For the second week in a row, a story in Slate has generated controversy on VfD. Last week, we reported on a hoax that generated a vanity article on the author. Both were submitted to VfD; the hoax was deleted (later recreated as a page about the hoax itself); however, the author's page was subsequently kept. This week, a VfD on Slate's forums resulted in the article being kept on the basis of "No Consensus".

Originally created by an anonymous user on 4 August (possibly as a result of the hoax above) as BotF, the article was submitted to VfD within a half-hour of its creation. It was moved to The Fray (Internet forum) by FCYTravis, who also helped with cleanup and NPOV work on the article.

Slate published a blog entry on the VfD (scroll to Monday, August 8, 2005 entries), which generated discussion on the VfD by many Fray users, some of which attempted to vote anonymously. The entry quotes a comment on the VfD page made by FCYTravis, calling the article "[the] world's longest VFD vote in history".

On 11 August, the VfD was closed due to no consensus. However, Essjay, the admin who closed the VfD, made sure to note that the article could still be nominated for deletion again. As of press time, the article has not been re-nominated.