Comments on: PSA: MikeeUSA’s hate speech and harassment

By: Valorie Zimmerman

Valorie Zimmerman — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:47:45 +0000

Mikee is now conversing with Eric Raymond here:

http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=1310

He’s now using the name “Mikhail.Kvaratskhelia.”

By: Damijan

Damijan — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:51:33 +0000

Women should die!

Gee. This guy is an idiot and he seriously needs professional help. Thank you for your excellent post.

Cheers,

Damijan

By: MikeeUSA’s code, now available on geekfeminism.org | Geek Feminism Blog

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:09:49 +0000

[...] I completely support SourceForge’s decision to remove MikeeUSA’s code for violation of their Terms of Service, I can’t help kinda feeling sorry for [...]

By: Skud

Skud — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:41:47 +0000

Well, it doesn’t bar wget and grep.

By: Jonquil

Jonquil — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:26:34 +0000

More than likely he has a robots.txt barring Google.

By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:41:52 +0000

For reference, his activities this week seem to be focussing on IRC, including spamming channels and private messaging individuals with set messages. (Information from the LinuxChix volunteers list.)

By: Don Oorst

Don Oorst — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:28:34 +0000

Good stuff Terri! I work with an anti-racist group in australia, and part of what we do is going after neo-nazis on the net who try and victimize other people via their blogs and the like. Some of its just terrible. One guy was publishing home addresses and photos and phone numbers of local queer crew with suggestion that people have “harsh words” with them. Despite good cooperation by local police, Blogger just wasn’t interested, citing the first amendment, despite the fact that this was all occuring in australia. It was very frusturating, especially after one of this guys victims got bashed, and another had a hit-and-run attempt on his life.

By: Don Oorst

Don Oorst — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:23:23 +0000

Yeah I think its also important to remember the role men (like me) have in this. I’m a personal believer that standing by and watching ones workmates/family/friends/community victimised simply by virtue of a surface attribute (gender/race/sexuality/ethnicity) is a form of collusion. So yeah, its important for guys who witness this sort of reaction to stand up too and not let neanderthals speak for our gender.

I’m sorry some of you womenfolk have had to put up with this dickhead, it reflects badly on us guys and for that I’m really sorry.

Best of luck.

By: Mary

Mary — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:03:06 +0000

I hope this is just me being Captain Obvious, but bloggers and/or posters outside the USA (and some within it) may not especially care what the correct interpretation of the first amendment to the US Constitution is, and I’m not sure how effective that quote would be in that case.

By: Shane Curcuru

Shane Curcuru — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:36:27 +0000

Good work on the nicely organized history and suggestions.
Um, ick. Yeah, there are people like that in the world, I just tend to forget they actually, y’know, actively poke their typewriters into the serious geek world.
Good luck to anyone having to deal with direct harassment.
Did I say ick?

I’m a free speech advocate too. However, I feel no qualms about nuking spam or other inappropriate comments off of any of my blogs or discussion fora. I used to find this quote to be helpful in explaining where free speech applies – and where it doesn’t – to those who all-too quickly scream “censor!”

One explanation for moderating comments – in whatever way a blog owner feels like, without having to worry about it (and you shouldn’t) – was well put by William Bennett Turner in WIRED magazine 4.03, “What Part of ‘No Law’ Don’t You Understand?”

“Correctly interpreted, the First Amendment does not prohibit all restrictions on speech. It doesn’t prohibit private restrictions at all. Our constitution is a series of constraints on government, not on individuals or even powerful corporations. It is not a violation of the First Amendment for the Microsoft Network, if it so desired, to forbid postings that criticize Bill Gates. Microsoft is not the government, at least not yet. Similarly, CompuServe’s censorship of sex newsgroups may offend freedom lovers but does not violate the First Amendment.”

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.03/no.law.html

A tad dated perhaps, but still a useful point. We each have our own personal soapboxes, and should feel free to paint them whatever colors we want.