Victory Soap v. 2.0

I've been meaning to say something about this upset blogger woman I read about who was (apparently) reduced to a house-bound wreck because some asshole spewed garbage about her on an internet forum. The reaction of the woman, and of her male fans, was so typical of the hothouse/protected-from-the-real-world upbringing of most liberalish under-thirties: observe how it's all about how "shocked" and "horrified" everyone is, as if no one had ever said a crude word in their presence before. Another thing that struck me is that apparently not one of her male fans -- and I presume friends -- offered to hunt down and beat the guy up for her. Such quixotic expressions of support have been bred out of too many males -- you can't exactly call them men; they are more like girls with penises. In a sense I can't really blame her for not wanting to go to a public convention filled with so many empathizing nellies, who would have been totally useless (except for maybe being able to dial 911 on their cellphones) were anything to have happened.

Jacqueline Passey actually has some good suggestions here. I'd add one more: set up comment registration on your blog and avoid web forums. The first item will keep the flood of raw sewage down to a minimum (I've had maybe three trolls in three years try to get on my site since I've set up comment registration and monitoring), and the second is because web forums tend to very quickly become infested by mouthbreathers, one-handed-keyboarders, and freaks who will do anything for yucks -- such as making disgusting comments about an innocuous female tech blogger.

(Via Kathy Shaidle.)