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Blog death threats spark debate »
Posted by: Fabienne 2 years, 9 months agoFrom the article: "Prominent blogger Kathy Sierra has called on the blogosphere to combat the culture of abuse online. It follows a series of death threats which have forced her to cancel a public appearance and suspend her blog. Ms Sierra described on her blog how she had been subject to a campaign of threats, including a post that featured a picture of her next to a noose."
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Fabienne
Multichannel audio specialist and futurist Fabienne Serriere is a Franco-American hardware, software and embedded interaction designer. She believes in a gorgeous technologically morphable future. Her ...
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Comments: 81
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colcam
March 27, 2007, 8:31 a.m.The wrong response on her part.
The person(s) sending the threats won; she should have continued her life as normal, and she should have been prepared to defend herself. While a lot of people seem to think the police are there "to protect us" the real truth is that we are have to protect ourselves. The alternative is to live in fear, doing only what others allow us to do.
The threats should not have taken place, but caving in was worse.
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thomas998
March 27, 2007, 9:20 a.m.Yep, I'm guessing she was scared by a 10 year with a computer. Funny someone that want to use the power of the internet is so scared when someone else uses it against her.
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Helixbuilder
March 27, 2007, 9:31 a.m.It seems like there is always someone who wants to spoil everyone's fun!
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Jaydee40
March 27, 2007, 9:43 a.m.Where her blogs that controversial? Never heard of her before, could be a ploy to get attention.
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HomeGManComment has been removed: User banned.
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Bazo
March 27, 2007, 10:56 a.m.A threat cannot be taken slightly, cause it could be a 10 year old, but on the other hand it could be a dangerous fanatic. If this Ms. Sierra is really a computer guru i think she can find a way to pointdown to whom is sending this threats.
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thomas998
March 27, 2007, 11:39 a.m.And then the truth comes out. She was sending herself death threats to drum up publicity.
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Unlucky320
March 27, 2007, 11:43 a.m.I too have never heard of her before. It would be a good way of getting attention, it made all of us post on here.
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ronaldus
March 27, 2007, 12:07 p.m.Like Ann Coulter doesn't get fifty death-threats a day?
The fact that the death threats to this person merit attention is a dead-giveaway that she's flaming Liberal.
The folks on Netscape would be cheering to hear about death-threats to Ann, which is why she wouldn't give them the satisfaction of acknowledgement.
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lfergie812
March 27, 2007, 12:42 p.m.Does anyone know how or if a person can git a user name on a blog without giving at least a working email address? And doesn't the blog network send a message to that address to verify that the user of that email address applied for a user name? That's the way it always worked for me.
I got a virus once on one of my computers (had to kill it) that send spam emails out on it's own and they were traced back to me so how can they not find the person making the threat.
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Mintyfunk
March 27, 2007, 12:43 p.m.The shame is that the threats came from internet notables, people who should be encouraging better behavior, rather than egging the mob on. Snark and invective have become mainstays in internet culture because that is what the mob is feeding on. One only has to look at Gawker to see evidence of this.
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Fangarius
March 27, 2007, 2 p.m.Actually, that's the problem we all have to deal with, and I agree she should've blocked these jerks and stuck it out. But then again, most of us do not know what she's going through so people handle problems much more differently than we would.
For instance, I have a MySpace account, and back in February, I was dealing with a poser who had been pilfering my art from another site and altering for his own purposes. Despite it not being a death threat, the guy was still stealing from my other site nonetheless, then had the gall to threaten me with possible litigation because he claimed I was the thief and not him. Despite the fact I have conclusive evidence the art is originally mine.
But rather than get into a war, I simply just blocked him and have gone my merry way, because as most of you have indidcated, usually these Net Terrorists are usually kids or adolesents who have far too much time on their hands, and have nothing better to do.
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Sharpless
March 27, 2007, 2:29 p.m.I've also dealt with people on the internet who, for God knows what reason(s), decide that they just don't like me. Fortunately, I've been in positions where I could simply block them, if need be; and, of course, it wasn't as serious as recieving death threats.
People fail to realize that human beings are still human beings, even when seperated by miles of cable and a computer screen. Sadly, until computers come equipped with an "Eject Into Space" trigger, the ******s will just have to be ignored.
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Unlucky320
March 27, 2007, 10:53 p.m.Unfortuantly nutjobs can get guns and carry knives too. I'm not saying people should live in fear, far from that, but they should always be aware of their surroundings.
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NelsonR
March 27, 2007, 3:05 p.m.Do you think our politicians appreciate the rhetoric eminating from the internet. Consequently, we mostly all know, they would adore controlling the content. That smacks of censorship to me. I listened to John McCain while he became quite red in the face when he referred to bloggers.
If you fear for your life from loonies while blogging do not give out your idenity. Hell, there is noway I would tell everyone on this site where I live, thats common sense.
Conversely I would not be able to tell some of you, your ideas are insanity reincarnated.
Please not another attempt at censorship unless truely hostile but even then you will limit the rights of the majority. The block button does work, use it.
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BoxMonkey
March 27, 2007, 4:43 p.m.Waa , Waa , Waa .Poor baby . This kind of stuff goes on all the time ,male or female . Blogging or not . Cancel her speach , get real . Security would have everything under control . Of course unless they wanted some bad press , because ...Bad press is better than no press at all .
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crespi
March 27, 2007, 5:54 p.m.For more misogyny see the "Rape Fears Lead Female Soldiers to Suicide, Death," thread from a few days ago.
It'll make you just luuuv some of your fellow commentors.
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keyfitter
March 27, 2007, 7:50 p.m.I also think she made a mistake, by hiding in
fear. The sicko or sicko's responsible for this,
won.
Funny how people can get, when they are sitting
behind a keyboard, with the belief that they
will never be known.
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LTSkua
March 27, 2007, 8:02 p.m.I used to get death threats in AOL chat rooms every other week, and threats of violence every few days. I never took any of it seriously or let it hamper the expression of my opinions in any way, but sometimes you have to wonder. There definitely are nutcases out there, and some of "threats" would later return with information they had about my work location, etc. Still, though, I agree that you can't let some crackpot on the internet intimidate you; if you do, it only encourages more of such behavior.
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denden79
March 27, 2007, 9:19 p.m.How pathetic! I mean, who really gives a damn about blogs anyway? DUH! They are just comments and opinions. That's "Free Speech." If other bloggers want to express their opinion about something I post, they're entitled.
On the other hand, if someone dis-agrees with what is posted, be ready to take the "heat." Differing opinions on issues is what make the "free world" great. But, the "radicals" SUCK!"
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keyfitter
March 27, 2007, 9:31 p.m.I can understand to a point, that there will be
differing opinions and disagreeable people when
blogs deal with politics and religion. But technology
blogs?. That is pathetic!.
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creditwrench
March 27, 2007, 10:24 p.m.I get death threats and all kinds of false accusations from debt collectors all the time. No big deal.
There is a cretin known as Uncle Normie or sometimes E. Normis Debtor who just loves to take pot shots at me.
No problem. I've dealt with punks like that for many years and none of them ever get anywhere.
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