Wednesday, March 28, 2007

And now the balance begins to shift...

After a bit of email correspondence with Liz Tay, the Australian journo to whom I made reference yesterday, the following report on this hitherto completely one sided avalanche of journalistic spew was published at CIO.com

http://www.cio.com.au/index.php/id;991886266;pp;1

BEHOLD!!

The words 'death threat' appear in inverted commas!

The term 'blogger spat' is used for the first time!

It took an Australian journalist to dig for the information on this story to find out a few facts rather than just lap up the oatmeal delivered by Kathy Sierra which is nothing but a distortion of the truth, bordering on libel against an author and fellow blogger who does his research more thoroughly and assiduously than Kathy Sierra could ever be bothered to do.

Liz Tay has shown up every other journalist who has covered this hype for the lazy craven plagiarists they are. They read Sierra's blog, they got the contents of the email Chris Locke sent to Liz Tay in response to her request for comments and that's the extent of their "research".

I looked through half a dozen reports of theirs and scarcely found any difference between them. They all appeared to have ripped off the report which appeared on the BBC's technology news yesterday.

Ms Sierra described on her blog how she had been subject to a campaign of threats, including a post that featured a picture of her next to a noose.

The police are investigating while the blogosphere has launched its own enquiry.
Speaking of anonymous, there isn't a by-line on that report. I take particular exception to this because they've reported one fact: Sierra described on her blog how she had been subject to a campaign of threats... then followed it up with what has not been verified as fact at all - namely that the police are investigating.

I happen to have it on good authority from two rather reliable sources that the police are not, in fact, investigating. The truth will come out.

From the same report at the BBC...

Ms Sierra, author of popular blog Creating Passionate Users, began receiving death threats four weeks ago.

Since going public on the issue, she has been overwhelmed by the support she has received.

"I agonised about making this post but I hoped it would start a dialogue," she told the BBC News website.

Began receiving death threats four weeks ago? Not from meankids she didn't and not from unclebobism either. I know, I was there.

On the other hand, have a look at some of the things Ms Sierra has been saying over the last few weeks...

— “Our apps. have Asperger’s,” Sierra said. Asperger’s is a disorder on the autism spectrum. “Aspies” are often intelligent but rigid and have trouble with emotional interactions.

Link
Class, Kathy. All class. But somehow oddly ironic too. I wonder how tempted you were to say "Niggers" are often intelligent but have trouble understanding the white person's ways.

(And just for the record, my top three hates are child abusers, bigots and bullshit artists in that order.)

While blogging feuds are common, she believes the campaign against her is more likely to be because she is a woman in the male-dominated technology world.

And we have a winner! This comment which has probably done more damage to all women than anything that appeared in either meankids or unclebobism has been played to death by just about every hack who's picked it up. Where the BBC gave the feminist angle slightly more than a third of the whole report - the journalist who did the research quoted two sources and focused on the main issue, which was the only fact available - barely even gave the feminist angle any credence at all - and rightly so. And Liz Tay might actually be *gasp* a woman!

More than that, Liz Tay's views on (particularly) the I.T. workplace aren't what could accurately be described as being in sync with the ideals Chris Locke put forth when co-writing the Cluetrain Manifesto.

No, Kathy, this isn't any sort of anti-female thing at all. Moreover, if anyone reading this is familiar with the writings of Chris Locke, it is patently obvious that women aren't the focus of his latest efforts, it's loudmouthing halfwits throughout history who spout complete nonsense and pass it off as something akin to gospel - including misogynists. Guess who didn't bother to do any research. I'm tempted to put up the C.V.s of both just to show up Kathy Sierra for the parvenu she really is, but it's late, I'm tired and I still have more to do before a long day tomorrow.

Perhaps it was being outed as a feminazi that pissed her right off. Again, props to Joey for the stirling effort of wading through Sierra's interminable swill to get to the bottom of what's really on Sierra's mind.

Sorry about the quality of that link, but it's the best I can do under the circumstances.

Now, perhaps Joey was being a tad scathing of Sierra - reading one page of her blog will do that to a person with more smarts than a garden snail - but you can see the context, if not the picture, of the comment about the noose...

The only thing Kathy has to offer me is that noose in her own neck size
For those too lazy to make clickage, here it is in full context...

Do any of you twits hang out in chat rooms (non-twitter;) anyplace? I need to kick back and talk to actually (sic) enjoyable people instead of the twerps I was with today. Don’t ask: basically, it ended up that they wanted …. M O N E Y trying to sell, you guessed it: H A P P I N E S S.

