Banner of Heaven Hoax
From May 30, 2005 until just before Halloween of the same year, six bloggers carried out an elaborate and, ultimately very controversial prank through a fake blog called Banner of Heaven, a name derived from part of the name of a book of non-fiction by Jon Krakauer. Those involved in the prank were eventually exposed through a Bloggernacle-wide contest hosted at 9 Moons, another group blog. Although many people found the content on Banner of Heaven to be humorous, others found the deception to be very off-putting, and the Mormon blogging community engaged in multiple bouts of debate and protest over the ramifications of such a hoax. After seeing the extreme negative reaction, the perpetrators posted public apologies, although some of these were not well received by the community. As of 2010, the Banner of Heaven hoax continued to elicit strong debate whenever the subject was broached, and the hoax constituted one of the most important or defining events in the history of Mormon blogging.
Because of the controversy, the Banner of Heaven weblog was taken down and made not accessible until Scott B. of By Common Consent initiated a resurrection of the blog in order to conduct a five-year retrospective on the scandal. The blog is now permanently hosted by MormonMentality.org, a group blog founded by David K. Landrith, one of the perpetrators behind the hoax.
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