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How I Deal with Harassment, Abuse, and Crazies in General

jeff-vogel.blogspot.com

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Re: How I Deal with Harassment, Abuse, and Crazies in General

#31

Post by bpchaps »

jholman wrote: post #21
technopath wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Decent treatment: https://www.quora.com/Is-crazy-a-slur Personally, crazy the noun is worse than crazy the adjective.

Utterly unpersuasive. The reasoning in that Quora response means that "harasser" and "wrong" are also slurs, because the Quora response equates denigration with "slur territory". As an ongoing fact in my life, I've noticed that (a) I use words like "crazy" in broad and insulting ways, and that (b) some people seem to complain about it. And I'm open to being persuaded that I ought to change my ways. But I haven't yet…

Sorry for the double post, I just wanted to comment on your last point.

Holy shit. Just because someone has a mental health issue doesn't mean they're violent. Everyone I know who has mental health issues are the friendliest people I know. This is the exact sort of attitude that makes issues with HR incredibly difficult. And trust me, it is unbearably difficult. I can't explain how many times and how frustrating it is to explain this to so many people. We're mostly sincerely good people, albeit, 'off'. Sorry for my brain, yo.

Re: How I Deal with Harassment, Abuse, and Crazies in General

#33

Post by grey413 »

mirimir wrote: post #15

There's a simple solution: Don't use real names online. That eliminates meatspace threats, if done properly. And then compartmentalize. For risky stuff, create new personas. In worst case, just burn them down.

That's not how public figures work. Influential public figures are influential largely because they are credible. Credibility requires history. Anonymity precludes history.

Take Jeff for example. Jeff has a history. Jeff is a credible game developer with an impressive development history. He's a known factor in the creative community. He's got credibility out the wazoo. As such, we give his words extra weight because of that. In an alternate universe where this article was written by internet-man-of-mystery Bleff Blogel, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion, because he would have no history to back up his points. It just wouldn't have the same impact.

Re: How I Deal with Harassment, Abuse, and Crazies in General

#34

Post by trhway »

jholman wrote: post #21
technopath wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Decent treatment: https://www.quora.com/Is-crazy-a-slur Personally, crazy the noun is worse than crazy the adjective.

Utterly unpersuasive. The reasoning in that Quora response means that "harasser" and "wrong" are also slurs, because the Quora response equates denigration with "slur territory". As an ongoing fact in my life, I've noticed that (a) I use words like "crazy" in broad and insulting ways, and that (b) some people seem to complain about it. And I'm open to being persuaded that I ought to change my ways. But I haven't yet…

> I assume that it's true that such people are more likely to be the target than the perpetrator, but I don't care. I care about whether they're more likely to endanger me ...

nice, man. The combination of your egoism and [lack of] empathy reminds about that rant of an SF techie against those homeless people because their presence affects his enjoying of life.

Re: How I Deal with Harassment, Abuse, and Crazies in General

#35

Post by mirimir »

tlrobinson wrote: post #27
mirimir wrote: post #15

There's a simple solution: Don't use real names online. That eliminates meatspace threats, if done properly. And then compartmentalize. For risky stuff, create new personas. In worst case, just burn them down.

Most people are terrible at OPSEC. If your online persona is used long enough and garners enough attention your real identity will almost certainly become known (extreme example: Ross Ubricht). This is compounded by the fact that people tend to say things they wouldn't otherwise say if they knew they weren't anonymous. The other issue is it's harder to capitalize on the reputation of online personas in the real world…

> Ross Ubricht

He initially used his real name for a StackExchange account, which was later linked to DPR and SR.

But you're right about downsides. If you want online personas and real world identity to be unlinked, you can't capitalize in ways that link them. But you can still capitalize in parallel. In the real world, I have no interest in privacy etc. Here, I don't draw on my real world reputation. It is sad, though, that I don't get to meet online friends, attend meetings, etc. So it goes.

Re: How I Deal with Harassment, Abuse, and Crazies in General

#36

Post by mirimir »

skybrian wrote: post #26
mirimir wrote: post #15

There's a simple solution: Don't use real names online. That eliminates meatspace threats, if done properly. And then compartmentalize. For risky stuff, create new personas. In worst case, just burn them down.

That's good advice. But it's not a sure thing because most people will make mistakes. Or maybe their friends will.

Your sets of online friends and meatspace friends must not overlap.

Re: How I Deal with Harassment, Abuse, and Crazies in General

#37

Post by mirimir »

tajen wrote: post #25
mirimir wrote: post #15

There's a simple solution: Don't use real names online. That eliminates meatspace threats, if done properly. And then compartmentalize. For risky stuff, create new personas. In worst case, just burn them down.

When you have a company, your name and contact is on every commerce registry document.

DPR had a company, with none of that stuff. If he hadn't been so careless, he still would.

Re: How I Deal with Harassment, Abuse, and Crazies in General

#38

Post by tomjen3 »

pmiller2 wrote: post #20
mirimir wrote: post #15

There's a simple solution: Don't use real names online. That eliminates meatspace threats, if done properly. And then compartmentalize. For risky stuff, create new personas. In worst case, just burn them down.

> There's a simple solution: Don't use real names online. Tell that to Facebook.

Not much of a problem, just let your name be Mustafa Jones. It's a never going to fall for their real name policy.

Re: How I Deal with Harassment, Abuse, and Crazies in General

#39

Post by jeffsco »

Animats wrote: post #13

From the article: "Whenever I write about a topic that upsets me, I calm myself by illustrating it with royalty-free, reassuring stock photos." The pictures in the article are so irrelevant that they're annoying.

(You noticed. It is a form of humor fwiw.)

Re: How I Deal with Harassment, Abuse, and Crazies in General

#40

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

skybrian wrote: post #30
jholman wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Utterly unpersuasive. The reasoning in that Quora response means that "harasser" and "wrong" are also slurs, because the Quora response equates denigration with "slur territory". As an ongoing fact in my life, I've noticed that (a) I use words like "crazy" in broad and insulting ways, and that (b) some people seem to complain about it. And I'm open to being persuaded that I ought to change my ways. But I haven't yet…

"Crazy" even when not strictly about mental health implies lack of self-control or good judgement, which will be insulting for people who pride themselves in self-control and good judgement. "Weird" or "bizarre" is perhaps a little more neutral.

Except that this time next week / month / year someone will take huge offence to the terms 'weird' or 'bizarre'.

This is a witch hunt and the target is any word that can be used to differentiate.

We need to remember that we do not have a right to be offended.

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