Dangerous Ideas

Kathy Sierra, author of the Creating Passion Users blog, posted today that she’s going to stop blogging, maybe for a while, maybe forever. The reason is because some people have crossed the line from offering immature criticism to making death threats and suggesting sexual violence.

Not only is that bad enough, but this has been happening on blogs where prominent bloggers participate, and they haven’t been criticizing these comments while continuing to participate in sites like meankids. So it’s not just what’s being said, but also what’s not being said. It seems like this behavior is accepted in the blogosphere, and Kathy doesn’t want any part of that any more.

From Kathy’s (last?) blog post:

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).

[Note: This post includes disturbing language and a picture beyond anything I’d normally say here, so some of you might not want to continue reading. But I felt it was important to be specific about as much as the police investigation will allow.]