Editing Boing Boing (section)

==History==
''Boing Boing'' (originally '''''bOING bOING''''') started as a [[zine]] in 1988 by married duo Mark Frauenfelder and Carla Sinclair. Issues were subtitled ''"The World's Greatest Neurozine"''. Associate editors included [[Gareth Branwyn]], [[Jon Lebkowsky]], [[Paco Nathan]], and [[David Pescovitz]]. Along with ''[[Mondo 2000]]'', ''Boing Boing'' was an influence in the development of the [[cyberpunk]] [[subculture]]. It reached a maximum circulation of 17,500 copies.<ref name=fastcompany/> The last issue of the zine was #15.

''Boing Boing'' was established as a [[website]] in 1995;<ref name="cnetSignificantMoments">{{cite web | url=http://crave.cnet.co.uk/software/the-50-most-significant-moments-of-internet-history-49299033/12/ | title=The 50 most significant moments of Internet history | work=[[CNET]] | date=25 September 2008 | access-date=27 March 2012 | author=Lanxon, Nate | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111016021347/http://crave.cnet.co.uk/software/the-50-most-significant-moments-of-internet-history-49299033/12/ | archive-date=16 October 2011 | url-status=dead }}</ref> it became a web-only publication one year later.<ref name=fastcompany/> While researching for an article about blogs in 1999, Frauenfelder became acquainted with the [[Blogger (service)|Blogger]] software. He relaunched ''Boing Boing'' as a [[weblog]] on 21 January 2000, describing it as a "directory of wonderful things".<ref name=fastcompany/> Over time, Frauenfelder was joined by four co-editors: Doctorow, Pescovitz, Jardin and Beschizza, all of whom previously contributed to [[Wired Magazine|''Wired'' magazine]]. [[Maggie Koerth-Baker]], after a run as a guest blogger in 2009,<ref name="scienceditor">{{cite web | url=http://boingboing.net/2009/04/15/boing-boing-guest-bl-1.html | title=Boing Boing guest blogger| date=15 April 2009}}</ref> joined the site as its Science Editor, leaving to join a Nieman Foundation fellowship in 2014.

In September 2003, ''Boing Boing'' removed their Quicktopics user-comment feature without warning or explanation. Bloggers commenting on the change at the time speculated that it stemmed from "identity impersonators and idiot flamers" pretending to be co-editors.<ref name="discussionGroupsOrNot">{{cite web | url=http://brian.carnell.com/articles/2003/to-offer-discussion-groups-or-not/ | title=To Offer Discussion Groups Or Not | work=Brian.Carnell.com | date=18 September 2003 | access-date=27 March 2012 | author=Carnell, Brian}}</ref> [[Xeni Jardin]] was a guest on the ''[[NewsHour with Jim Lehrer]]'' to discuss ''[[The Washington Post]]'''s decision to remove its Comments section on its website, and she spoke from her experience at ''Boing Boing.''<ref name="newsHour">{{cite web | url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/jan-june06/post_1-24.html | title=Post Web Site Halts Comments Section | publisher=[[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]] | work=[[NewsHour with Jim Lehrer]] | date=24 January 2006 | access-date=27 March 2012 | archive-date=25 March 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325105616/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/jan-june06/post_1-24.html | url-status=dead }}</ref> In August 2007, ''Boing Boing'' staff launched a redesigned site, which included a restored comment facility, moderated by [[Teresa Nielsen Hayden]]. In 2013, ''Boing Boing'' switched from the proprietary Disqus comment system to [[Discourse (software)|Discourse]], an open-source internet forum developed by [[Jeff Atwood]], Robin Ward and Sam Saffron.<ref name="forums">{{cite web | url=http://boingboing.net/2013/06/27/introducing-bbs-our-new-forum.html | title=Introducing Boing Boing BBS| date=28 June 2013}}</ref>

