More on the "Evil Little Blog"

You heard about the blog here first. But now Ernie the Attorney has found it too.

My post a few days ago generated a lot of comment and controversy. Among other things, I was accused of writing the blog as a hoax.

I assured you, my faithful readers, that it wasn't me--and it wasn't. Meanwhile, my blawging colleague Kevin Heller, the Tech Law Advisor, took up the hunt for the blog's authors. I'm pleased to report that he's made some interesting discoveries. Although we haven't answered the question of whether it's a hoax, I'll soon be able to demonstrate that I had nothing to do with the "evil little blog."

Stay tuned. Kevin and I are working out the details of the author's unmasking--unless he chooses to come clean here first. (I have a sneaking suspicion he may have been making comments to the original post. And what exactly is Ernie's role? The timing of his discovery is interesting, to say the least. But I don't think he's the author--he would have insisted on a RSS feed.)

Comments

[Scheherazade]

Am I now suspect because they linked to me today? That would be pretty cool of me, wouldn't it, writing in both the associate's voice and the partner voice? Where's my book deal????

[Evan]

Scheherazade: Hey, I think you're pretty cool already, whoever's voice you're writing in. By the way, the authors of the "evil little blog" were right to link to you--that was a good post (speaking as one De Novo symposium participant to another). Meanwhile, I'm getting a kick out of the way that the blog authors more or less admit they know they're being watched, and begin their March 17 entry with a "kind and gentler" face.

Over at Ernie's blog, he's saying it doesn't matter whether it's a hoax or not, and the blog authors shouldn't be "silenced" either way. I certainly agree with the second point. I'm not sure about the first, since someone--and it could have been the blog's authors--suggested on this site that I was writing it, and I'm not.

Anyway, as someone who was both an associate and a partner, and could probably write in both voices, I still know that I would not be happy as an associate having my quirks and work habits and points of view discussed in a public forum without any sort of author rights. Give the associates author rights--then we'll have a worthwhile blog. Otherwise, I think the tone is alarmingly condescending. (It's what I thought in college when the professors wrote essays for other professors--in the student paper--about the students' wrong-headed political attitudes without realizing or caring we were also reading the paper.)

Anyway, due to the efforts Kevin Heller, in addition to some of my own sleuthing, I'm pretty sure I know who the author is. What do you think Kevin and I should do with the information?

[Scheherazade]

But the associates presumably DO have author's rights -- I mean, unless somehow the big bad partners blocked the IP address for Typepad and Blogger these associates are free to blog away about their curmudgeonly old bosses. Right? Just not on the same anonymous blog. That doesn't bother me too much. As a non-anonymous blogger I keep my snarkiest comments to myself, but if I did choose to be anonymous and snarky I'm not sure it would be fair to demand I tell the person I was venting about and offer him/her rebuttal space on the same blog.

As for what to do with the information -- come sit by me and whisper it to me, or slip me a little note....