Remember when the internet bubble burst around eight years ago and there was this scurrilous and totally addictive Web site called Dot Com Graveyard that listed the names of sites alongside anonymous reports of their ailing states? (If not, you can find an old screen shot of the graveyard here; it is defunct as of, well, about eight years ago.) It appears that with the art market’s bubble leaking some air there’s a version of the graveyard for New York galleries, this one called “Death Watch,” over at the blog How’s My Dealing. There, anonymous commenters have been very busy over the past several weeks, churning out rumors about the imminent demise of various dealers’ shops. The existence of such a site raises a number of serous issues, all of which New York gallerist and blogger Ed Winkleman brings up in his comments on the site, pitting himself in a heated argument with the soi-disant Buck Naked, the anonymous blogger who runs the site. Here’s the climax of their altercation — and Winkleman’s got a very good point:

Buck Naked: The idea that a single anonymous comment to the admitted rumor thread of a marginal blog could contribute to the impending closing of a gallery is ludicrous.

Winkleman:
Where was it admitted that these comments were meant to be read as the “rumors” of a “marginal blog” before I called you on it? You clarify nothing in the front-page link or top of the thread. Your RIP list seems to be factual…so how would a first time reader know to take any of these comments with a grain of salt?

Winkleman is, of course, right here. And make that a whole shaker full of salt. That said, and very sorry about the mixed metaphor here, but it isn’t the salt mill that readers of this site seem to want. An anonymous comment after Winkleman’s final rebuttal reads:

..edward and buck naked, shut up. we want more RUMORS, we don’t check this blog out for this crap; we waNt rUMORS!.

So it goes. Not all the comments are so vapid, however. It’s worth noting another that follows up on one of Winkleman’s points. How’s My Dealing bills itself as a site on which artists can anonymously rate dealers they have worked with, so one might presume the following came from an artist; in any event it is certainly a sign of the times. Winkleman, defending himself against Buck Naked, who was making him out to be taking things too personally — remember, he owns a New York gallery — had written:

Imagine if there was a blog dedicated to whether an artist’s career was about to be ended by the recession and you or friends of yours were listed in it…would you take that personally?

And an anonymous commenter replied:

A whole blog? Try a whole industry—they’re called auctions and the whole world pays attention to them, as opposed to this blog which is probably read by a few insiders.