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Death Threats In the Blogosphere
Several readers have written in about the death threats and threats of sexual harm that have been directed at tech blogger Kathy Sierra. She is the author of a number of books about Java and a popular speaker at conferences. She has now stopped blogging and cancelled her appearance at eTech. She names the names of four prominent bloggers who are backers of two sites on which the threats were posted. Others in the blogosphere like Robert Scoble and Tim Bray have posted publicly in support of Sierra. Scoble in particular emphasizes the streak of misogyny that is still all too evident in the tech world. The Washington Post is also grappling with the issue of vile comment posts that flirt with illegality. One commenter on Bray's post summed it up: "The Internet used to be a university. Then it became a shopping mall. But now, it's a war zone."
This is the internet. I've had nasty things said to me too. As for threats to kill, you just report them to the police and don't make a song and dance about it. If such threats have any credibility, the culprits will be nicked. You just ignore it and move on, IF you have any 'character'. This is what's expected in adult life. Maybe she just had a very protected or cosseted upbringing, and can't handle cyberspace. If she can't even handle minor things like that, I don't find her impressive at all.It's all about LIFE SKILLS.
The article is hilarious and will be widely mocked. The offensive comments are from tards who amuse themselves by posting racist, sexist, homophobic and generally illegal content for the lulz. This doesn't mean they are racist etc - they generally aren't - just that it's very funny to troll against politically-correct idiots who don't "get it". And wow have they succeeded in this case!
They are my personal clowns, so I'll not break rule one. The complainants should lurk more and not feed the trolls.
Reduce, reuse, cycle
AM I RITE GUYS?
u know what i'm talkin about
Roflcopter
(aw come on the story was just askin for it)
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
... but does she take it up the shitter?
"Why did they cancel my favorite Sci-Fi show? I downloaded ALL the episodes!"
"fuck off you boring slut... i hope someone slits your throat and cums down your gob"
/.
that is not a death threat.
Sick photoshop images are not a death threat.
Sick comment are not a death threat.
I didn't see any examples that qualified as a death threat.
Locking your self in your home will not stop jack. Go to yor conferences and schedule yourself not to be alone if you must, but your fear is what they want. Only you can give it to them.
Sexual threats are not about sex, they are about control.
Don't let them control you.
Posting AC because of the huge vigilante attitude that has grip
SO called thinking people reacting emotionally.
I'd like to reference her objects IF U KNOW WHAT I MEAN heh heh heh
I wonder if she likes it in the back end, or front.. Her java apps, that is..
heh heh heh
too many double entendres
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
i think i love you...
kathy sierra is smokin!!!11eleventy
It's *amazing* how well the media has turned so many people into hateful bots. No, before you post...this isn't a matter of ideas, it's a matter of programming. To wit:
1. The unreasonable hatred of Carl Rove and Donald Rumsfeld: these people have never killed anyone, never escaped from a wreck and hid it, have never set anyone or anything on fire, there's no reason for the typical college student to hate them with the kind of anger that kills...yet they do. Ask one: they'll say "he's not for America" and "He's an evil man!" yet they have not one instance for their hatred.
2. The bogus mindset that world peace isn't worth even one military life. In Vietnam men were shooting themselves in the leg to go home; Kerry could have been one of those. In Iraq they're voluntarily signing up for repeat tours. While the million-plus members of the military lost a typical 1023 men in 2002 (before the war) from suicides, drug overdoses and various other reasons, a mere 800 in a war is "horrific" and "disasterous". Never mind the 600 dead bodies returning home each week from Vietnam.
There are dozens of ideals like this, each with no validity, are being foisted onto the barely-paying-attention youth, and making them crazy. They'll even claim to be "moderate" or "independent" and "never watch CNN" while spewing the exact same headlines posted there.
Something's up. This isn't normal. What would suspend these people's autonomy just to change results of the election?
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
There's a very good reason no one gives a fuck about violence against males: males aren't necessary to continue the species, females are.
Humans can easily afford to lose a vast percentage of the male population. Unfortunately I'm not a biologist so I can't give any exact figures, but I'd expect that even losing as high as 90% of the male population would not effect the continuation of the species. (Society might be fucked if something were to do that, but the species would continue.)
In fact, male birds are often brightly colored specifically to attract attention. Violence against male birds by predators is considered an acceptable loss in order to allow the females to survive.
Females are simply more important than males in practically any species I can think of. (I'm sure someone can come up with a counter-example, but I'm not going for absolutes here.)
So, yeah, violence against men isn't particularly bad. Violence against women endangers the species, violence against men just lowers the population. It's a biological thing.
I've been online for almost 20 years and I've seen these things often enough to know how they work and why they happen. I understand your points, and they're valid, but I stand by mine as well. FWIW, if I were married and this was my wife that's probably what I'd tell her. It's scary and annoying and whatnot, but she doesn't need to cloister herself up in a room and shiver in fear, because that's exactly what the fucktards that did this wanted to begin with.
You don't seem to have a good grasp on how people work (online for 20 years and unmarried seem like obvious hints). When you have a decent grasp on human action, you tend to take threats like this seriously.
As flame sounding as this sounds, it isn't meant to flame. I'm sure you're highly qualified in some subjects, but I don't tell my mechanic how to fix my car.
There is a really easy way to stop rape...
Consent!
She was anonymous to me. I have never seen her, never heard of her, and as a rule never read blogs. On a side note, she is hiding from an internet threat...oh my she needs to get out more...the internet is not real people. Get a life ho.
the only thing I think about them is that they're hilarious. thanks for telling me what I need to do with myself, though? dad?
The weirdo is from SPAIN! What did you expect from a spainard?
62.37.152.243
243.pool62-37-152.dynamic.orange.es
I'm not getting into another pointless flamewar about gnu control, thanks. Go jerk off somewhere else.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
Maybe if you weren't such a fag, everyone wouldn't want you dead. Fag.
Nobody is going to kill you because they don't want to get AIDS blood on them.
Instead it's just a matter of sitting back and waiting for the gay flu to work its magic.
p.s. Slashdot doesn't keep IPs, fucktard, just an irreversible MD5'd hash of the IP.
Taco is a buttmonkey too; lick the shit from his ass and those MD5 hashes will be all yours!