I've heard the radio interview which can be found at
http://a.abclocal.go.com/three/kgo/032907_cyber_talk.mp3
and I wasn't really impressed. To be honest, I wasn't even very convinced. But I'll put that down to my having become instantly biased against Kathy Sierra.
For starters, she acknowledged in the interview that the police have told her there really isn't anything they can do - which confirms what I said would turn out to be the case a couple of days ago, though civil action is still a possibility, but I'd advise against that - she's made one huge mistake, she doesn't need to compound it with another.
She has also acknowledged that the threats she has been receiving have been sent following her speaking engagements, which puts meankids and unclebobism right out of the frame as instigators of those threats.
The people who sent her those threats and disclosed her private details probably did troll both meankids and unclebob and the head lemur, it seems, has been hacked right up and down, so genuine haterz of Kathy Sierra would thereby have had posting ability on both sites.
Contrary to what one anonymous coward has said in reply on this blog, it is almost universally acknowledged that Frank Paynter took down meankids before the shit hit the fan properly and Chris Locke took down unclebobism before wordpress 404'd the domain.
Anyway, I've seen the message which basically splatters Kathy's life for the last 7 years culminating in her address, phone number and social security number and sad to say, that message is in the wild now and I've seen 9 pages of google returns with that same message. It's right out there and I'm not linking to it or repeating any part of it for others to google it.
I was emailed links to two websites which have the message and found more after googling bits of it.
The person who emailed those links to me knows what I think about it.
I daresay Kathy herself has seen that message and she knows whether the information contained within it is true or not. If it is, I really don't know where she can go from here. If it isn't true - and I have no way to find out one way or another - then I would be inclined to try to find the person or people who created it and posted it.
Kathy says she doesn't understand why people would be so upset with her...
I find that hard to believe, especially since it's been spelled out for her. People don't like her books. They don't like the condescending, childish and amateurish way she presents her expertise which is itself somewhat questionable. It's a shame that she didn't stick to what she knows best and refrain from the sort of hucksterism which rankles with netizens.
She might be a perfectly acceptable java programmer and might also be a terrific teacher of java programming and even web design. But she's not the Martha Stewart of the tech blog scene no matter how many sycophants give her to believe otherwise. She got found out, she didn't get the hints, pick up on the social clues or adjust her conduct accordingly.
She says she may start blogging again under an assumed name. It won't work. She should start blogging again just as she did before, acknowledge where she went wrong, just like Tara Hunt has done, apologise to those she unfairly besmirched and get on with what she does best, just blog that and give up on the guru image because she's not the one who should be conferring status on herself, that's for her readers to do.
If she starts blogging under an assumed name, those trolls who found out those details the first time will find them out again and out her. A pattern will be set and it really will be the end of her blogging career.
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3 comments:
Blogher, bless its soul, is not a tech blog. Trying to set a site policy similar to theirs, however reasonable, is not the point. There is an ethos among techy type blogs that you're not to delete criticism. You're some kind of wuss to do so goes the unwrit rule. Break it and you lose hack cred. You're supposed to let it all hang, warts et al.
Kathy wants to change that ethos, to have tacit permission to wipe out negative commentary, wherever it may live (specially if it's about her). That's what this is really about. Too bad this Gang of Four got it in the teeth here via death threat allegations. The damage is done.
Dude, you're posting this gripe on the wrong blog.
ChatRat has deleted criticisms on this blog, citing they were annonymous and therefore invalid.
ChatRat has also threatened to expose addresses and phone numbers of people if they did not delete their criticisms of him on their website.
This isn't a blog, it's a hypocrite's handbook.
memer, I agree with you entirely. Blogher isn't my cup of tea, I have to admit. Although there are some worthwhile people who post good stuff there from time to time. (I just don't generally go and check it out unless I get a heads up from someone.)
As for keeping critical comments, I don't mind keeping them as long as the poster can cop the flak for getting a comment astoundingly wrong like the above commenter has.
Twice.
This turd knows if someone poses a threat to the younger people I know on the net, I tend to go right off. Actually, so do the younger people who see it.
My opinions of Kathy pretty much give her carte blanche to do whatever the hell she likes on her blog. She has less credibility with me than Dubya has with Osama bin Liner.
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