Vibrator.com Shakes Up BlogWorld’s Opening Night Party

Nov 9, 2007

Blog Owner, Keith Levenson, Kicked Out and Censored from Handing Out Stickers

BlogWorld’s Opening Night Party and 2007 Weblog Awards at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas started out terrific. Some attendees showed up in their pajamas, which was the theme of the party, and some dressed in business casual attire. The music was pumping, the food was excellent, and the liquor was overflowing.

Blog WorldKeith Levenson, the owner of Vibrator.com, began working the room and meeting fellow bloggers like everyone else at the party. The one thing he did differently was to hand out stickers to attendees, who loved his Vibrator.com concept. They often laughed and wanted to know more – the stickers were everywhere! They were so popular, in fact, that a number of people approached Keith and asked for one to put on their pajamas.

Everyone loved the fun, bright pink Vibrator.com stickers! Everyone, that is, except Libby Durfee, co-founder and event producer of BlogWorld. Without any advanced knowledge of a problem, Keith was asked by an event bouncer to leave the party. When he inquired as to the reason why, the bouncer said people had been complaining about the stickers. One of Keith’s friends, who had watched Keith hand out sticker after sticker to excited party-goers, knew that was ridiculous and said so to the bouncer. Keith then spoke to the bouncer privately and learned the real reason was that Libby Durfee herself had asked for Keith to be kicked out. So Keith amicably told the bouncer he would not hand out any more Vibrator.com stickers. As a result, the bouncer let him stay. When Durfee found out that the bouncer had been reasonable and allowed Keith to stay at the party, she became even more angry and again demanded that he be kicked out – even after stopping the distribution of Vibrator.com stickers! Durfee was furious that Keith was such a great networker, and that stickers seemed to be on almost every event attendee at the party. The event sponsors paid a lot more money for promotion, and were getting much less exposure.

Sex Toys, Dildos, Vibrators at Vibrator.comWhen Keith saw Durfee at the entrance of the party as he was being thrown out by the event bouncer, he spoke to her directly. She said the reason why he was being kicked out was because of the message that Vibrator.com stood for – which in her opinion was the promotion of sex toys, which was supposedly not acceptable to BlogWorld. Keith confronted with the fact that a sexy pin-up girl with a calendar and a blog was exhibiting next to a Christian blogger at BlogWorld. Durfee’s argument against Vibrator.com clearly didn’t hold water, so she changed her tune – saying that event sponsors would be upset. Ironically, several of the event sponsors were wearing the Vibrator.com stickers!

Is this censorship? You decide. Vibrator.com thinks it is ironic that the largest blogging show is trying to censor one of its own. Blogging is all about freedom of speech. Maybe Libby Durfee needs to read the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. What do you think?

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Posted in: Law, News Comments 7

Comments

7 Comments on "Vibrator.com Shakes Up BlogWorld’s Opening Night Party"

  1. Leora Zellman on Fri, 9th Nov 2007 5:13 pm 

    Hey Keith,
    It was great meeting you at the party…I’m sorry you got kicked out!

  2. Big Boy on Sat, 10th Nov 2007 3:48 pm 

    Love your website and blog! Free speech for everyone, man! Got toys? :-)

  3. Graydancer on Sat, 10th Nov 2007 7:25 pm 

    Man, guess I’m glad I didn’t do my demo rope tying at the event. I find it ironic that they choose to hold the event at Sin City and complain about empowering female sexual pleasure. Me & Regina Lynn will be blogging the shit out of this, but not until sushi, wine, and maybe some rope.

  4. Being Amber Rhea » Blog Archive » links for 2007-11-12 on Mon, 12th Nov 2007 6:27 pm 

    [...] VIBRATOR.COM SHAKES UP BLOGWORLD’S OPENING NIGHT PARTY – Vibrator.com I could do without the earnest appeal to the bill of rights in the post, but still, this situation is fucked-up. Sex toys are apparently not okay w/ BlogWorld. Asshats! (tags: sex stigma sexuality blogging conferences) [...]

  5. You Can Tell Now That the Sex Bloggers Have Arrived : Sexerati: Smart Sex. on Tue, 13th Nov 2007 5:31 pm 

    [...] Graydancer’s sum-up details how conversations he struck up with other bloggers were shyly broken off, how one of his models — previously down to be tied up for a performance at a conference party — declined at the last minute over fear of having her startup’s image tarnished, and of how little formal attention sexuality & new media were given on the program. Sad, but common, for sex people doing work outside our niche, whether that’s in or out of web circles. Then at a pajama party as part of the same conference, the owner of Vibrator.com was asked to leave by event organizers for giving out promotional stickers. Was this due their sexual content, or because, as Libby Durfee, co-founder and event producer of BlogWorld said, they were unfairly competing with exhibitors who had paid significant money to be there with their own products? Yes, it’s gross, but that’s the big business of blogging — not unlike the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, also held in Vegas. Now some sex bloggers are questioning Facebook for not permitting a sex blogger to have a profile under her professional, but not legal, name, and yes, I’m asking those questions, too. [...]

  6. Charlene Gorzela on Sun, 18th Nov 2007 11:58 pm 

    I thought you were fun, adorable & respectful throughout the conference. You did nothing sleazy or inappropriate. Sorry you had to go through that. All the Best!

  7. tim wilkins on Wed, 2nd Apr 2008 11:44 am 

    Please forward this to Mr. Levenson…I don’t know where to find him.

    Yesterday, a judge ordered a plane to be grounded because of the vibrator.com banner he was flying around south padre island, TX

    I live here and I’m pissed off about the goverenment trampling over everyones rights with regard to free speech, the border wall, etc.

    So, I have hired a plane to fly the banner “FUCK YOU Cameron County” around the entire County for 2 days.

    Yes it is vulgar….but the limits need to pushed at this point to reassert what the “people” can and cannot do!

    Tim Wilkins
    timothywilkins2002@yahoo.com

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