Death threats
So the story goes like this: Kathy Sierra, who blogs about interface design, cancelled her appearance at this conference because she was getting death threats posted on her blog (and elsewhere). Her story about it is here.
Public personalities have had to deal with this kind of thing for years - as we all become to some extent public personalities through our visible online interactions, is dealing with this kind of thing something we must all learn to do? (Without in any way blaming the victim, I have to say that in my own experience dealing with online trolls your best strategy is to ignore them; expressing distress feeds them.)
wg
March 28th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
It worries me a lot, just how cruelty is becoming mainstream. A friend, who is heavily into “torture sex” keeps sending me video clips - things which horrify me on two levels. First, they are just horrible - people being genuinely hurt, humiliated, de-humanised. But even more horrible is that it’s consensual.
From what he tells me, the world is not under threat. These people don’t fantasise about demeaning others who aren’t into the game. Well… that’s his theory, anyway. But apparently, if you respond in a way that implies you are a “player” in this world, you can get sucked in. And don’t ask me how you imply that, or how you imply the opposite; it’s all opaque to me.
Real sympathy to the victim here, who clearly is NOT trying to play degradation games.
March 29th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Hmm. Is there a blindside issue: “Vortex of degradation”? It’s much better for all that violent sex is consensual and well-regulated (by etiquette rather than by law) than the opposite.
If availability of extreme sexual content has a profound effect on society we’ll be the generation that finds out what it is as we observe our children.
It’s a consequence of the Internet. We can’t blame ARPA for it; I doubt they intended it.
April 2nd, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Never cave in to threats, especially ones from anonymous Netwankers. It just makes the world a worse place. Tell them to eff* off and do their worst, if they can. She gets no respect from me for being a frightened rabbit, and whining publicly. I bet whoever made those threats were jumping with joy when she publicly decided to run and hide. Nothing could have encouraged them more in their behaviour than what she did.
*(moderated
April 3rd, 2007 at 4:19 pm
I don’t think violent sex is a consequence of the Internet or new technology generally, and I think one serious way that laws about technology get blindsided into being bad law is by a focus on side issues like human sexuality (of all kinds) and other scandal-provoking things. I would personally recommend leaving this kind of issue aside, other than to note that it’s really important that government not be swayed by shock-horror tactics into abandoning a good course of action in favor of a bad one.
wg