I haven't said anything about the Kathy Sierra fiasco for the same reason I don't say much about politics any more: my blogroll does a much better job than I ever could. But that assumes that you are reading my blogroll pretty extensively, and some things simply warrant more effort than such a blithe assumption. Medley is right, the Sierra incident is one such case:

I wrote briefly about the Kathy Sierra situation earlier. I resent the hell out of the fact that these despicable behaviors are out there and must be addressed -- not only is the harassment and threatening vile in and of itself, but the fact of it takes time and energy and spirit away from all of us who are compelled to speak out against it. It's a double-win for the misogynists and hatemongers of the world.

But, we must speak.

This kind of crap must not go unanswered. It's why, if you scan my del.icio.us feed, I'm always ranting that MEN WHO DON'T HATE WOMEN MUST SPEAK against this crap as well.

I still think my blogroll is a better source of information and insight than I am, though, so for such times as this I've built a custom Google search engine that will emphasize the results from sites in my blogroll:

Try searching for combinations of "Kathy Sierra", Markos, sexism, misogyny, "death threat". And for the record: what happened to Sierra was vile, the perps are wastes of oxygen who should be doing serious jail time, and Kos is an idiot who long ago made himself irrelevant to progressive politics.

This "point to my custom search" approach isn't perfect, but I simply don't have time to cover all the things I find important, even just the ones I find compelling. But I do have great faith in the ability of my blogroll to cover any topic -- after all, if they don't cover it, I won't know about it anyway. I don't get news anywhere else. So, we'll see if I can't get the most important issues at least a little coverage here.

Update: yet another woman is being targeted by filth on the internet. Deviousdiva is a British expat living in Greece and writing about the plight of the Roma in Athens. Her meatspace ID has been revealed and she's been threatened. (Hat-tip: Lindsay.)

There's a real pattern developing here, a pattern of online abuse of women. My guess is that as outright misogyny becomes less and less acceptable in public discourse, the online world provides a kind of outlet for mouth-breathing cowards who would not dare say these kinds of things to anyone's face.

The answer, pace idiots on the right, is not to abolish online anonymity; nor, pace idiots on the left, is the answer to establish some kind of Code of Conduct.

The answer is to SPEAK UP and make cyberspace as unwelcoming as meatspace for these degenerates. So if you have a blog, please consider joining the "Take Back the Blog" virtual march on April 28th (I've messed with the date to keep this post on top until then). Even if, like me, you are no expert on such issues and probably won't have anything more substative to say than [this is good], say that -- stand up and be counted.