
How I Deal with Harassment, Abuse, and Crazies in General - aaronbrethorst
http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2016/04/how-i-deal-with-harassment-abuse-and.html?m=1
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pmiller2
This is a part of why I'm quite selective about what I post online. The major
part is that I value my privacy and don't really want random people knowing
everything about me. I don't _want_ to be a public figure. I avoid Facebook
and Twitter, too, so that really reduces my surface area for this type of
attack.

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realusername
Facebook is honestly not that bad on this because your "friends" circle makes
it harder for a post to go completely viral. Twitter on the other hand is
really dangerous because you can just make a tweet which pisses off some
random celebrity and face a huge backlash, this is really scary.

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randycupertino
That's exactly why I'm afraid to tweet. If I tweeted every stupid thought that
flit across my mind, then ever became famous or in the public eye, people
could dig up every dumb thing I've ever said and broadcast it out of context.
No thanks.

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JoeAltmaier
Agreed. Each tweet is like a 'sound byte' and we've seen how they can be used
to twist anything by taking them out of context. 'Twitter context' is really
an oxymoron.

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ams6110
_When I release a game or write something visible to the whole world, even a
tiny something (Warning: Twitter counts!), I am acting as a public figure. A
teeny tiny one, but a public figure nonetheless. Public figures have always
received hate mail, abuse, threats, and messages from the unhinged, and they
always will. Alas, the internet makes them much easier to deliver._

Very true. Years ago I sent a "letter to the editor" to the local newspaper.
Nothing too controversial, just an opinion about some local politics. I
received several unsigned letter in the mail over the following days, no
return address, etc. and that was just from a small town community.

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pmiller2
> ...opinion about some local politics. ... small town community.

Well, right there is actually the reason. The smaller the pond you're in, the
smaller the fish you need to be to make waves. If everybody knows who you are,
you can bet a couple people are going to speak up.

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intrasight
I'd like to point out that one's public persona can be different from ones
private persona. Lots of public people use that approach, and for good reason.

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pmiller2
I don't know because I haven't met the man, but I hear Zed Shaw is a good
example of this that a lot of people here could probably relate to.

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mirimir
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.

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pmiller2
> There's a simple solution: Don't use real names online.

Tell that to Facebook.

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jholman
There's a simple solution: don't use Facebook.

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pmiller2
That's my current and likely future solution.

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kelukelugames
I notice newly famous or semi famous people ignore all of Jeff Vogel's rules.
They jump in and defend themselves in every argument. Happens often in the
Magic community. Guy wins tournament, guy starts writing Magic articles, guy
gets upset when criticized, and guy goes crazy.

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CM30
It's sort of like what happens to people who win the lottery; they have less
experience as millionaires, so they make a ton of big purchases and
questionable spending decisions. People who were born/grew up/made it rich
more slowly tend to have more experience managing their finances and hence
tend to go broke a lot less quickly/often.

The same thing tends to happen to the newly famous. They think they're
invincible, get a quickly overinflated ego, respond poorly to criticism and
end up under a ton of psychological pressure as a result. You can see it with
people who make it big off talent shows or reality tv.

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cpr
Maybe don't work in the games industry, where the crazy users tend to end up?

Sorry to point that out (I know a lot of HN folks are gamers), but I think
it's a valid approach.

I really doubt if Guido has been harrassed or physically threatened because of
something in Python 3, for example.

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cshenton
I agree that the games industry has a problem, but I think it's because
they're independent developers selling a consumer product. This creates a
direct sense of accountability among a large group of end users who know how
to get into contact with you.

Maybe it's simply not good business to be a dev who's both acting as the face
of a product and writing divisive op-eds. This practice seems unique to the
games industry.

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LyndsySimon
It's good to see someone seriously talking about taking responsibility for
defending themselves.

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YeGoblynQueenne
I see this article as a sign that we are slowly realising how shit some parts
of the internet have become for the people who use them everyday.

There were some recent articles in big news sites about how their comments
attract the worse kind of trolling and what they plan to do, or are doing,
about it. Maybe a few years from now we'll have found some sort of resolution
to all this but currently, we have a problem.

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awinter-py
Hmm; his public figure point is a little dangerous. Defamation / libel
protections are generally less for public figures (you have to prove malice).

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known
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullying](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullying)

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Criticism123
Criticism ≠ Harassment

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kelukelugames
Did this get flagged off the frontpage? looks like it. Sigh.

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martincmartin
No, after 13 hours it just fell off of it organically. If you filter out low
scoring posts you can still see it.

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kelukelugames
There were posts with longer hours and fewer points ahead of it.

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technopath
> Crazies in General

I wonder if, given the social unacceptability of mental illness, it will ever
be socially unacceptable to slur mental illness.

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ams6110
I don't see a slur there.

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bpchaps
I have bipolar II and definitely see it as a slur.

See, I go into hypomanic states and do things that are what you'd typically
see from a "crazy" person. Buzzing my head, getting into bad financial
situations, intense obsession, etc. When I do those things, I'm usually aware
that what I'm doing isn't 'normal', but since the rationalizations flow pretty
thick, the corrections are nearly impossible to act on. Medication helps, but
everything I've tried has significant side effects that are almost as bad as
the illness itself. Being called crazy, or receiving comments or looks that
imply craziness rather than applying basic empathy skills... fucking sucks.

"Hah, what are you, schitzophrenic?" "That guy's nuts" "Why would you do that,
are you insane?" "Noise sensitivity? That's fucking weird.." "I'm quitting
because people are calling me crazy my back. It's just childish.." "What? Grow
a thicker skin!"

It's out of our control and we do the best that we can to avoid the problems
we have, so being called "crazy" is just another slap in the face. It effects
our daily lives, our job prospects and, well, every aspect in our life. It's
similar to issues of race, regligion, etc, but since it's an enormous aspect
of our thought process, it's just.. different, so the social stigmas are
almost incomparable. Not to mention that it has a near identical stigma to a
homeless person screaming on a train. It fucking sucks.

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tremon
_I have bipolar II and definitely see it as a slur._

So what do you suggest we call people that behave far outside society's bounds
and are impervious to reason?

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alanwatts
What do we call people who behave far outside society's bounds when that
society is impervious to reason?

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Animats
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.

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

