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Comment by shawnee_ | Hacker News Reader

I’ve gotten hundreds of private messages on IRC and emails about sex, rape, and death threats.

Not sure what IRC channels she has been hanging out in, or what her spam filters are letting through, but this has not been my experience at all... in 10 years of contributing to OSS.

However, attractive female posts videos (yep, even conference talk) on the Internet, and attention ensues?

Maybe it's not an "industry" thing. Maybe it's something else.

[EDIT] -- Wow, thanks for the votes folks. The author wants to blame "the Industry" for something that is not unique to the industry.

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Wow, you just downplayed receiving death threats to "attention ensues".

If I had a nickel for every death threat I've received on the Internet I'd be rich. Death threats from Internet brigade squads are wildly different from actual death threats you need to worry about. Hence the downplaying.

I consider myself to be fairly active online and I can't recall the last time I received a death threat on the internet, if I ever received any at all.

I'm pretty sure that receiving pictures of you covered in blood goes way beyond any acceptable standard. I'd be pretty freaked out if I got something like that sent to me.

How do you tell the difference?

You don't worry about the difference because in practice you are more likely to die in an airplane crash over the course of your life than to die at the hands of an Internet death threat-giver.

I imagine that risk varies for those saying something other than the status quo. Often those people are keys to progression of society. Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, etc.

I've found that you can absolutely chalk up "online death threats" to idiots vying for attention.

Impersonal (distant) threats are not created equal to in person threats.

Edit: The harm is subjective. The whole point of such a message is it's designed entirely to shock or offend. To give the pests actual power over you is the greatest part of the problem.

Not saying it should be ignored either. Instead of being melodramatic, we should be pragmatic like we were with email spam. The next step is to create tools giving greater power to the users to pro-actively prevent such nonsense.

I feel like you're implying that the threats are harmless. They are not.

She received pictures of her covered in blood. A twisted portrayal of someone's fantasies. Receiving something like that would get to anyone.

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