It's harsh criticism, make no doubt, but that's all it is.
Lately, I've been getting comments on SFDB, usually late at night, that are just generally vulgar in nature. They address my writing at the old blog, my sexual orientation and, lately, even my girlfriend. As a result, I've had to resort to periodic comment moderation in order to enforce my comments policy.
But this morning I got this comment from someone who calls himself "Berocos Menocál" [go ahead and Google it and see where this guy hangs his hat] that surprised even me.
Rick you f*cking [Ed.] looser, don't be surprised when you get a knock at your door at three in the morning any day now, your days of provoking while hiding behind your now no longer existent anonymity are over, we have discovered your identity[...] Your ass is ours now monkey boy.I've edited the comment for its vulgarity and I removed some additional allegations about my work.
Let me make sure that I am very clear here: I have no idea who is behind this email. I have my thoughts on the matter given the verbiage "Menocál" uses and the very salient fact that this fits perfectly with the modus operandi of certain persons that I have criticized in the past. But the bottom line is that "Menocál" remains, ironically enough, anonymous.
As I've said, these comments come late at night or in the early morning hours when SFDB traffic is extremely light and my stats tracker can easily sort out the originating IP of those who make comments at that hour. Needless to say, this threat is being taken very seriously by me and IP's are being recorded and noted.
In the world of blogging, you can't be thin-skinned. If you dish it out, you have to be able to take it, too. However, I believe a line is crossed when bloggers are threatened and stalked in order to dissuade them from being critical or sharing their opinions. It's bullying at its worst.
And there may be some who even consider it criminal.
.
9 comments:
Everyone is getting threats in the month of June. Rick, ya' got to take it seriously. Even though it's probably just a punk who's trying to intimidate you, it's still a federal crime. I would honestly make an example out of whoever this person is and contact the authorities.
A threat is a threat, no matter how informal or how unfounded.
Yikes, sounds like someone needs to learn yoga (?)
... or read something else, more conducive to their opinions.
=:-O
just a thought.
And yet another reason to use Wordpress, which doesn't require you to "sort out" which comments go to which IP address.
As a guy who's gotten his fair share of threats on his blog, I can say that most people who do this use proxies to cover up their IP tracks.
But some were stupid enough to post from the Miami PD station.
Despite the "monkey boy" reference, it wasn't me. I guess now that Bush is gone my favorite term of endearment for him is in the public domain.
If the courageous geniuses know who you are and where you live, why are they announcing their intentions instead of just acting on them? But you knew that already.
This should be the best post of the month hands down. Serious issues, agree with you on your assessment.
Report it to the cops. From that Google search he's posting all over the web, I'm sure he's trackable.
Man, its a good thing these guys have never tried to play a round of golf with you, Rick. That would really send them over the edge!
;)
I totally deserve that BM.
.
When I first started my Holy Crap blog, I thought it would be best to do so anonymously using TOR and the EFF's guide. The internal debate raged for a while, and I did most of the things. But the style of blog, or even journal really, was just too personal to do it anonymously. Plus the tweetups killed it.
This may be out of line but have you thought of a concealed weapons license?
Post a Comment
Spam, vulgar language, trolling and off-topic comments are not tolerated at SFDB and your comment will be removed if it meets this criteria.