Why didn’t they get it the first time when I said “retired”? That usually is followed by “fixed income”.

…And then my baggy pants fell down at the meat market.

The only thing Kathy has to offer me is that noose in her own neck size


It was a reference to Sierra's harping and carping blog entry of of week 11 of 2007. Read the whole thing here if you're brave or stupid.

Threat? I don't think so.

Taken out of context by Kathy and turned into a massive lie? Absolutely.

I'm not sure yet if I find the BBC's latest output amusing or just plain tragic. It's an abject lesson in making something out of nothing. Again, there is no by-line.

I don't hide behind anonymity and since I started doing this sort of thing in 2001, I have never hidden behind anonymity. If I'm going to call someone a cunt, they're going to know it's me that's doing it.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, one C-list "internet celebrity" is in a tiff with another one. Kathy Sierra seems to be on the rise, if one can describe the insignificant world of blogging/tech evangelism/whatever you want to call it in such terms, and Christopher Locke had his moment in the sun eight years ago during the dotcom irrational exuberance. Now, people are lining up on both sides not based on the evidence, but rather which person they like more. Same old same old in the posting world.

Locke owned that website. Locke posted some nasty comments under his own name. The site wasn't populated by many people. The deduction that Sierra makes regarding the origin of the death threats is certainly plausible, and apparently Locke's hosting company agrees since they took the site down.

And you scream "liar" while not offering anything in the way of contrary proof save pointing to Locke's denial. Pffft. It's not the principle but the players that count in this little world.

ChatRat said...

You sound so much like one of those liars I dealt with weeks ago.

Your first lie is that the company took the site down. The company didn't. Chris took it down himself. If you don't have the facts, which I've made available, don't guess at them because now you look more foolish than you did before.

The deduction about the origin of the alleged death threat (singular) is another misshit on your part. The email which mentioned slitting her throat was just that - it says so on her blog - and nobody who contributed to either Meankids or Unclebobism knows who sent it. It didn't appear on the site.

I am screaming liar because that's what she is. I'm also calling you a liar because that's what you are. Moreover, the proof to which I've pointed here isn't that of Chris Locke, it's by the contributor "Joey" - but like Sierra herself, you didn't bother to check the evidence, you just prefer to do what she did and go for the good ol' character assassination.

And you did it anonymously. What a coward.

At least when I accused Sierra on her blog of being a liar, I put my name on it.

Again, you are liar and a coward.

Anonymous said...

Your first lie is that Chris took down the site, as demonstrated by the fact the link http://unclebobism.wordpress.com returns a message:

This blog has been archived or suspended for a violation of our Terms of Service.

Your second lie is that all this revolves around an e-mail is likewise easily demonstrable via the screenshots that Sierra provides: http://headrush.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/03/26/unclebobpicture.jpg

Anonymous said...

I agree that the feminist spin does more harm than good. Would we be hearing anything of this bullshit at all were it not for the fact that it's a 'Kathy' instead of a "Ken'?

there's no such thing as bad publicity, quite obviously.

And why am i not surprised to see this twisted into yet another opportunity to attack Paul. You must bore yourself into a stupor, MORON!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Rat, for helping set the record straight.

I apologize to people with Aspergers on Kathy's behalf.

ChatRat said...

To the coward who posts anonymously and still has no grasp of the truth, let me ask you this:

Were you involved in either site at all? Were you party to the correspondence of the site's owner? Whose word do you think is worth more - the one who owns the site and has the credentials or an anonymous coward without even the integrity to take possession of the spew thus spouted?

No brainer isn't it.

As for your other piece of crap, ask yourself how Sierra would have obtained an IP addy from a post on unclebobism. If you come up with an answer - any answer at all - do please come back and share it with us. I for one would love to know.

To other anonymous poster whose reply I've removed, start your own blog and see how long it lasts.

I care wot the fuck your name is, I'm not averse to criticism when it's valid. When it's bullshit, innuendo and distortion, I get interested. I am yet to fully appreciate the wisdom of ignoring the negativity. That much should be pretty obvious to just about anyone.

And Joey, thanks bro. The next one I put out will have a damn sight more research into the lies of Ms Kathy Sierra. Interestingly enough, the link to the article by Liz Tay which included writings by Sierra from a few weeks ago contained words used by that mad screaming trout which, when I dug out my copy of Cluetrain, were uncannily similar - though incredibly less well written. I may even look at the plagiarism angle.

It'll be an interesting couple of days if I can stomach reading the reams of puerile twaddle that woman produces.