In 2004, the project incorporated as Happy Mutants LLC, and [[John Battelle]] became the blog's business manager.<ref name="techCrunchProfile">{{cite web | url=https://techcrunch.com/2005/07/01/profile-boingboing/ | title=Profile: BoingBoing | work=[[TechCrunch]] | date=1 July 2005 | access-date=27 March 2012 | author=Arrington, Michael | author-link=Michael Arrington }}</ref><ref name="p2p">{{cite web | url=http://www.p2pnet.net/story/8901 | title=Who owns Web 2.0? | work=p2pnet.net | date=26 May 2006 | access-date=27 March 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119211030/http://www.p2pnet.net/story/8901 | archive-date=19 January 2012 | url-status=dead}}</ref> ''Boing Boing'', by the mid-2000s, "had become one of the most-read and linked-to blogs in the world" according to ''[[Fast Company (magazine)|Fast Company]].''<ref name=fastcompany/>

The site added advertising over the course of late 2004, placed above and to the left and right of material, and, in 2005, in the site's [[RSS (file format)|RSS]] feed as well. Editor Cory Doctorow noted that "John [Battelle] said it's going to be harder to make a little money to pay your bandwidth bills than it will be to make a lot of money and have a real source of income from this."<ref name="AdAge">{{cite web | url=http://adage.com/cmostrategy/article?article_id=112221 | title=The Innovators: John Battelle | work=[[AdAge]] | date=1 July 2006 | access-date=27 March 2012 | author=Creamer, Matthew | author-link=Matthew Creamer }}</ref> The advertising income during the first quarter was already $27,000, and {{as of|2010|lc=y}}, ''Boing Boing'' still "makes a nice living for its founders and a handful of contract employees", but it is no longer a member of Battelle's blog network Federated Media Publishing, Inc.<ref name=fastcompany/>

''Boing Boing'' featured a "guest blogger" sidebar, then stopped the series in summer of 2004. In 2008, the "guest blogger" series was resumed, with guests posting in the main blog for two-week periods. Guests have included [[Charles Platt (author)|Charles Platt]], [[John Shirley]], [[Mark Dery]], [[Tiffany Lee Brown]], Karen Marcelo of [[Survival Research Laboratories]], [[Johannes Grenzfurthner]] of [[monochrom]], [[Rudy Rucker]], [[Gareth Branwyn]], [[Wiley Wiggins]], [[Jason Scott (BBSes)|Jason Scott]] of [[textfiles.com]], [[Jessamyn West (librarian)|Jessamyn West]] of [[librarian.net]], journalists [[Danny O'Brien (journalist)|Danny O'Brien]] and [[Quinn Norton]] and comedian [[John Hodgman]].

In September 2006, ''Boing Boing'' introduced a weekly [[podcast]], "Boing Boing Boing", intended to cover the week's posts and upcoming projects. The show's cast consists of the ''Boing Boing'' editors, accompanied by a weekly guest. In the same month, ''Boing Boing'' introduced a second podcast called "Get Illuminated", which features interviews with writers, artists, and other creatives.

The site's own original content is licensed under a [[Creative Commons licenses|Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license]], as of November 2019.<ref name="ToS">{{cite web |title=Boing Boing Terms of Service |url=https://boingboing.net/tos |website=Boing Boing |date=27 June 2013 |access-date=15 November 2019}}</ref>

In September 2009, ''Boing Boing'' refused to comply with a demand from [[Polo Ralph Lauren]]'s lawyers to remove a post concerning a heavily manipulated image of model [[Filippa Hamilton]], originally published by the Photoshop Disasters blog. The latter was forced to comply with the company's demand by its hosting provider.<ref name="ralphLaurenUncannyValley">{{cite web | url=http://www.boingboing.net/2009/09/29/ralph-lauren-opens-n.html | title=Ralph Lauren opens new outlet store in the Uncanny Valley | work=Boing Boing | date=29 September 2009 | access-date=27 March 2012 | author=Jardin, Xeni}}</ref> Ralph Lauren issued [[DMCA]] takedown notices to ''Boing Boing''{{'}}s ISP and [[Blogspot]], which hosts Photoshop Disasters, claiming their use of the image infringed copyright. Blogspot complied, but ''Boing Boing''{{'}}s  ISP consulted with ''Boing Boing'' and agreed that the image was [[fair use]]. As a result, ''Boing Boing'' issued a mocking rebuttal,<ref name="criticismRalphLauren">{{cite web | url=http://www.boingboing.net/2009/10/06/the-criticism-that-r.html | title=The criticism that Ralph Lauren doesn't want you to see! | work=Boing Boing | date=6 October 2009 | access-date=27 March 2012 | author=Doctorow, Cory}}</ref> using the same image again and posting the takedown notice.

