Someone idly trolled her; she took the bait hook, line, and sinker.
Her reaction attracted more trolling, kicked off distressful public discussions of the value of her work, adding fuel for further reaction.
Death threats. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6499095.stm
The whole situation was weird. Though she specifically was targeted, it seemed like the site the threats came out of was a group of generally angry, lame folks who lashed out in all directions constantly. I could barely understand it at the time (though I of course would have freaked out in her shoes, as the language was so specific and graphic.)
"While blogging feuds are common, she believes the campaign against her is more likely to be because she is a woman in the male-dominated technology world."
Doesn't this seem eerily similar to the way Steve Yegge suddenly stopped blogging/removed his public presence? And then _why (whytheluckystiff) also pulled down all his online presences. It makes me wonder if some group of kids is systematically threatening lots of top bloggers.
There's "some group of kids" that acts like assholes in general, of course--"Anonymous". Not to blame them in particular, but it's not exactly difficult to get a vaguely-defined, poorly organized group of bored kids on the internet to hate you if you have any kind of notoriety.