Popular Blogger Receives Death Threats

It is a sad fact for anyone that participates in the online world that at some point they will be the victims of abusive comments. People can say terrible things online without the fear of consequences. They hide behind their on screen personas, saying things that would probably never say to someone's face.

However, a recent incident where a well-known blogger received death threats has gone much to far and created quite a stir. The blog death threats have ignited the blosphere with discussions on what to do and how to implement some kind of blog code of conduct.

The blog death threats began occurring about one month ago to popular blogger, Kathy Sierra, on her blog, 'Passionate Users' and a couple of other blogs. The threats were abusive and used violent and sexual language. Probably one of the scariest threats was a post that showed a picture of Sierra placed next to a noose.

The threats were reported to the police who are now investigating the incidents. However, the blog death threats have caused those in the blogsphere to take their own look at the incidents. Kathy Sierra herself has asked the blogsphere to tackle "the culture of abuse online."

When Sierra posted about her threats she received an overwhelming amount of support. When she spoke with the BBC, she said, "I agonised about making this post but I hoped it would start a dialogue." "I never thought it would become so big or be this positive."

Though Sierra is not sure why she received all of this hate on her blog, she suspects it may have to do with her prominent situation as woman in technology centred, male run environment. One feature of the threatening blog posts that was very disturbing to Sierra is that a number of them came from blogs owned or hosted by groups that included very well known bloggers.

As a show of support many bloggers has temporarily stopped their blogs. Others have shown their support by actively discussing how to bring some kind of blogger code of conduct into effect.

The series of blog death threats has forced Sierra into a state of fear causing her to change her life and stay at home. She said on her blog, "I have cancelled all speaking engagements. I am afraid to leave my yard. I will never feel the same. I will never be the same." Sierra is even thinking about ending her blogging career, as she does not want to be part of the abusive blog culture.

Sierra also apologised in her post to the people hoping to hear her speak at the Etech Conference in San Diego after cancelled her appearance. However, she asked them to enter the discussions to help stop online abuse.

One popular male technology blogger has stepped up to support Sierra and the campaign to stop online abuse. This blogger is Robert Scoble. He runs a technology blog called, 'Scobleizer'. In his support, Scoble said, "It's this culture of attacking women that has especially got to stop. I really don't care if you attack me. I take those attacks in my stride. But, whenever I post a video of a female technologist there invariably are snide remarks about body parts and other things that simply wouldn't happen if the interviewee were a man." Scoble has also now shown his support for the campaign be preventing anonymous visitors to post on his blog and refraining from making any posts himself.

You can see Sierra's post on her blog as well as some of the abuse she received. Please be warned that the post contains offensive, violent and sexual language. http://headrush.typepad.com/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6499095.stm
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130172-c,currentevents/article.html
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=networking_and_internet&articleId=9014647&taxonomyId=16
http://headrush.typepad.com/