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• Wednesday, March 28, 2007 12:33 PM

  Ditto

  Seriously...is this the worst example of misogyny that you guys could find to write about? Look, no one's condoning these types of threats. But yes, everyone on the internet is subject to 'abuse' that would be criminal and threatening IF it had been in real life. Trying to eradicate that would be like trying to eradicate mean people.

  Seriously, anyone who takes anonymous blog threats seriously enough to miss a conference and lock themselves in their home is extremely out of touch with reality, to say the least. And do you really think these are 'threats' in the real sense, as in, made with actual intent? If you can't tell the difference between someone saying "I know you live at 123 Main St and I'll be waiting for you" and someone saying "I'm gonna rape you, you *#$% &*@#"," then the mere mention of rape must completely rob you of your critical faculties. The point is that the goal of internet trolls is to say the most hurtful or disconcerting thing possible. If attacking a guy, they'll call him gay; if attacking a woman, they'll hurl sexist insults or rape 'threats'. Neither deserves to be taken seriously - both are just losers venting from their mother's basement.

  Also, I'm extremely skeptical of 1) her claim that she has absolutely no idea what prompted the attacks, and 2) the idea that a technologist would get attacks on her personal blog simply for being a woman.

  —Alex
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