I link to Will Shetterly in my blog roll for a couple of reasons. One: he’s a good writer who speaks well about writing. Two: although I disagree with him on certain things, he’s very good at helping to keep me honest online. He does mostly it by asking questions of himself. He’s that kind of guy.

He’s also apparently the kind of guy who gets banned from Boing Boing. I can’t find anything on Boing Boing, much less track a conversation across threads, but Will posted about it at his blog.

It started here, when Will pointed out a problem with a source of information for a post. It was, apparently, pointing out with some insistence on Boing Boing that this problem mattered that got him banned. From there, he was moved to speculate about how to make moderation more open and transparent. Then a note about what gets lost in disemvowelling. A diversion into keeping the web from being edited out of existence. Then he started wondering who really owns our comments?

His latest post on the topic is pretty near and dear to my heart just at the moment. “When the Benefit of the Doubt Goes Wrong” is classic Will. It’s all good, solid, gentle advice about living with other people. Everyone in the story but Will comes off as insightful. He’s attracted some very smart people to the comments. And he refuses to get angry at any of the people who have banned him largely for trying to keep conversation open (which, honestly, probably drives them nuts).

Will…Will is the kind of person I often wish I wished I were.