This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Ruby Buzz
by Obie Fernandez.
Original Post: Attack of the Blogger Terrorists
Feed Title: Obie On Rails (Has It Been 9 Years Already?)
Feed URL: http://jroller.com/obie/feed/entries/rss
Feed Description: Obie Fernandez talks about life as a technologist, mostly as ramblings about software development and consulting. Nowadays it's pretty much all about Ruby and Ruby on Rails.
By now I'm sure most of you reading this have heard about the horrible anguish star-blogger Kathy Sierra is suffering thanks to some really twisted bloggers. Am I the only one that has mixed feelings about how she's handling it? If her cyber-assailants are the Internet's equivalent of real-world terrorists, isn't she letting them win by cancelling her ETech presentation and withdrawing from the blogsphere? (This topic actually ruined my night and royally pissed me off last night because I had an argument with Desi about it.) Before you jump to conclusions, let me tell you that I know there's nothing virtual about the fear she's feeling...
My involvement with Ruby and Rails is not my first flirtation with celebrity. Back in 1998 I was the high-profile maintainer of a popular web bulletin board for Jehovah's Witnesses called witnesses.net. It had tens of thousands of unique visitors and hundreds of thousands of pageviews per month. I was subjected to visceral hatred from both extremes of that community. The hardcore conservative JW's came after me for being too liberal and allowing discussions that would be strictly forbidden among church members offline. I'm talking about doctrinal arguments, sex, politics, etc. On the other extreme were outspoken apostates, reform-minded JWs and everyday troublemakers who attacked me simply for identifying myself with the JW religion or for the minimal censorship necessarily imposed on the site.
There was one particular incident which altered my life permanently. One of those ex-JW critics violated my closely-guarded real identity and privacy by posting my home address and phone number on a popular ex-JW bulletin board called Hourglass2Outpost. It was one of the most nerve-racking experiences of my life, not to mention the anguish and weeks of angry arguments that it provoked between my wife and I. Partially as a result of the fear that some crazy person would hurt us, we very soon thereafter left New Jersey (where I had grown up) and moved to Atlanta, GA. By regaining our privacy, I was able to sleep at night again.
I guess my point in telling this story is that I know that at least some people out there are saying "WTF! Why is she so scared?" I can understand that point of view a little bit, but sympathy is also in order. The fear is very, very real.
Kathy, if you happen to read this, my heart really goes out to you. I hope you overcome your fear quickly and keep up the good work that has made us all admire you so much. Don't let those bastards win. And if you need bodyguards to make you feel comfortable at conferences, I'm sure a thousand of us out here would gladly volunteer to kick some ass on your behalf.
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