I read both Sierra's farewell letter, the Computerworld article and RageBoy's response. I don't see where RageBoy said that Sierra was making this stuff up, he said that he PERSONALLY did not make the threatening post or photoshopped picture of Sierra, but he never said that those threats and picture weren't posted on his sites. If you read some of those posts and saw that picture, there was nothing remotely funny about them. Those were explicit threats of violence. If those along with other more personal threats were being made, I would not fault Sierra for going to police, which is what she did. As far as if there was the intent to take action based on those threats, only the person that made them knows that. But that's the problem with anonymous threats. So should a person ignore them or not? I think it really depends, obviously in this case it wasn't one anonymous person making threats at another unknown person, but it was one person hiding in behind anonymity to make threats to a person they knew the name, face and whereabouts of. If someone here on Salon said "fuck off you boring slut... i hope someone slits your throat and cums down your gob" (exact quote of what was said about Sierra) I really wouldn't care. But if that threat was addressed to me personally and I was a known person in small community...yeah I'd be freaked out. If someone photoshopped my head into that picture Sierra shows on her page and that was posted into a forum where my name and location are well known, along with the other threats that were posted and send to me, I'd take action. At that point you are no longer just another person on the Internet, but you are Suzy Smith at 101 Elm St with an unknown person threatening your life and that person knows exactly what you look like. (Yes, celebs get threats all the time and people know what they look like but they have security!) With that information, I think a person could reasonably feel that they are in danger and that contacting the police is the correct step to take. What is the difference now between what happened online to someone calling my home phone to make death threats or stuffing magazine letter cutout death threats under my door? Of course the person that posts online could be across the world and there really isn't any likelihood of that threat being acted on, but they could also be across the street. So what does someone who is threatened online do?

As far as the RageBoy vs Sierra feud, I don't see anywhere where she accuses him of personally posting the threats/pictures. However he does admit himself that they were hosted on his site. And I think it's splitting hairs of him to say that he's not involved since he didn't actually post those items. He admits that he was aware of it and blows it off as "bad taste". A post detailing how how you want to repeatedly beat someone (in very graphic terms) goes quite beyond BAD TASTE. And even after the first instance of the threats on his first site, he agreed to take that site down (how nice!) and start another one where the same thing occurred. He can deny all he wants that he personally didn't type out those threats, but abdicating all responsibility here is ridiculous.

I'm sick of seeing my coworkers five days a week for 8+ hours a day. Can't I go shoe shopping with my *friends* on my day off?

Seriously, if the corporation is sponsoring a team building exercise or client conference, then it needs to be inclusionary. I don't see any value in having a team building event if only part of the team is allowed or interested in going. Of course most team building events are total crap, but it does help your career to learn how to fake it.

If this is a non-corporate sponsored even, like a professional networking group, then there is value in women in industries where they are underrepresented getting together. It does help to talk to people facing some of the same issues that you are. Also having a mentor and contacts in your field is always a good thing. I'd see the value of having a "Men in Nursing" networking group since they are so underrepresented in the field. I'd also say it would be pointless to have a "Women in Kindergarten Education" group.