4 ms·

I only have one story of harassment, but it might be interesting. When I first started blogging, about 10 years ago, I would also post on slashdot. I started

I only have one story of harassment, but it might be interesting. When I first started blogging, about 10 years ago, I would also post on slashdot. I started getting a lot of traffic. Along with that, I started getting harassed. It was some of the vilest stuff I've ever read in an online forum -- attacking me, my family, my personality, and so on. I found it quite disturbing, as if one of my friends was secretly insane. I finally had to institute blocks. After about 100 blocks, I was able to bring the blog back under control. At that point, I stopped promoting my blog so much. I was happier just to write for myself. They say there's always 2% of folks that you're not going to get along with. There's also probably 0.2% of folks who actively wish you harm. On the internet with 2B folks? Those percentages add up big time. My point is that gender is important here, but I'm not sure it's anywhere near being the entire story.

merrua 12y ago
http://www.ece.umd.edu/News/news_story.php?id=1788 http://www.ece.umd.edu/News/news_story.php?id=1788 http://www.enre.umd.edu/content/rmeyer-assessing.pdf http://www.enre.umd.edu/content/rmeyer-assessing.pdf http://nms.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/09/12/1461444812458271.full http://nms.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/09/12/146144481245... (if you have login)
- DanielBMarkham 12y ago
  No doubt there's all kinds of interesting statistics in here. I'd be interested in finding data about the age of the people harassing others. I doubt you'd see many 40-year-olds. It's really crazy that we give adolescents all this latitude growing up -- they can't be tried as adults, their medical care is the responsibility of others, they are provided free food and medical care if needed, etc. -- and then we expect these same folks to go online and somehow behave like miniature adults. At any one time there's probably a thousand 12-year-olds living in crack houses that are online. And we expect them to behave the same way as a 30-year-old. By no means am I condoning this kind of trash. But we can explain things without condoning them. The internet is nice because nobody can tell anything about you, but when talking about things like this, that's not a good thing. There's a vast difference between being harassed by, say, people who are mentally barely able to care for themselves and being harassed by the guy who lives next door.
  - adaml_623 12y ago
    Anecdotal counter example: Google 'sweepyface' and you'll find the sad story of what I would describe as a conspiracy theorist who tweeted thousands of times regarding the Madeleine McCann (missing child) case. The technical question of whether she was trolling and harassing people or merely tweeting her views repetitively is up for debate but she was 63. Obsession and outrage comes from all types.
  - tnorthcutt 12y ago
    There's a vast difference between being harassed by, say, people who are mentally barely able to care for themselves and being harassed by the guy who lives next door. Perhaps in terms of how that harassment should be dealt with, but not really in terms of how it affects the harassed.

merrua 12y ago

http://www.ece.umd.edu/News/news_story.php?id=1788 http://www.ece.umd.edu/News/news_story.php?id=1788 http://www.enre.umd.edu/content/rmeyer-assessing.pdf http://www.enre.umd.edu/content/rmeyer-assessing.pdf http://nms.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/09/12/1461444812458271.full http://nms.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/09/12/146144481245... (if you have login)

DanielBMarkham 12y ago
No doubt there's all kinds of interesting statistics in here. I'd be interested in finding data about the age of the people harassing others. I doubt you'd see many 40-year-olds. It's really crazy that we give adolescents all this latitude growing up -- they can't be tried as adults, their medical care is the responsibility of others, they are provided free food and medical care if needed, etc. -- and then we expect these same folks to go online and somehow behave like miniature adults. At any one time there's probably a thousand 12-year-olds living in crack houses that are online. And we expect them to behave the same way as a 30-year-old. By no means am I condoning this kind of trash. But we can explain things without condoning them. The internet is nice because nobody can tell anything about you, but when talking about things like this, that's not a good thing. There's a vast difference between being harassed by, say, people who are mentally barely able to care for themselves and being harassed by the guy who lives next door.
- adaml_623 12y ago
  Anecdotal counter example: Google 'sweepyface' and you'll find the sad story of what I would describe as a conspiracy theorist who tweeted thousands of times regarding the Madeleine McCann (missing child) case. The technical question of whether she was trolling and harassing people or merely tweeting her views repetitively is up for debate but she was 63. Obsession and outrage comes from all types.
- tnorthcutt 12y ago
  There's a vast difference between being harassed by, say, people who are mentally barely able to care for themselves and being harassed by the guy who lives next door. Perhaps in terms of how that harassment should be dealt with, but not really in terms of how it affects the harassed.