I was nursing Allie to sleep as part of her bedtime routine earlier when, while checking my emails on the phone, I came across an intriguing email from my blog benefactor and now taciturn friend, Mike (“wilco”). He hasn’t really blogged since he’s been married and now has two young kids to keep him busy, but he stated in this email that he’s annoyed enough about “this fedora thing” that he was going to rant about it in a post. So I clicked on the link, and read his post.

Let me get this straight. Someone who works for *making quote marks in the air with two fingers of each hand* the fedora store dot com has written Mike multiple emails requesting that he remove the link to their internet site that I had used in a post of mine from December, 2008? Mike is pretty offended by the request, and now annoyed by the tenacity of the emailer, *making quote marks* Sarah, so he came out of blogging retirement in *making quote marks* Sarah’s honor to do what bloggers do best — self-expression on a topic he now finds himself vehement over. As I read Mike’s post, paragraph after paragraph mentioning his research into the emailer, the parent company she works for, her requests, I had to keep from laughing at the fact that he made every mention of the company (and its subsidiaries)…you got it, a link. What’s the deal with wanting us to take the original link down? Turns out Mike had sent me an earlier email forwarding *making quote marks* Sarah’s requests. She says, in pertinent part:

We’ve been hit with a Google penalty for the links going to some of our sites. Basically that means that Google thinks some of our links are unnatural. We’re working with a consultant to try to correct this problem, and one of the things they would like us to do is to remove some of our links.

This actually makes no sense to me because there was nothing unnatural about my link in the original post. It wasn’t like I wrote, “Foxy mice jump over rice paddies FEDORA you will Latin showroom wise.” I’ve seen that in some “fake” content. Also, it wasn’t like I wrote anything negative about the store. It was just a post saying Mr. W and I went shopping, and I didn’t find a hat I could pull off, but he got this Fedora he loved for a great price. You’d think the store would appreciate my link. Mr. W thought maybe they’re writing a few polite email requests (and her emails WERE quite polite, not demanding, but simply requesting…repeatedly) so that if their requests aren’t heeded, they’ve set up their foundation for their next step, which is a lawsuit.
“On what ground?” I asked him. “There was no slander. I didn’t steal content or photos without giving them credit so there’s no copyright infringement. I simply linked their website to my mention of the Fedora you bought.” He shrugged. What would their damages be? I gave them too much referral traffic and they couldn’t keep up with demand, so they lost customers?

Truthfully, I’m not attached to that link, nor even the principle of it. It’s just that the situation is odd to me. A part of my nonchalance about the whole thing could be because Mike SO went to bat in my defense — or rather, the defense of my freedom of speech and the integrity of private party online content — that there’s no compulsion in me to fight. He’d already done it for me. And given that he’d petulantly created NINETEEN links to the requesting company, its personnel, its subsidiary companies, in his rant that they’ve taken offense to the ONE link I created 2.5 years ago, I’d have no problem removing MY one little link, which I doubt would even draw much traffic these days. (Until now, maybe, now that we’ve revived that post.)

Citing censorship, Mike doesn’t feel I should (have to) change my previous content, but given that he’s gotten them back on his own blog, I may decide to take my old link down, because (1) she asked nicely, and (2) Mike already more than made up for any effect the parent company, *making quote marks* One Click Ventures dot com, had hoped to achieve by the removal of my singular original link. I’ll think about it. Meanwhile, a part of me will take a little time to absorb the astounded discovery that apparently, I have caught the attention of a whole company who has taken special interest in something I wrote over 2 years ago, and also, that I hold in my hand the key to resolve Mike’s annoyances (cuz if I remove the link, maybe *making quote marks* Sarah will stop bothering him).