This Is the Last Post I'll Ever Write about Ken Silva<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"June 17, 2011 may have been the best day of Ken Silva's life.\u00a0 It was also, most probably, the worst day in the history of journalism.\u00a0 For it was on that\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/07\/01\/this-is-the-last-post-ill-ever-write-about-ken-silva\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Is the Last Post I'll Ever Write about Ken Silva\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"June 17, 2011 may have been the best day of Ken Silva's life.\u00a0 It was also, most probably, the worst day in the history of journalism.\u00a0 For it was on that\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/07\/01\/this-is-the-last-post-ill-ever-write-about-ken-silva\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Theoblogy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-01T12:54:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-07-01T13:08:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tony Jones\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tony Jones\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/07\/01\/this-is-the-last-post-ill-ever-write-about-ken-silva\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/07\/01\/this-is-the-last-post-ill-ever-write-about-ken-silva\/\",\"name\":\"This Is the Last Post I'll Ever Write about Ken Silva\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-01T12:54:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-07-01T13:08:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/#\/schema\/person\/42ce41f0b36973114dad81e583450069\"},\"description\":\"June 17, 2011 may have been the best day of Ken Silva's life.\u00a0 It was also, most probably, the worst day in the history of journalism.\u00a0 For it was on that\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/07\/01\/this-is-the-last-post-ill-ever-write-about-ken-silva\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/07\/01\/this-is-the-last-post-ill-ever-write-about-ken-silva\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/07\/01\/this-is-the-last-post-ill-ever-write-about-ken-silva\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"This Is the Last Post I’ll Ever Write about Ken Silva\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/\",\"name\":\"Theoblogy\",\"description\":\"The Tony Jones Blog at Patheos\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/#\/schema\/person\/42ce41f0b36973114dad81e583450069\",\"name\":\"Tony Jones\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d50708c3731048719806adf9c6f6df30?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d50708c3731048719806adf9c6f6df30?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tony Jones\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/tonyj.net\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/author\/tonyjones\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"This Is the Last Post I'll Ever Write about Ken Silva","description":"June 17, 2011 may have been the best day of Ken Silva's life.\u00a0 It was also, most probably, the worst day in the history of journalism.\u00a0 For it was on that","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/07\/01\/this-is-the-last-post-ill-ever-write-about-ken-silva\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"This Is the Last Post I'll Ever Write about Ken Silva","og_description":"June 17, 2011 may have been the best day of Ken Silva's life.\u00a0 It was also, most probably, the worst day in the history of journalism.\u00a0 For it was on that","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/07\/01\/this-is-the-last-post-ill-ever-write-about-ken-silva\/","og_site_name":"Theoblogy","article_published_time":"2011-07-01T12:54:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-07-01T13:08:03+00:00","author":"Tony Jones","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tony Jones","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/07\/01\/this-is-the-last-post-ill-ever-write-about-ken-silva\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/07\/01\/this-is-the-last-post-ill-ever-write-about-ken-silva\/","name":"This Is the Last Post I'll Ever Write about Ken Silva","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-07-01T12:54:54+00:00","dateModified":"2011-07-01T13:08:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/#\/schema\/person\/42ce41f0b36973114dad81e583450069"},"description":"June 17, 2011 may have been the best day of Ken Silva's life.\u00a0 It was also, most probably, the worst day in the history of journalism.\u00a0 For it was on that","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/07\/01\/this-is-the-last-post-ill-ever-write-about-ken-silva\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/07\/01\/this-is-the-last-post-ill-ever-write-about-ken-silva\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/07\/01\/this-is-the-last-post-ill-ever-write-about-ken-silva\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"This Is the Last Post I’ll Ever Write about Ken Silva"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/","name":"Theoblogy","description":"The Tony Jones Blog at Patheos","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/#\/schema\/person\/42ce41f0b36973114dad81e583450069","name":"Tony Jones","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d50708c3731048719806adf9c6f6df30?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d50708c3731048719806adf9c6f6df30?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tony Jones"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/tonyj.net"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/author\/tonyjones\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":3216,"date":"2011-07-01T07:54:54","date_gmt":"2011-07-01T12:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/?p=3216"},"modified":"2011-07-01T08:08:03","modified_gmt":"2011-07-01T13:08:03","slug":"this-is-the-last-post-ill-ever-write-about-ken-silva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/07\/01\/this-is-the-last-post-ill-ever-write-about-ken-silva\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is the Last Post I’ll Ever Write about Ken Silva"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

June 17, 2011 may have been the best day of Ken Silva\u2019s life.\u00a0 It was also, most probably, the worst day in the history of journalism.\u00a0 For it was on that day that the USA Today<\/em> quoted Silva in its article<\/a> on the upcoming Wild Goose Festival.<\/p>\n

It seems that the USA Today<\/em> didn\u2019t call Silva, since it\u2019s difficult to find a phone number for him (I have, and I\u2019ve called him a couple times).\u00a0 Instead, the USA Today<\/em> simply cribbed a quote from one of Silva\u2019s blogs and took his word for his own credentials.<\/p>\n

Silva is the pastor of Connecticut River Baptist Church in Claremont, New Hampshire.\u00a0 It is a church with no website, a hard-to-find phone number<\/a> (or this phone number<\/a>), and at last report, eight members<\/strong>.\u00a0 The address of the church, 24 Crescent Street<\/a>, is a vacant building.\u00a0 (It is actually listed as the home of \u201cStevens Alumni,\u201d whatever that is.\u00a0 It has also formerly been the home of \u201cGreen Acres Fine Food and Wine.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Silva does not have any pictures of himself online, nor any more than the most sketchy of biographical information.\u00a0 He does not allow comments on his site (though he does not hesitate to comment on others\u2019 sites).\u00a0 He has repeatedly refused to appear on Doug Pagitt Radio<\/a>.\u00a0 He has refused multiple invitations from Doug and me to join us at our events.<\/p>\n

Since Silva does not allow for any other means of communication with the outside world, I called him at the numbers linked above (you can, too!).\u00a0 I first spoke to him in 2007 and blogged about it<\/a>.\u00a0 He was a decent human being on the phone.<\/p>\n

And he may be a decent human being in person.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

This I do know: on the internet, Ken Silva is a troll<\/strong>. He doesn\u2019t play by the rules (yes, there are rules).\u00a0 Among those rules are, if you\u2019re a blogger, you should allow comments, especially if you comment on others\u2019 posts.<\/p>\n

He runs two sites, neither of which I will name or link to.\u00a0 He often double-posts \u2014 that is, posts the same thing at both sites \u2014 and he constantly links between the two sites.\u00a0 This is a way to game the system of search engines, since permanent in-bound links from authoritative sites is a major way that Google prioritizes search results.<\/p>\n

He also uses names (like mine) and URLs (like mine) in posts that have nothing to do with me.\u00a0 Again, this is gaming the system, for it\u2019s giving Google the impression that his site is an authoritative site regarding information about me.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, I believe in free speech above almost everything.\u00a0 Silva has the right to say whatever the hell he wants about me or anyone else.\u00a0 He\u2019s free to game the system (until Google catches him).\u00a0 He\u2019s even free to solicit donations, which he\u2019s been doing recently.<\/p>\n

But you, dear reader, should know that every time you click on a link of his, every time you rise to his bait on Twitter, you\u2019re aiding and abetting a gossip<\/a> and slanderer<\/a>.\u00a0 You\u2019re also helping him trick Google.<\/p>\n

I encourage you, if you care for what is good in the world, and if you want to protect your own soul from hatred, gossip, and slander, to never again click on a link of his.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"