Police on alert as graffiti artists gather in city

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/0…

I used to work for Next Generation Media, the company promoting the “gathering of as many as 300 graffiti artists planned for tonight at a secret location in South Boston.” That is one of the most ridiculous statements I’ve read in a while. This witch hunt of local “marketers” sparked by the equally absurd “bomb scare” slash idiocy has gotten completely out of hand. I won’t sit here and say anything event remotely decent about the guys at NGMedia, but as a local marketer I’m concerned. Not to mention that my newest employer Future Classic (futureclassic.net) runs one of the largest art exposés largely based on graffiti in the nation. Thankfully we don’t have another planned in Boston for at least a month or so.

Yes, I am a fan of tasteful graffiti, street artistry, “tagging”, whatever you want to call it. It’s beautiful and when a real talent goes to work it is ludicrous to call it anything other than artwork. I also understand the issue concerning vandalism of property, in this case that of the MBTA. Honestly, I think I speak for all Bostonians when I say I love staring blankly at plain brown, grey, whatever, subway station walls and such. Who wants them all colorful, unique, and intriguing. A bland commute is something I look forward to every single day and I certainly am glad our tax dollars are being well spent on arresting local, national, and international artistic genius and charging them with completely legitimate crimes like “the intent to deface” and “conspiracy to tag property.”

Give me a break, “intent,” “conspiracy?” We are talking about people who spend their free time decorating what would otherwise be the hideous underbelly of our city. NOT people looking to murder your mom or assault you late at night. “You are under arrest for conspiracy to commit beautification. Anything you say can, and will, be used against you in a circus of media blitzed politics.”

User Flaming; Is censorship ever appropriate?

An interesting Talk topic has been overflowing recently, pointing out a trait of online communities that is to be both expected, and feared:  User Flaming.

It is pretty common; users trashing other user’s thoughts or opinions.  You see it in forums, comment threads, etc.  Well with Yelp’s growing popularity in Boston it was bound to happen sooner or later.

This is the talk thread in Boston, in reference to Sympathy for the Kettle, a business located in NYC.

When something like this happens, is censorship appropriate?  Obviously this type of thing should be discouraged, but when it does happen, and under circumstances making one suspicious of the flaming user’s account legitimacy (he may be associated with the business), should the offensive review be removed?  I’ve never been a fan of censorship, (one of the reasons I read reddit and not dig ;-)) but I don’t think uncalled for behavior like that can just go unchecked, either.