It’d be one thing if I was exhorting some poor soul to become a blogger just because I can. You already are one, and a damn good one, too. And you’re giving it up for no apparent reason whatsoever.
He’s giving it up because he feels like it. Because it doesn’t bring him an appropriate level of happiness. I don’t see how it needs any more justification than that.
Maybe part of the reason Dare no longer feels interested in writing is because of reasons just like this. People getting way too invested in what is basically an online journal.
You put yourself out in front of thousands of people every day. It’s like having a party in your house that never ends. And your guests are complaining! Unless you have a cover charge, or really enjoy the attention, it starts to seem less like a good idea.
In as short a summary as possible (which may very well be overlooked):
If blogging is no longer enjoyable, then you should stop. You said so yourself at the end of this message here. So why angry that they’re ‘silenced forever’ and ‘giving into intimidation’ when they certainly don’t want to continue writing?
Do I agree with you that it’s a particularly sad thing to lose interest in something you once loved, or enjoyed? Yes, absolutely. Every hobby has unpleasant variables that come with the turf – it’s the nature of the beast, and these bloggers have been exposed to those long enough that they don’t want to continue blogging. It’s no longer fun for them. Good doesn’t outweigh the bad.
The subject is one of mixed feelings… and resounding dispair. For certain. Just a facet of human behavior that’s especially ugly: the opinionated limelight.
I know that sounds irrational now, but unless you’re been in that
situation, you can’t imagine how real and scary it feels.
Exactly. I’ve been cyberstalked myself before. Nutjob found out my phone number, address, and employer and posted them all with vague threats. Starting harrasing my employer to fire me, started harrasing our customers to quit doing business with us, etc. When you’ve got someone unbalanced like this attacking you, and they’ve already taken things farther than any sane person would, how do you know where they’ll stop if they don’t get satisfaction? Will they come after you physically? Will they come after your wife? Your children? Would a meer piece of paper like a restraining order stop them? There’s literally nothing you can do (inside the law) to defend yourself or your family from a crazy.
I understand where you people standing on principle are comming from, really. I used to feel the same way. But the nutjob doesn’t care about your principles, or any principles at all. So what’s the point, really? Unless you’ve been there I don’t think it’s easy to imagine what its like.
If I ever start blogging, it would only be under a pseudonym, and on someone else’s server.
Ok, Jeff, good post, but step away from yourself for a moment. Just because YOU think someone should blog, doesn’t mean they should. You’ve got good ideas sometimes and good arguments (sometimes) but you’re certainly not always right. I’ve also noticed more and more you are throwing your opininos (strongly) into your blogs and I enjoyed your blog much more when you were less confrontational (I mean, come on, the whole douchebag thing, WTF!)
I hope you get logged off the moment you login, or may be keys should be jumbled…
Its so hard to digest creative expression can get you so much trouble… anyways keep up the good work and dont think of "Oh here’s my final post and here’s why … " post just because of me
Jeff’s readers may not be aware that Dare is the son of the former president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo. That’s an external factor that few other technical bloggers will ever have to deal with.
Dare makes a good point in reference to the Apple developers - it is perhaps doubtful their effectiveness would increase. They’re probably being effective as they can be and the iPhone (for example) is more of a testament to that than anything else.
There’s probably a distractive element to blogging that is perhaps not being factored in here. Because a MSFT employee isn’t blogging doesn’t automatically make them less relevant either. I’ve yet to read much in the way extensive blog based coverage from Steven Sinofsky, Allard or Gates, yet I doubt they’re just “Borging around” at the company.
Having blogs being great and all, but its something that probably needs to be looked at on a per person/situation basis rather than be generalized. I read your blog because it has takes on almost everything, but in that sense it also means you’re less likely to build up a “us vs them” fan/anti-fan base within a particular context, as opposed to bloggers focused around a more specific topic area.
I ran a dating website with moderated forums for several years, and I dealt with a few dozen psychopaths/jerks/asshats. People have threatened to kill me, hack my server, ruin my reputation, sue me, destroy my property, etc etc etc.
I tried several ways of dealing with these situations. Here’s what I learned:
These trolls want attention, and a reaction. They will type the worst things they can think of to get that attention. 99.99% of the time, their threats are complete BS.
The worst thing you can do is give them attention. Delete (if not possible, just ignore) every post that crosses the line, WITHOUT comment.
They will escalate their attacks until they see you will not budge, then they will give up and move on to the next victim.
Never reference, imply, or otherwise acknowledge the existence of the troll or any troll-like behavior. Giving the slightest hint that they affected you is like pouring fuel on dying flame.
I don’t know about everyone else, but I am finding this discussion between Jeff and Dare to be some of the most compelling reading I’ve seen…here’s hoping they don’t take it offline (Community Escalation…balls!).
I really miss Kathy too. She was really inspiring, and helped me get inspired about my own work. I still check her blog and try and find news from her.
I understand perfectly why Kathy stopped blogging.
My blog is popular in a limited way and in fact the hits are nowhere near what the really popular bloggers get. But yes, it’s doing okay but there are people who come to my blog simply to tear down the posts. Mostly these bloggers write very below par stuff themselves and often write posts to tear down what others write. They think they are being very clever because their comment is clean, there are no bad words or abuse. It’s difficult enough handling such ‘polite’ comments, leave alone the abusive ones! They make it difficult for one to write, because while writing one at times thinks of that person and one knows that this person will attack this or attack that…after all it is possible to attack almost everything. Nothing is that wonderful that it can’t be torn down. It starts to affect what one writes, the spontanienty starts to vanish…The problem is that there are people whose sole objective is to tear down post after post after post.
Kathy must have got hundreds of commentators like this and so must Dare I suppose and after sometime one wonders why one is doing this at all…one cannot look at the thousands of unnamed readers who are reading one’s blog and say, Hey so many are reading my blog how wonderful! No, this isn’t enough. One day if I stop blogging, it will be for this same reason and no, I don’t think the bad guys will have won. I will have won because I am happier. I don’t need to take shit from some arrogant and rude person who sits behind a computer, a person who has no guts to tear down another’s work on his face. He prefers to let loose from the safe haven of his computer.
“Here is what I don’t understand. Why just up and disappear?”
What I don’t understand is post after post frantically trying to pooh-pooh any notion that threats and harassment could matter. In real life, there is no /ignore command. There is no magical way to tell whether somebody issuing death threats is a mouthy asshole or a genuine nutcase. Are you willing to put your sense of “nobody would mess with ME” over, say, your kids’ safety?
I agree with Jeff. I have long enjoyed Dare’s blog and frankly the thing that troubles me most is the line asking what does he get out of it? That people he does not know or met getting something from it is not a reason.
Taking this thinking to a more extreme example as to why it is wrong - I am glad researchers do not subscribe to that method of thought. If they did, they would not bother developing anything to help stop cancer or spread knowledge to help those people they have never met. After all, why bother publishing research, articles or spread knowledge if all you get out of it is helping others???
Personally, if there is not more to it, that line of reason causes me to lose much of the respect I had for him via what I thought was a well thought out and written blog.
