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Tuesday, March 27, 2007
One thing considered 
Getting past the bottom of What Went Wrong
| | I was on my way to guest speaking to a marketing class this last evening at our local community college when I got a call from a friend who told me about Kathy Sierra's harrowing post about why she's not going to eTech. In the class, I brought up Technorati to show how blogging works and found Kathy's name at #5 among search terms. It's #3 now. |
| | As I type this, I am supposed to be in San Diego, delivering a workshop at the ETech conference. But I'm not. I'm at home, with the doors locked, terrified. For the last four weeks, I've been getting death threat comments on this blog. But that's not what pushed me over the edge. What finally did it was some disturbing threats of violence and sex posted on two other blogs... blogs authored and/or owned by a group that includes prominent bloggers. People you've probably heard of. People like respected Cluetrain Manifesto co-author Chris Locke (aka Rageboy). |
| | It began just over four weeks ago, when something shifted. It started with death threat blog comments left here ... |
| | It gets worse, and goes beyond that. Police are mentioned. So are the four familiar bloggers known to be involved with a blog called MeanKids, which is now down. One is Frank Paynter, who explains, |
| | MeanKids was purposeful anarchy. I thought the people at MeanKids would create art and criticism, pointed and insulting satire, but not foster a climate of fear. Misogynistic postings at MeanKids.org led me to try to moderate, but indeed the group there was of the ³You Own Your Own Words² tradition, so moderating or central editorial control wouldn¹t work. I tore the site down. |
| | A core group that gathered at both these sites includes people I consider important artists, thinkers, and writers. Most of those who posted were not posting the kind of hurtful trash that made Kathy feel threatened. Some of the stuff was brilliant. Some was interesting. Some was mundane. |
| | Kathy and I have an ongoing conversation that goes back a ways. We met online under strained circumstances. I think over the past year or two we developed a mutual respect. I am sad and angry that this relationship has been destroyed. |
| | In Frank's comments, Kathy wrote, |
| | I accept your apology and it means a lot to me. Nobody else involved has said a word to me about this except Joey and he brought lies and more insults. |
| | The relationship has not been destroyed. Far from itŠ you just went up a big notch. Thank you. |
| | Just before class started and later on the way home from the class I called three people I knew to be involved with MeanKids and whose numbers are also in my phone. I didn't get to talk to anybody and only left messages. |
| | Now I'm starting to go through the mountain of blog posts on the matter. Several stand out so far. First is Don Park's Simply Awful, where he says |
| | It makes no sense to expect moderation to work in purposeful anarchy. What was he trying to accomplish? Pan the river of nastyness for nuggets of brilliance? Based on what Frank wrote above, he suggested Kathy Sierra as one of the people Mean Kids should pick on. Did Kathy ask for a gang of intellectual anarchist to pick on her? All I read form Frank's post of clarity is pointing fingers at others and admitting his inability to control an intentionally uncontrollable situation when, IMHO, he is directly responsible for letting his naivety and vain pursuit of brilliant conversations hurt others. |
| | This isn't far from the concern I had when some of the MeanKids creators approached me to participate a few weeks ago. I thought it wasn't a good idea, but didn't say anything. In fact, I don't think I visited the site after I failed to log into it before it launched. Wish I had. |
| | For what it's worth, I never heard of unclebobism, where bad stuff was also posted and which is now also down. |
| | Doc Searls was mentioned more than once in the piece and after a visit to his blog, I see no reference to the story nor that he has in any way reached out to his co-author for a statement. I too would ask that Doc give us some help in determining the nature of Chris Locke¹s involvement and what he intends as leader in this community to bring this to a close. |
| | I'm telling you right now what I know. I got back from the class at 9:15, talked to my kid and tucked him in bed after that, and arrived here at my desk at about 10:00. Now it's 11:20 and I'm reading mountains of blogs and emails as fast as I can, along with several IMs that running live as well. |
| | It will be easier for everybody if those involved disclose what they know. |
| | My last post before this one was a pointer to the new Principles of Citizen Journalism site. The first principle is Accuracy, and it begins, Getting your facts right isn't always so simple. No shit. But that's what I'm trying to do right now. I suggest the rest of us do the same. |
| | Meanwhile, I hope Kathy changes her mind and goes to eTech. In fact, I am sure going will do a world of good — for her and for blogging as well. I wasn't going this year because I need to spend more time on work and with my family. But now I'm starting to regret that decision a bit, because this eTech is one where a lot of constructive conversation can happen — because of what went wrong here. |
| | [Later...] It's 4:08 in the afternoon. I've been on calls and in meetings since dawn (many relating to the matter at hand here), and will surely more before the day is through. Meanwhile, Kathy's name has been sitting at #1 among Technorati searches, and her original post has close to 900 comments. |
| | Don Park has posted a copy of a MeanKids post about Maryam Scoble that crossed from mean to cruel and beyond even that. Scoble is right to be sickened and angry, as is Maryam. |
There are responses to this message:Re: Tuesday, March 27, 2007, Steve Patchen, 3/29/07; 2:39:55 PM Re: Tuesday, March 27, 2007, rjh, 3/28/07; 10:15:14 AM Re: Tuesday, March 27, 2007, Lloyd D Budd, 3/27/07; 6:22:25 PM Re: Tuesday, March 27, 2007, tish grier, 3/27/07; 3:35:08 PM Anarchy, Andrew Leyden, 3/27/07; 1:45:16 PM Re: Tuesday, March 27, 2007, Jonathan Peterson, 3/27/07; 1:32:09 PM Re: Tuesday, March 27, 2007, http://lurkerfan.livejournal.com/, 3/27/07; 11:11:49 AM Re: Tuesday, March 27, 2007, http://richij.com/, 3/27/07; 8:32:23 AM
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