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Yesterday on HN there was a link to this story: http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/article/swimming-in-a-sea-of-shit-the-internets-war-against-creatives http:/

Yesterday on HN there was a link to this story: http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/article/swimming-in-a-sea-of-shit-the-internets-war-against-creatives http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/article/swimming-in-a-sea... Which had this quote: "This isn't something that happens to some people online, it's something that happens to everyone who has ever put any of themselves out there for public consumption." One thing that has confused me from the beginning, when Sierra first claimed that she had received death threats, was exactly why this story took on the scale that it took on. I recall at the time, of the 100 tech bloggers that I read on a regular basis, this story overshadowed everything else. I recall that previously I had been unsympathetic to Sierra because of the perception that she tended to rely on hyperbole and drama to sell her books. For that reason I was initially skeptical of her claims. Later it turned out that the 4 bloggers who harassed had clearly stepped over some line, and said some things that were at the least, very rude. As I recall, all of them later apologized (all of them were bloggers with some substantial reputations in the world of tech blogs). But given the amount of abuse that happens online on a regular basis, it seemed a little surreal to me that the story reached such a scale.

showerst 13y ago
I think it partially exploded because this wasn't some youtube celeb or musician (not that they don't have a right to be harassment free), but a _professional_ blogging about, of all things, _user experience_. There was quite a bit of 'oh, that happens online in scummy places, but surely not in my community', until people saw some of the things that were said and done.
kaitai 13y ago
The comment above (showerst) is right -- everyone says "well that happens somewhere else" until it happens right in their own community and gives the lie to "but we're not like that!" The other element is that stories like Sierra's (or the Trayvon story, or plenty of others) provide one public example at just the right time to catch a larger feeling or represent a larger problem that people are grappling with. It's a chance to hash out through a personal story how we think about "stuff".
asdasf 13y ago
>Later it turned out that the 4 bloggers who harassed had clearly stepped over some line, and said some things that were at the least, very rude. I thought none of the 4 bloggers had said anything, but were merely associated in some way with a comment? Chris Locke certainly didn't harass her: http://rageboy.com/statements-sierra-locke.html http://rageboy.com/statements-sierra-locke.html

showerst 13y ago

I think it partially exploded because this wasn't some youtube celeb or musician (not that they don't have a right to be harassment free), but a _professional_ blogging about, of all things, _user experience_. There was quite a bit of 'oh, that happens online in scummy places, but surely not in my community', until people saw some of the things that were said and done.

kaitai 13y ago

The comment above (showerst) is right -- everyone says "well that happens somewhere else" until it happens right in their own community and gives the lie to "but we're not like that!" The other element is that stories like Sierra's (or the Trayvon story, or plenty of others) provide one public example at just the right time to catch a larger feeling or represent a larger problem that people are grappling with. It's a chance to hash out through a personal story how we think about "stuff".

asdasf 13y ago

>Later it turned out that the 4 bloggers who harassed had clearly stepped over some line, and said some things that were at the least, very rude. I thought none of the 4 bloggers had said anything, but were merely associated in some way with a comment? Chris Locke certainly didn't harass her: http://rageboy.com/statements-sierra-locke.html http://rageboy.com/statements-sierra-locke.html