The email popped in to my box at about 7pm on Friday night.

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Wow, you have become the NAME that CANNOT be NAMED! Congratulations, that's like Bea, Pepe and Soldera not even being in the INDEX of the Gambero Rosso. I got an email from a customer with your latest article about Champagne and the big houses, squeezing the growers this morning and I started a thread about the subject with quotes from you and other sources. It was IMMEDIATELY deleted with Mark reasoning that it was ‘not correct to take content from a professional's blog’.

When I noted that huge chunks of The Purple Pages, Tanzer, DrinkRhone.com not to mention CNN, EXPN and more are posted daily and then asked ""Now I am really confused, is the SUBJECT of my post forbidden for some reason? Or are there now forbidden sources of information?" his response was basically that promoting “Ms. Feiring’s blog is the problem.”

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Well, the gentleman was not flogging my site. He cared about the Champagne issue I wrote about and naturally cited the source of the news--me.

My role on the eBob site has been limited. Oh, I chimed in when they were discussing my irrigation article. At times I silently lurked to sniff out story ideas, and of course I couldn't keep my mouth shut in that moment of blabbermouth weakness--an event that might have to the boot. (Or maybe what really paved the way the boot was nervousness about--"What the hell did that Feiring woman write in her forthcoming book?" ). So everything that I heard about the site was just that hearsay. However, for years I did hear the chatter about censorship and vindictive behavior on eBob. Until I was the text book example of she-who-must-not-be-mentioned, (except for reading Bob's reference to "Terroir Jihadists," ) I had not seen the full colorful behavior on that site in real time.

This kind of censorship raises all sorts of broader issues in the world of message shaping....especially in spots where free speech is assumed, bulletin boards.

Don't get me wrong. Opening up issues for comment on your own blog or BB is akin to inviting people into your home for a salon. If a guest starts to behave uncivilly they might have to be asked to leave, put on a muzzle or take a hit of Haldol or Xanax.

I get to control my blog. Parker gets to control his board. While mine is my private little box in Hyde Park, his is a huge and vibrant community. Its members give the cyberspot life and pump it filled with spirit. The eBob site is his Golem....or at least it seems as if that is the administrator's belief.

Many of its community don't know the level of eBob editing and revisionism. But those who do know are getting prepared to revolt. In fact, the other night it seemed ready to explode.

Observers of group dynamics and sandbox play, should trot over to the erobertparker.com board and check out this sometimes specious, vindictive, name calling thread, Well-respected retailer calls for abandonment of 100-point scale . Experience passionate mudslinging unleashed! Witness wine-lovers reduced to sand box tactics! Watch masterful twists and curls of language as writers struggle to keep their calm! Answer, the question, is Squires losing it? And poor David Lillie, the most honorable wine merchant in New York and possibly in the states gets undeserved upper right cuts.

Spending some time on the board in the basement of my friend's Boston cottage, brought back memories: my brother and I hanging on every jab coming from BoBo the Giant's glove as we stared at the tube's Saturday Night Fights. But BoBo was an act. This one is actually for real.