Adria Richards: ‘I’m staying safe’

And they didn't kick the guy out, or anything like that - it was basically a verbal warning, but done formally so that it was on record in case there was another incident. That's it. Not so bad.

Not admitting that many important decisions have an emotional component is part of the problem.

They can be 'rational' when it comes to doing numerical things, but when it comes to an emotional issue like picking emacs or vi, they are no better than your average touchy-feely New Age believer at being rational.

Every time something like this happens people act surprised. Hello, have you ever been on the internet before? I'm not defending it, just saying that it should be treated for what it is - background noise.

It's because she's a notable figure on the internet.

I challenge the reader to find any notable figure online who has held a controversial position and not been the target of death threats.

That is an Internet anonymity problem, not a gender problem!

Women are not the only targets of anonymous death threats online!

(Not to excuse the appalling behavior of anonymous cowards who point their threats at almost every notable news target. Seriously, go read the forums on a major partisan site. Vile, disgusting, hurtful and violent language aren't the exception, they're the norm).

By playing into the gender context we're playing once against into these stupid gender arguments where they don't belong.

"But they're using anti-women language"

Of course they are! If it were a crippled man being insulted, why not imagine the language they'd use. If it was a black man being insulted and threatened, guess the language they'd use.

They pick their language to troll their target. They pick it after picking their target -- the language isn't the reason!

And yet again, a non gender issue will be filed under sexism.