the blog post I hoped I'd never have to write…

The problem, Hugh, is that some people involved in meankids.org DO have identities. Let’s start with Christopher Locke. He just wrote on his blog in defense of his part in Meankids.org.
But I just saw for the first time what they wrote about Maryam. Totally, totally, vile and hurtful things. We’re both quite hurt and pissed about it.
I demand a public apology from ALL involved.
They certainly are NOT my friends.

Thanks Hugh. A post made in anger, but I’m still angry. I’ve worked in male dominated industries all my life, distilling and IT, and this behaviour used to be ‘ok’ in the work place. It’s not anymore, but it’s taken the law as well as change in perception; it’s taken a long time and is still endemic in some places. This is bullying, something we try hard to prevent our children being subject to at school but seemingly let it happen on the web, ‘cos this is the internet don’t you know, you should grow a thick skin. Why should I?

Apparently these MeanKids folk were taking the occasional pop at me as well. Mommy! Mommy! Come quick! A posse of middle aged, self-loathing underachievers is being mean to me Boo hoo hoo hoo…
True, Hugh, but they don’t have a picture of you choking in underwear 😉
Seriously though.. there’s a big difference between truly biting satire or parody, and hate speech / death threats.

Unfortunate, and it invites reflection.

Doesn’t anybody get these weren’t threats? They were stupid, mean, juvenile and ill-advised, but they weren’t statements of intention, they were not plans…
If you think this is bad, go and look at what is online about any female celeb – do you think they would take the same line of treating puerile content as real and direct evidence of an attempt at their lives?
I hope she feels better soon, but the blogoshere is going to need to realise that the top 1% of bloggers are in no way discernbile from the bottom 25% of ‘celebrities’ out there and they’re going to have to deal with weird crap the same way.
Should they have to? Of course not – of course society should be better. The way to fix that though is not to allow the blogosphere to be judge and jury over some juvenile content. We can handle this better than faux outrage.
Yes, it’s faux outrage. It’s not real. It’s as insincere as you can get. I find it particularly ironic that in one post Scoble made the following two comments:
“We should spend the next week discussing how to fix this”
“I won’t be blogging this week. I’ll be back Monday”.
Well, *there* is the way to shape the conversation and talk about the power of the blog, eh?
Then of course Hugh, you do the same double-take in one post.
Top of post: “What happened to Kathy Sierra, an utterly glowing gem in the blogosphere, and a really good buddy to me over the years, utterly horrified me.”
Bottom of post: “Mommy! Mommy! Come quick! A posse of middle aged, self-loathing underachievers is being mean to me Boo hoo hoo hoo…”
Do you not see the irony and faux outrage in that?
I swear, the blogosphere has just got either a) really, really drunk and I didn’t notice or b) so far up their own arses they can’t distinguish reality from their own reflection.
I feel for anybody who is in fear, and I wish it didn’t happen to a person as great as Kathy. The response though has just been, well, pathetic.

The one thing of value that Chris Locke wrote in his non apologetic post is that a YOYOW (You own your own words) ethos is a good guiding principle.

I cannot understand the character and or whatever miniscule personality exists of such a vile man. Man? Sorry, a man would not do this – but that ‘thing’ did. To do what it did is dispicable and cowardly.
I do hope the police track it down and justice gets served up in huge dollops of hard time where I am certain the showers will be an event it will not look forward to.

To say the least, I am shocked by the above mentioned news.
Reading your blog introduced me to Kathy Sierra’s blog, which I thought was quite impressive. I read several of her articles and think she is quite a talent.
I wish Kathy, and any other bloggers that are the targets of bullying, strength and courage to continue their work.
Give ’em hell, Hugh. What can we do to help?

Just shy of ten years ago, something similar happened in the Quake gaming community. A well-known female player named Hellkitten started receiving “foul, disgusting, sexually perverted emails and altered images.”
In response, the community started a “green ribbon campaign” to promote responsibility and respect in free speech. The Internet Archive has the details:
http://web.archive.org/web/19971221081130/grc.quake2.com/frames.html

It’s really a damn shame that these people or this person can have such an effect on someone’s actions. Don’t let them win! Keep blogging. Keep giving presentions.
These are the people who no one wanted to play with in the school yard. They never went to the prom. They want to hide behind their computer screens and believe that the net is reality. It’s not.
In truth, they won’t meet you outside for some real fist-a-cuffs. They would get their asses kicked. Now that’s reality. Just some pussies hiding in their pixelated world. Rock on, baby.

