Kathy Sierra vs the Mindless Minority
Had no plans to write a post like this when I awakened this morning. It is another one of those stories I was not looking for but found. While checking popular searches at various locations, the name Kathy Sierra appeared. It is disheartening the number of times in the last several weeks that I have found things I was not looking for that contained some significance. But the more disheartening part is that I was unaware of them prior to the accidental discovery.
But the real sad part of this one is the various implications of what I have read beyond the person’s name. First of all, if you are as unaware as I was, Kathy Sierra has a popular blog. The short version is she received death threats and other ‘unfortunate’ comments on her blog and nasty items posted elsewhere on the net. Second, she has withdrawn from blogging and expressed some, also disheartening, statements and opinions on this same blog. And third, why the hell am I writing about this?
I’ll tell you why. It is out there now and though it is probably wise to give little attention to bad people seeking it, it concerns the blogosphere and no matter how ’small’ we are, we are in it too. Kathy Sierra received death threats and the rest as described above. She is, without question, entitled to respond to this in whatever manner she wants. But we find it unfortunate that this story is developing the way it is. I say ‘we’ because at this blog, all posts are discussed prior to publishing And the reason we find it unfortunate that Kathy Sierra responded the way she has is the upper hand it may provide to the ‘perps’.
That and the fact that she no longer wishes to be involved in the blogosphere if this is the way it will be. The internet would not be the first venue affected by those with bad intentions. If anything it is more common to find this sort of thing on the net and that will only improve as goes the rest of the world.
Lord, give me the strength to change those things I can. The patience to accept those things I cannot change. And the wisdom to know the difference. Not that this is an especially religious group of folks on this particular blog, but the sentiment seems appropriate here whether you are religious or not. And it helps shorten this post from becoming excessively large.
In closing, why not ignore the items not on your blog, moderate and anti-spam the rest as well as eliminating access from a few IP addresses. Ignore it and it may go away. Give more attention, like this is doing, and it may get worse. Maybe we’re wrong here but we don’t think so. But again, Kathy Sierra is certainly able to respond any way she wishes. And your comments are cheerfully accepted, death threats and all. Pardon us if we consider unsolicited or unprovoked crap to be the realm of losers.
One last note is the reports of this story that we read seem incredibly vague in terms of what may have led to this event, if anything did. If the story continues to have a life, we’re confident all will be explained.
Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, The Virtuous Republic, A Blog For All, The Random Yak, Adam’s Blog, basil’s blog, Shadowscope, Stuck On Stupid, Leaning Straight Up, Cao’s Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, Jo’s Cafe, Conservative Thoughts, Pursuing Holiness, LaTogaStrappata®, Rightlinx, third world county, stikNstein… has no mercy, Pirate’s Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, Overtaken by Events, Planck’s Constant, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
March 29th, 2007 at 12:25 am
I read about this yesterday, and didn’t like it then, but I didn’t want to blog about it. For heaven’s sake, what on Earth could Kathy Sierra have said to cause someone to make a death threat?
Death threats are a serious thing. The perpetrator deserves jail time.
Right Voices has noted another incident that sort of goes along with this.
http://rightvoices.com/2007/03/28/isnt-it-cool-when-people-pick-on-those-with-cancer-a-couple-of-liberals-do/
It seems that the Internet has really become a place where people think it’s OK to abuse just about every form of speech there is.
It’s getting pathetic out there.
March 29th, 2007 at 12:53 am
I’ve been reading a lot about this in the last couple of hours. I may put up a post on it if I have some time. Have you seen what My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy wrote on this? It’s really an interesting discussion.
The bottom line is in the blogsphere anything can be said (typed) without consequences. I really hate that a few bad actors can run good bloggers away. I hate that they give the blogsphere a bad name.
March 29th, 2007 at 1:58 am
Saw the post on Tony Snow at Right Voices. Will have to check the others. Will have to check the other posts and digest a while. My hope is that after some recovery time and other considerations that Kathy Sierra returns with renewed strength.
BTW, beth, you just made our Honor Roll, welcome aboard.
March 29th, 2007 at 6:32 am
[…] As mentioned in our first post regarding Kathy Sierra, if the story continues to have a life, we’re confidnet all will be explained. Here is an excerpt and link to a post offering an explanation, including accounts by those involved in one way or another. We do not know if it is accurate or not, but it certainly is interesting and why we wrote our first post suggesting details were vague. […]
March 31st, 2007 at 11:28 am
Kathy Sierra and Ethics…
Once again, most bloggers got it twisted when it comes to Kathy Sierra. Maybe they need an alternative perspective……
March 31st, 2007 at 5:01 pm
If I have some time I will read the ‘alternative perspective’ later today. We have seen two popular responses on the Kathy Sierra story. One is outrage about personal attacks and/or sympathy for the recipient and the other is skepticism of the reports and/or negative opinions of Sierra and the alleged perps.
I vote for part of the 2nd response, skepticism of the reports for seeing conflicting information and it is simply too early to draw conclusions except for the fact that bad behavior on the net, as anywhere else, is unproductive and an unnecessary component to the internet.