Sinclair to Lose Blog?

Wordpress might well yank Sinclair's blog if recent rumors (from trusted sources) bear out. It seems he has consistently violated the company's terms of service by requesting that his posters research information on private individuals and then posting that information on his site.

Sinclair often responds that his actions are only fair; after all, don't people post his information online? This is true. However, Sinclair himself posts documents and personal details online; he's done so since January 2008. In other words, he has placed that information in the public eye.

I'm not so worried about whether or not Sinclair posts information on convicted felons, but I do think he steps over the line by posting unfounded accusations against certain private citizens and then revealing that person's identity, home address, place of work, and telephone numbers. This is an incitement to harassment.

Apparently, Wordpress has had enough. Will Sinclair resurface with a new site? Possibly. Until then, if you follow this story, you'll know where to find him in the downtime.

UPDATE: When I initially posted this item, I was under the impression that Wordpress had actually pulled Sinclair’s blog. My reasons for believing this:

1. Earlier today, Sinclair began posting back-and-forth emails between himself and Alex at Wordpress. Alex asked Sinclair to either confirm his sources for individuals’ personal information Sinclair had posted, and Sinclair responded that Wordpress had ignored his own complaints about others posting information about him.

2. Sinclair announced he was leaving Wordpress as of Monday, 7/14/08, but that his Wordpress blog would remain up and running (albeit with no new posts) until that time.

3. At approximately 6:00 pm EDT, the site went inactive.

4. At approximately 6:45 EDT, the blog reappeared, and Sinclair posted the following:

Larry Sinclair Says:
Friday, July 11, 2008 at 5:47 pm
WordPress was asked to reactivate the blog long enough for me to retrieve my files and images. We will still be moving to LarrySinclair0926.com

I will not publish any further articles on this site.

As the blog had actually gone dark, and Sinclair later asserted that he'd asked Wordpress to reactive the site for archival retrieval, we might assume that Wordpress did, indeed, pull the site--I rather doubt that Sinclair pulled the site, and his "moving announcement," voluntarily before setting up elsewhere.

By the way, there's a slight update on the Delaware situation; see DelawareOnline for the details.

Added 7/12: I'm thinking that this will be my final commentary on the whole Sinclair situation. It's gone from being shockingly silly to absolutely ludicrous, and there are far better stories to waste my time on. No matter its value as an example of Internet-driven conspiracies, there's simply no need to discuss each foolish new addition to the story. Of course, I might just change my mind if something truly silly hits the 'nets.