Kathy, Please Don’t Quit!
by Randall McCarley
March 27th, 2007
Like a horror movie, Kathy Sierra’s life has been turned upside-down by online death threats. You can get the particulars on her post Death threats against bloggers are NOT “protected speech” but the reality is this wonderful person has done a lot of good things for thousands of people she has never met and now she is scared for her life.
From anonymous posts on popular blogs to grotesque Photoshop images of her in life-threatening situations, this is harassment to a dangerous degree.
And something the police are taking seriously.
I think Kathy sums things up well here:
Most of all, I now fully understand the impact of death threats. It really doesn’t make much difference whether the person intends to act on the threat… it’s the threat itself that inflicts the damage. It’s the threat that makes you question whether that “anonymous” person is as disturbed as their comments and pictures suggest.
It’s the threat that causes fear.
My experience with Kathy is through her blog, Creating Passionate Users. It has inspired some of the posts here and helped shape my business. I am not interested in created “just another” company. I want to be the best with the most loyal, foaming-at-the-mouth, fanatical clients I can get. Creating Passionate Users helps me do just that.
This post is to hopefully comfort Kathy in some small way. To say thanks. And to say I hope things turn around so you can live a normal life again. And I hope you come back to blogging soon.
Of course there are lessons in this for everyone. But I really hope I don’t need to spell them out.
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