The internet has become a cesspool in many ways. I think we all had dreams, decades ago, that it would somehow elevate and expand our intellect, but this article shows that’s not a given.

This type of harassment is disgraceful but not uniquely experienced by women. I’ve experienced it directly and as a result try to live with as low an internet profile as I can.

Every new technology — telephones, radio, television, even CB radio, if you can believe it— brings with it expectations that it will change us only for the better. It never works that way. For all the things that get better, there are many things that get worse. The Internet is just another example of a new technology that came with overblown expectations.

Remember how great we thought it seemed when John Gilmore said “The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it”? It’s not seeming quite so wonderful nowadays, at least in some forums, is it? Because how else can the forums “change the environment”, as mentioned above, other than censorship?

I’m involved in an open source project in which we’ve had to recently block someone on IRC because they became so abusive. If that’s not censorship, what is? Was it the right thing to do? We thought so. And we’ll take the same action again if needed.