WHAT THE "F" HAPPENED TO THAT "F"?

Regular readers – stop laughing, there are a few – will be aware that a few days back I had a go at a group of lefties blogging collectively as Larvatus Prodeo. Whereas I didn't actually accuse anyone at LP of doing anything, I did present evidence that suggests someone at LP manipulated one of my comments so as to kill a link that might embarrass Christopher Sheil, the originator of the LP thread.

At this point, neither Sheil nor anyone else at LP has seen fit to respond. It appears the strategy is to wait silently in hope that the problem will go away. This just isn't good enough. But, if you take Sheil's near-superstar lefty status into consideration it's understandable: it certainly wouldn't look good for Sheil, or LP, if "stealthy comment-manipulator" were to end up appended to Sheil's bio, now would it?

Mark Bahnisch – LP's founder – or Sheil should have offered some explanation as to why that link went dead. Since that hasn't happened, the credibility of the whole LP crew is open to question. Hey, one of the LPers could have "fallen on his sword" for the greater good by, you know, fessing up to disabling the link, guilty or not.

So, I hear you ask, where does the missing "f" in the title enter into this story? Glad you asked.

Earlier today I went to the LP page containing the now dead link to have a look around. While in the page I right-clicked on View Page Source – please cut me some slack if I don't get all of the computer-nerd terminology right when describing this; I'm no computer expert – which opened a new window showing what looks to me like the page's content and formatting. Anyway, I found my comment containing the now dead link, with the link shown as follows (truncated so it doesn't show as a link):

hre="http://timblair.net/ee/index.php/weblog/comments/chris_of_death/"

I then compared the dead link to the link I actually posted at LP, which was:

href="http://timblair.net/ee/index.php/weblog/comments/chris_of_death/"

The crucial difference is the "f" in the original that's now missing from the link at LP. With that "f" missing the link still appears to be active at LP but isn't. So, now you're thinking, big fricking deal, that "f" was simply left out when the comment was assembled. Nope, impossible.

Being the lazy computer non-nerd that I am, I always assemble comments for other sites – except Tim Blair, who uses the somewhat strange but functional Pmcode – in a Blogger Create page. The format buttons do the formatting for me and I then just copy what I've assembled and paste it in as my comment. It saves me typing out the codes. I've used this method to create thousands of links here at the blog and when commenting elsewhere and have found it to be absolutely reliable. So, I'm certain the link was correctly formatted and working when placed at LP.

Further, while the link with the "f" missing appears to be a live link at LP it doesn't appear to be a live link in Blogger's Create window in compose mode. I would have noticed straight away when assembling the post that the link was dead. (I switch back and forth between Html and Compose modes while assembling posts and comments.)

I also tested the link after it was placed to make sure it worked. I do this habitually because, in my opinion, posting a dead link, if not corrected, reflects sloppiness on the part of the poster. I also made sure to check this particular link because I felt it gave Sheil a pretty good zinging.

Finally, after I placed the link at LP, Sheil made a comment that clearly indicates he had followed the link. The link had to be working for Sheil to follow it.

It's time for Messrs Bahnisch and Sheil to explain what the "f" happened to that "f" – if it wasn't stealthily removed by someone, where did it go? And, if it was removed, who removed it? (Persistent son-of-a-bitch, ain't I?)

Editing note: For the sake of brevity, Sheil's bio – from his blog, Back Pages – has been removed; it can be accessed by following the "bio" link, above.

Update: Mark Bahnisch finally condescends to respond in comments:

Haven't got a clue what you're upset about, JF. There's an "f" missing from a link? People stuff links up all the time - I do too. If it was a link to Tim Blair's, people could have always found it from Tim's front page - the link is on the LP blogroll for everyone's convenience.

Let's look more closely at this diversionary comment:

Haven't got a clue what you're upset about, JF.

Funny, I don't feel upset but thanks for the concern. If anything, I'm pleased that Bahnisch continues to refuse to address the comment tampering issue.

There's an "f" missing from a link?

Well, duh.

People stuff links up all the time - I do too.

It's nice to know even PhDs stuff up links but that's irrelevant because the link worked when posted.

If it was a link to Tim Blair's, people could have always found it from Tim's front page - the link is on the LP blogroll for everyone's convenience.

Jeez, did this guy bother to read my post? The link wasn't to Tim Blair it was to a Tim Blair post. It can be found via his home page only by doing a search but you'd have to know what you're searching for – with the link disabled in the way it is it's impossible to work out the link is to a Tim Blair post unless you go to the trouble of viewing the page's source code (funny how that worked out).

C'mon Bahnisch, this is the same sort of weak-arsed crap you gave me when I emailed you about Sheil's stealthy deletion of comments – you're obviously shit-scared of the guy for some reason, or maybe it's a case of misplaced loyalty. Regardless, it's just not good enough. You can, of course, confirm that you've spoken to your LP colleagues, all of whom have denied tampering with the now dead link, right?