The rebuttal was widely reported, including on frequently viewed websites such as ''[[The Huffington Post]]''<ref name="ralphLaurenApologizes">{{cite web | url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/06/emboing-boingem-and-ralph_n_311593.html | title=Ralph Lauren Apologizes For Image of Emaciated Model: "We Are Responsible" | work=[[HuffPost]]| date=18 March 2010 | access-date=27 March 2012 | author=Shapiro, Lila}}</ref> and [[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]].<ref name="photoEditingFlubs">{{cite web | url=https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/11-photo-editing-flubs-digitally-altered-photo-disasters/Story?id=8780937&page=1 | title=11 Photo-Editing Flubs: Ralph Lauren Ad Sparks Controversy | work=[[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] | date=8 October 2009 | access-date=27 March 2012 | author=Heussner, Ki Mae}}</ref>

On 3 May 2011, the first podcast of "Gweek" was released. ''Gweek'' is a podcast in which the editors and friends of ''Boing Boing'' talk about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, TV shows, music, movies, tools, gadgets, apps, and other "neat" stuff. In the first episode of ''Gweek'', Rob Beschizza and Mark Frauenfelder discussed subjects such as the video game ''[[Portal 2]]'', graphic novels, upcoming science fiction books, and recommendations of some of their favorite adventure games for mobile platforms. ''Boing Boing'' has since added several other podcasts.<ref name="podcasts">{{cite web | url=http://boingboing.net/category/podcasts | title=Podcast Boing Boing}}</ref>

In November 2017,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4178417/Gov-Uscourts-Cacd-693711-1-0.pdf | title=Case 2:17-cv-08140-FMO-PLA Document 1 Filed 11/07/17}}</ref> the site was sued by ''[[Playboy]]'', which alleged that a hyperlink to copyright-infringing content at [[Imgur]] and [[YouTube]] was itself illegal.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-court-linking-not-copyright-infringement | title=EFF to Court: Linking Is Not Copyright Infringement| date=18 January 2018}}</ref> A Federal Court dismissed ''Playboy{{'}}s'' claims on 14 February 2018 and Playboy released a statement suggesting that it was standing down on 28 February.<ref>{{ cite web | url=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/02/playboy-drops-misguided-copyright-case-against-boing-boing | title=Playboy Drops Misguided Copyright Case Against Boing Boing| date=28 February 2018}}</ref>

Cory Doctorow left ''Boing Boing'' in January 2020, and soon started a solo blogging project titled ''Pluralistic''.<ref name="Pluralistic-20yearsblogger">{{cite web |last1=Doctorow |first1=Cory |title=20 years a blogger |url=https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/post/640203818282434560/20-years-a-blogger |website=Mostly Signs (Some Portents) |access-date=14 January 2021 |date=13 January 2021}}</ref> The circumstances surrounding Doctorow's exit from the website were unclear at the time, although Doctorow acknowledged that he remained a co-owner of ''Boing Boing''.<ref name="Pluralistic-20yearsblogger" /><ref name="metafilter-doctorow-beatles">{{cite web |title=In the blog world, this is the equivalent of the Beatles breaking up |url=https://www.metafilter.com/186302/In-the-blog-world-this-is-the-equivalent-of-the-Beatles-breaking-up |website=MetaFilter |access-date=14 January 2021 |date=30 March 2020}}</ref> MetaFilter described the end of the 19-year association between Doctorow and ''Boing Boing'' as "the equivalent of [[the Beatles]] [[Break-up of the Beatles|breaking up]]" for the blog world.<ref name="metafilter-doctorow-beatles" /> Doctorow's exit was not acknowledged by Boing Boing, with his name being quietly removed from the list of editors on 29 January 2020.<ref>{{cite web |title=Boing Boing: Wayback Machine snapshot as of 30 January 2020 |url=https://boingboing.net |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200130012547/http://boingboing.net |archive-date=2020-01-30  |date=30 January 2020 |quote=Doctorow's name appears as an editor on the Wayback Machine's 2020-01-29 10:09:04 Boing Boing snapshot, but it does not appear on the 2020-01-30 01:25:47 snapshot}}</ref>