The company we keep …
Birds of a feather …
There is nothing new under the sun …
Examining / cleaning my library …
Examining / cleaning my RSS feed …
You are right …
Nothing else to say …

Hugh, is this the same offending blog you thought was spam (the one I mentioned to you the other day) that was making fun of your post? It has been taken down by WordPress as I write.
I know of a case of bloggers in a very strong political NY blogging community where it wasn’t just a woman, but an entire family being threatened and insulted (even their children being sexually threatened) by some lunatic. Unfortunately the same crassness and hatred that exists in the “real” world is going to spread like the plague online because it’s harder to set boundaries. I don’t see anything wrong with setting boundaries on one’s own blog and moderating comments, but unfortunately it’s impossible to control what spreads out on the internet.
Hugh you did mention something in a cartoon about controlling the conversation and some control is always necessary to keep things from sinking.
I don’t know Kathy but I can totally understand her sense of being violated and I hope that she will not let this hinder her blogging forever. As a female blogger, I’m appaled on so many levels.
While it is true that blogging can develop a cult of personality people need to realize we are just writers and human beings like everyone else with private lives and anyone who tries to invade that is an unethical, uncompassionate scumbag.
That being said, I also don’t agree that popular or high-ranking bloggers are like your run of the mill Hollywood tabloid celebrities. You know, was Kathy clubbing in LA showing her vayjayjay to the cameras? How many A List Bloggers are currently in rehab and on the cover of People for having anorexia? Still, there is one thing in common: you can be sure that when any celebrity is threatened, the police are right on it. And in that way, a threat is a threat no matter who you are.
Argh.

Joe, I didn’t go to the prom either (Yes, I was asked but I was covering graduation for a daily and a weekly and had to phone in my columns). Please don’t lump all us non-prom attendees together.
But I would meet you outside for some fist-a-cuffs. Probably kick your butt too.

Whoa. This is scary stuff. I do concur with Hugh’s ‘high school jock’ metaphor. Though Locke is correct in pointing out he didn’t make the threats, create the graphics, etc, I think he is…
1) overstating the notion that Kathy has painted him as a homicidal maniac/child molester, and meanwhile prattling on too much about his innocence, free speech, etc, to realize how damage he is indirectly responsible for.
2) naive in thinking that opening a blog encouraging ‘mean kids’ behavior WOULDN’T bring the unstable psychos out of the closet and into the ether. His answers about the purpose of meankids.org and unclebobism are curiously vague. What did he think would happen?

…This is beyond absurd. I don’t know where to begin in deconstructing this. First off, it’s certainly a horrible thing, and if this truly keeps Kathy away from posting, then we’ve lost one of the best persons and resources that the internet has to offer.
The threats in themselves are terrible, and I’ll leave those to the police to handle, but the veiled support of such acts by Chris Locke and anyone of prominence on the internet is mind boggling. It’s one thing to disagree with and dislike Kathy, or Scoble, or Hugh, or anyone else for what they write, and then post that. However, it goes to another level when turning such disagreement into personal attacks (and an even greater level with death threats).
Chris Locke’s explanations are the most ego centric I could imagine. It’s all about him, who is not the real victim here. He says that Kathy just committed character assassination on him, but 1) I doubt she really cared one bit about doing such a thing (she only highlighted that his own websites supported and facilitated her death threats), and 2) it’s his own actions that have allowed this event, and in turn he deserves what he gets. He tries to hide behind his RageBoy name as, “you should expect such from me,” which is not an excuse, and plays off this event as an attack on him. As I wrote already, it’s one thing to disagree and write about it, but it’s another thing to facilitate personal attacks and death threats, and then be complicit in event.
This reminds me a little of the recent Chiquita banana court ruling where the company was protecting their workers by paying off designated terrorist organizations. The DA in closing remarked that supporting terrorist organizations is not an acceptable or justifiable form of business, even if it was done to protect workers. The same is true for this event. Facilitation of illegal death threats is not an acceptable method of argument, disagreement, opinion sharing, blogging, or general free speech stances. If Chris Locke and others can’t see that, and apologize for their roles, then they deserve all the criticism and character assassination they bring on themselves.

Hugh,
I happened across your site some time ago by pure chance. I’d venture to say, I’m not *your* average reader. Despite that & the fact that I haven’t yet read the board posts you wrote about, I am all too familiar with what you wrote of.
I belong to one board, a simple board of mothers. We members are from all over the world, literally. I love discussing our similarities despite our distances & cultural differences. We are all so very much the same all over this globe.
But this wonderful thing called “the internet”, this amazing hyped-up TV & typewriter plugged in to my cable that I set in front of everyday, has a draw back. The anonymity that is needed for basic, common-sense reasons is far too easily used to do harm.
We are all humans behind our screens. Way too many people forget that (or just don’t care) and use that anonymity to do real damage to strangers & “loved ones”. I could go on about the many psychological reasons as to why but it’s harmful nonetheless. Even if readers & poters have “tough skins”, we still carry those angry words with us through out our day… even those who spew it. It’s a stain on something that could so much very good. Women & men alike from all over the world “let it all out” on the net & that’s a very sad thing to witness.
I wish your blogging friend much happiness & a better tomorrow. I truly hope that experience is not one that will truly damage her spirit & joy of speaking to many.
Take much care,
Heather

Hugh,
I have stumbled across your site completely by chance. I am not a famous journalist, writer, or really much of anything to let the truth be known. Blogging is my form of venting. Nothing more. To think that someone would make any threats of a fellow blogger, regarless of their status, is beyond me. I like to be heard, I don’t care if people disagree with my opinion, they can tell me so if they like but to make it personal? That is crossing the line.