The Evolution's been redacted or at least TWIT has

It's the chat room's fault...

Of course! It's all those horrible weirdos with no lives who caused all the trouble with Leo's photo album...

It's June 3rd and the TWIT chat links on twit.tv still work.  

In a not so stunning half-hearted reversal it appears the chat room survives although it's not as central as it used to be to the daily going's on at TWIT. 

Apparently the May 27th announcement of their demise was premature.  In the intervening week there's been some softening of the position that's allowed the chat room to continue.  Whether or not the show you're watching is live,  however, is a big secret. 

In the early chatter between Laporte and Steve Gibson during the Security Now broadcast stream (6/2/2015), Laporte discussed how the chat rooms would be maintained but it was up to the hosts as to whether or not they wanted them visible.  Showering pity on his chat moderators, Leo relayed a tearful tale of how one of his chat mods had quit due to the incredible pressure they were under from all those "weirdos."

He went on to explain that while he actually "owned" the chat room, it really belonged to the moderators and that faced with its demise they protested. 

So what have we learned...

1. The picture of somebody's junk was all the chat room's fault

2. Actually, everything is the chat room's fault...

3. Dictatorial chat mods on a power trip have feelings too

4. The chat room isn't central to TWIT programming anymore

5. Laporte is still delusional

6. TWIT brilliantly exemplifies the fallacy of the Straw Man 

In the weeks that follow you can expect more of the same as TWIT deemphasizes the interactive nature of its programming that it once championed.  You can also expect to see a more filtered version of Laporte even going so far as to cancel live events like the 24 hours of TWIT New Years broadcast.

Honestly, I could care less about the TWIT's chat room and haven't bothered with it for the better part of a year.  It was just far too tiring to frame every comment in a way that wouldn't run afoul of a code of conduct that could get the Pope banned.

Ok, it's a privately owned service and TWIT can run it any way they please.  That's understood.  We all know that free speech takes a back seat to corporate interest in the good old USA.  We have the freedom to censor anything we find unpleasant if it's under our control.  Whether or not it's freely offered to the public is of no consequence.

Perhaps all these changes at TWIT are a good thing although they're probably too late to save the network.  TWIT and Laporte in general could have perpetrated the myth of being "family friendly" if only we hadn't seen so much of that... raw sausage.

Laporte could have been lewd, dictatorial and creepy all he wanted and none of us would have been the wiser. 

But that didn't happen.  We saw the stark contrast between the man and the image and we didn't like it. 

The proverbial cat's out of the bag.  Maybe if TWIT survived another 10 years all of those unpleasant memories would fade.

Thing is, the Internet is forever and try as you might it doesn't forget.

"The evil that men do lives after them"...etc...etc.. (The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 2)