought to publish everything submitted unless that post was somehow seriously objectionable. That’s why I don’t host the CoH. I won’t link to HSB. It’d be unfair of me to automatically reject posts based on their URL, yet that’s exactly what HSB did.

I should admit that I haven’t even visited the COH in ages, and I don’t even bother to look at who is hosting it. I tried a couple of times to visit the COH, and I even tried reading some of the blogs, but it’s always just “ugh” rolls eyes, and I wonder why I bothered.

I do see your point Darryl, and I do agree that what they did was not the least bit cool, but I for one am just not surprised. If I wrote more homeschool oriented posts, and if I tried to get my posts in the COH, it’s likely that I’d have been the one pulled. I enjoy the unschooling blogger in question, but I’m sure I’ve got her beat for foul mouthedness.

I am so sorry I linked to the CoH, last week. If I had known Eireann’s post had been deleted I wouldn’t have.

It really irritates me that I PUBLISHED EVERY POST SUBMITTED even the ones by the Christian Fundies that made me want to gag. Because it was my understanding that, that was what the host was suppose to do.

There was NOTHING in the post she submitted that they could object to. It was on the topic of Homeschooling (which is more then I can say for some post).

Frankly I am upset Henry let the get away with it.

Alasandra – I’m not convinced the real offense wasn’t that she challenged an HSB mom on her parenting or that she’s an outspoken atheist.

I think the biggest thing that bothers me about this is that it’s not the Carnival of Christian Homeschooling, it’s just the Carnival of Homeschooling. I think there IS a CCH (isn’t there?). If a Christian blogging host doesn’t want to link to non-Christian or otherwise “offensive” material, why are they hosting? Go host the CCH (or if there isn’t one, start it yourself). It’s just incredibly presumptuous of them to think homeschooling = Christianity and that the majority of viewers would be offended by anything else. We secular homeschoolers, atheists, pagans, potty-mouths and other heathens shouldn’t have to start our own carnival when the simple name “Carnival of Homeschooling” clearly covers our common interest with other applicants.

Frankly I am upset Henry let the get away with it.

Yeah, Henry blew this one, big time. Here’s the email I sent him today:

Bad decision concerning unschooler.blogspot.com. Might as well just give HSB the “ownership” now. Evidently, not only can they dictate what posts are acceptable, they can ban entire URLs.
For instance, would you let me host if I was going to ban all HSBers? Same diff.

Even if you think your Christian readers might be offended, just print a caveat — This post is profanity-free, but others at this site might not be. Doesn’t have to be judgemental, it can be simply informative. Likewise, secular hosts could put a caveat – Blatant Christian bias, skip if it bugs you.

Can’t we all just get along?!

I’m betting dollars to donuts the owners of the current week’s COH did NOT check ANY of the other blogs involved for content. Someone complained about this particular poster because she’s been outspoken in the past week about the content of other postings on the COH, and linked to my blog, where I unceremoniously called it what it is – a pile of dog pooh – months and months of it. The post was published in the COH, and removed 5 days later. I bet you could find something offensive to *some* Christian in each and every blog published, even on HSB.

Sam, I, too, thought we all boycotted HSB ages ago — recalling Gena and her baby-beating Pearl buddies.

Personally, I’m not playing with the “can’t we all just get along” crapola. I find the HSB blogging community so egregiously offensive, I can’t possibly begin to fathom “getting along” with them.

If the CoH wants to be the HSB lapdog, that’s fine with me. I never said I gave a shit about it anyway, and I’m certainly not surprised that there’s all this censoring going on. Xtians excell at censorship. It’s their best sport — followed closely, so I’m hearing lately, by BD/SM. 😉

// I bet you could find something offensive to *some* Christian in each and every blog published, even on HSB.//

This christian finds the HSB blogs offensive…Course they might not like mine either. I did call Jesus an asshole after all…:)

Yeah, hence no link. But that doesn’t mean that HSB owns the CoH.
***
Does anyone own it? I thought these things were freely-linking volunteer blog owners.

And who the hell is Henry and why does he get a say in anything?

Nanec

Henry is Henry Cate. He started it and sets the schedule (i.e., recruits/chooses the hosts). He also sends out a weekly publicity reminder.

I sot of forgot to ask Henry about my rogue Carnival this week 😉

Well, Henry can bite my butt. I’m not checking with him about anything.

