November 28, 2002
Delinking Brouhaha: Eugene Volokh nails the Perfect Policy!
The Volokh Conspiracy
THE VOLOKH CONSPIRACY-- and The Greatest Jeneration -- PROMISES:
1. If we take someone off our very short permanent links list, we promise not to make a public production out of this. (See InstaPundit for some reports of the recent delinking fracases.)
Among other things, we highly doubt that blogs get that much traffic through our permanent links; I suspect they get a bit more out of links in our posts, but not out of the permanent links. What's the use of publicly announcing "We're so incensed that we will try to deny you five readers a day, maybe ten!"? Even if it's just for the sake of symbolism, there's little symbolism in such a relatively futile gesture. We're entitled to link or not link to whomever we please -- but we plan to exercise such discretion discreetly.
2. If someone refuses to link to us, refuses to link to people who link to us, or refuses to link to people who link to people who link to us, we promise not to make a public production out of this, or call it "censorship." We're flattered when people link to us, but we realize that this is a favor, not an obligation.
Thank you, Eugene!
You've described my past, present and future policy on this "non-issue" completely.
You're a patriot, a statesman, a peacemaker, a gentleman and a lifesaver... and I'm definitely linking to you now!
