As a former dog owner, I found the dog example in this article especially evocative, because I've seen what an effort it can be for dogs to sit still when they're told.
(Minor aside: the extraordinary overuse of emphasis made this article much harder to read.)
Weev has some curious quotes in this article
“I want everyone off the Internet. Bloggers are filth. They need to be destroyed. Blogging gives the illusion of participation to a bunch of retards. . . . We need to put these people in the oven!”
“The question we have to answer is: How do we kill four of the world’s six billion people in the most just way possible?”That said, the reasons for him being in prison are more disturbing than shit he's done over the years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weev#AT.26T_data_breach
So why is his reasons for incarceration more disturbing than the stuff he has done over the years? What I see is an intelligent guy, who could really do a lot of good if he could actually be civilly disobedient. But instead he chooses to go the antisocial way with some "moral highground". He played with fire, and he got burned. There are better, more respectful ways to be an activist and be an agent for change that would produce far more fruitful results.
Weev is not one of the good guys. He acted deliberately, and that makes all the difference.
http://onebyonemedia.com/the-sierra-saga-part-3-who-are-the-...
Glad she's back. Hope she continues. Very thoughtful and excellent article.
My initial reaction, I confess, was feeling that the submitter was attempting to discredit the author -- or otherwise, to separate the world of UX research -- by calling attention to her identity as a woman.
I still am not sure I believe that Kathy's name should be present -- I think it has the potential to do more harm than it is of use to readers -- but I now understand why it's there. Thanks for posting this explanation.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4837815/curtis-woo...
It inhumane to punish even animals for ridiculous illogical stuff, like, say, accessing a public website. Here I'm talking about AT&Ts security epic fail where they had to blame someone for their mistake...
Regarding the harassment stories and Kathy Sierra, I think they took their trolling too far. I don't think they made specific direct threats on her life, but rather said things like "I wish XYZ happened to Kathy" and photoshopped up some tasteless images. I might be a bit hazy on it, since it was quite awhile ago.
I was a fan of Kathy's blogging, so I was bummed when she took her ball and went home. I still don't think they should have thrown the trolls in jail, unless they were making specific death threats towards her.
I remember seeing these images personally, but it's been a long time and I wasn't able to locate them again. Likelihood that any of these people would actually buy a plane ticket and pay her a visit? Pretty low. But is that a risk you really want to take, when you know they have your home address?
There's no need for "on the internet" to be different than any other part of life.
Simply walk to your local newspaper office and give a journalist the same treatment and see what happens next.
Or give a librarian at a public library a hard time exactly the same way.
Or just some random woman on the street.
We have extensive case law for "disturbing the peace" and all that kind of stuff.
This is not all that unusual. You can read about this kind of behavior and its consequences in your local police blotter, probably available online for free.
Now we all hope that you never get anywhere near public office or the legal system.
Since arbitrary incarceration for being unpopular is just about the furthest thing from civilized I can think of, never mind calling them "animals", would you go to jail for making this statement or would that only happen if you actually implemented it?
LOL "unpopular". A short yet semi-accurate explanation of why civilized societies have a criminal justice system, is they've defined certain activities as uncivilized aka "unpopular" and want to suppress those activities. So, yeah, anyone not living in Somalia either agrees with, or consents to the idea of, people who do unpopular things should be punished. Its impossible to describe his behavior as civilized by any rational standard like "do onto others as you have them do onto you" or... well any standard I can think of. Even fairly savage backwards civilizations, like if she were a slave woman owned property of someone else, he would still at least be committing a property crime. Generally speaking you're probably doin' it wrong if appeal to an obsolete brutish standard is the best defense strategy...
Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting capital punishment or lock him up and throw away the key. He deserves about the same punishment for writing what he did, as a drunken moron who runs thru a public park screaming the same phrases would get... probably a night in the slammer to cool off and a municipal citation, although if he persists, like he did, involuntary mental commitment for evaluation/treatment seems the best outcome for all involved.
The ridiculous BS with AT+T is an injustice. Just because it happened to a guy who acted like a jerk and got away with it, doesn't mean the AT+T thing is OK or even remotely appropriate.
TIL that death and/or dismemberment is an appropriate punishment for trolling.
As someone who followed her previous blog 'Creating Passionate Users', I'm really glad she's back writing publicly - not so much for this particular post (which wasn't anything novel), but more that it means her scars have healed enough. Hope to see more posts from her soon!