Kudos to Kathy Sierra

Joshua, I think you hit it correctly when you said, “Posting an anonymous comment is the same as yelling at someone across the street. The only difference is that its recorded for others to see.” We call this behavior being a bully, where power is had from causing other people problems from a safe distance. I am glad to see these comments rumbling around the blogoshere in support of the fundamental freedom of speech and expression that allows us to blog at all.

In my own haste to comment, I neglected to add my own website. A strange irony when speaking about freedom of expression.

In my opinion, Apple TV should support for more video formats (for which we do not need any helps from

video converter) and include personal video recording functions also.

http://www.apple-tv-converter.com

This all makes ya think twice about what you say and how you put yourself out there.

Like, do I really wanna make my Twitter feed public? Do I want everyone to see my personal Flickr photos?

Do you think this will cause members of the blogosphere to be a little more restrained with putting themselves out there?

Joshua - Good point about posting an anonymous comment being the same as “yelling at someone across the street.” I was reading the very same thing in the newspaper, a column encouraging everyone to understand that the internet is reality and not fantasy. You can’t hide behind the belief that, “Oh, I can say it, because it’s only online.”

This is a terribly unnerving situation for Kathy to be in.

Justin, I don’t feel any more cautious than I did before. I am one of those that may not be as cautious as others think we should be, but that’s just my take on things. Kathy Sierra certainly didn’t do anything to deserve the treatment she got. A sad individual could take the image on your website and have you staring at anything in your hands - certainly not a camera. I guess it’s all part of the choices we make on our use of the internet, how much we feel we can present, and how we would be affected if what we presented was abused.

I too have received death threats and been the victim of cyberstalking for a long time now. A nutcase who calls himself “Uncle Normie” or often “E. Normis Debtor” has “stolen” my domain name, http://www.creditwrench-thetruth.com which is a blog and used it as http://creditwrench-thetruth.com in an effort to defame and besmirch. I was the subject of death threats on a forum called pcmholdings.com which was later taken down. I was also accused of beastiality and homoerotic acts on that same forum.

Now this clown has started a series of attacks on another person.

http://www.creditwrench.com
http://www.creditwrench-thetruth.com

This is really bad, and yes, kudos to Kathy.

Those who made the threats are certainly not anonymous. Their IP’s would have been logged and they must be tracked down and brought to justice. This is not acceptable!

My own response to this is actually quite simple: I’m wondering if there is any reason at all for real anonymity to exist anymore. It’s not useful.

@Michael — David Brin’s “The Transparent Society” is all about how anonymity is going to disappear, and the world can be better because of it. It’s a fascinating read.

Anyway — I agree, kudos to Kathy. I just wish I was seeing more people go after the perpetrators.

I won’t blog for some of the reasons Kathy mentioned. I’ve worked for a variety of urban music artists and have managed their forums or blogs, threats are commonplace. When you get to the point that people start getting personal, it can be worrisome. So it comes with the territory, but its unnerving when someone’s hiding behind a mask of anonymity, taking shots at someone from a public computer. I’m not sure what direction we’re going in with the change in anonymity, though, IMDB is already leaning on people to provide their credit card number as verification of their identity.

I like that it is so well watched them.

Good So Good really ia m happy to be here
http://www.aflmnat.com

i also had the bad issues when trying to start up an online goth community website … American Goth, Inc. … it was supposed to be a bit of parody, a fun spot to post … i used a phpBB and had some cool users up adding appropriate content … but then came the porn [ no pun intended ] … lots of links that i thought at first were not going to real content … seemed too absurd … mentions of lindsay lohan doing this or another famous actress doing that … i would delete some and move on, and i would expect some bit of erotica commentary to creep up from time to time, but not full-out porno … it got to the point where i could not devote my time to deleting these naughty links … i also have spam to contend with, no? and then, this just tops it all … such passive-aggressive juvenile and criminal behaviour must be stopped somehow … is there something being done? how is Kathy fighting back? i would like to learn more

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