Your carnival was at least worth reading, Chris. 🙂

Does the Unschooling carnival get this right — knowing not to censor for content of entry or related blog and knowing that we can all choose on our own what to read or not?

Or it is all unschooling all the time and non-unschoolers need not apply?

Nance

Daryl, unless I am mistaken, the HSB company blog will not be hosting future editions of the CoH.

When I first read about the deletion of Eireann’s post–days AFTER the carnival had already been posted–my first reaction was to write Henry and cancel my commitment to host the CoH on 5/22.

After thinking about it some more, I decided that I don’t want to give up on the CoH. The only way to have a carnival that shows a variety of perspectives (not just HSB-approved) is for a wide variety of people to stay involved.

So I’m still hosting on the 22nd.

I don’t ever participate when the host is the HSB company blog. Hadn’t read this week’s carnival and missed the whole dust-up until I saw it on Doc’s blog.

I don’t see that Henry is culpable for Tia’s actions in this case. All CoH hosts have complete editorial discretion for the edition they host. You aren’t obligated to include all the submissions. Henry isn’t policing anyone. And in this case, as I understand it, he made it clear to Tia that he didn’t think she should delete Eireann’s post. In the end, though, it was Tia’s (very bad) call. If HSB doesn’t want to link to blogs containing what it considers “unsafe” content, EVER, then HSB shouldn’t have volunteered to host the carnival in the first place.

“Unsafe”–that whole idea gives me the willies.

Daryl, unless I am mistaken, the HSB company blog will not be hosting future editions of the CoH.

Good. Henry told me as much this a.m.

So I’m still hosting on the 22nd.

And I’ll be happy to publicize it. As I wrote above “[P]lease take me off the distribution list until such time as HSB is no longer hosting.

If HSB doesn’t want to link to blogs containing what it considers “unsafe” content, EVER, then HSB shouldn’t have volunteered to host the carnival in the first place.

Which is why I don’t host. It’s been apparent since CoH Week 2 that HSB would refuse to link to blogs that they didn’t like, even if there was no profanity. They’ve hosted probably a dozen times since then. Now I wonder how many submissions fell into a black hole.

The entire COH uproar is long overdue I suppose. I had no idea that HSB was Christian based, mainly because I have never wasted my time reading any of the bloggers that host there.

I posted a handful of times after seeing a link or two on Alasandra’s blog but had never bothered to read the carnival until this week. My bloody eyes nearly popped out!

My initial thoughts were…Are these people crazy? They’re drinking too much Holy wine with their daily bread.

My banned post was damn near angelic compared to much of the topics that I usually blog about. And I think it’s fair to say that Tia was offended by my obvious revulsion to the Christian lifestyle.

Call me sheltered but I had no idea that there were groups of people who had their web content filtered manually – by the HSB ringleader no less!

ON A SERIOUS NOTE: I believe that the original concept of the COH is a good one. Other alternative homeschool minds should have a place to share ideas with others who may be trying to find them! Lord knows *wink* that I have searched long and hard to find the core of bloggers that I read routinely. Why should people that aren’t packing a Bible be excluded from the COH or a similar platform??

As far as Henry Cate goes, he did email me directly saying he was out of town and that he didn’t agree with Tia’s decision. You can only ask for so much I guess.

ATHEISTS, AGNOSTICS, FREETHINKERS Unite! Call us what you will but don’t count us out.

One other thing…it’s not the content of some of the HSB blogs that repulses me. I find some of it entertaining in a weird sort of way. Where else can you read things like “My son was back-talking us today and he lost the privelege to speak!” ? The thing that strikes me as strange is the apparent need to post the Ten Commandments in the sidebar — as if God subscribes by RSS.

WTF?

So HSB decided not to host heathens again or Henry told them they were no longer welcome as hosts?

Nance

Henry replied to me saying:

“My vision for
the carnival is one of respectful posts which teach all of
us and help us all to be better homeschoolers.”

I believe that he has the right idea but I’m not sure he can corral the close-minded religious folk into linking to objectionable content such as ours.

I can’t stomach the thought of censorship – without very good reason — but I think it may be better to leave the HSBers in the dark. if they haven’t seen the light by now, they never will.

I may continue to post to the COH sporadically…just to throw a wrench into things. We’ll see if I’m up to it.

Yep, the respect has to flow both ways. If not, HSBers can talk amongst themselves.

Nance

[…] HSB has decided they can define homeschooler as Christian only, I’ve decided to up the ante. I can define homeschooler even more narrowly that that. I am […]