On web terrorism…
Today has been a fairly humorous day for me. I’ve worked in this industry for quite awhile now and have never (until now) witnessed web terrorism personally.
Web terrorism is where people send you anonymous emails without their real names or links to their URLs and say things they couldn’t or wouldn’t possibly say to a human being in person. It’s sort of like targeted spam with personality. You get flooded with the stuff. In the 200 or so emails I got this morning, just a handful were from people who used real names and emails. Most looked like secondary AOL accounts and such.
No explanation whatsoever matters to web terrorists. Web terrorist ring leaders start the process by posting a claim (all over the place) that they didn’t bother to confirm with their target first. Are they targeting the right person? Matters not to web terrorists! Are they targeting the correct person whom might have a valid explanation? Matters not to a web terrorist! Could the ring-leading bin Ladens of web terrorism have achieved their goals using civil means? Of course but it matters not to web terrorists. Because to a web terrorist it’s all lies. And digital jihad is ALWAYS justified to web terrorists. When a handful of innocents get included in the digital bomb (spam) blasts it matters not to a web terrorist!
Here’s my advice to those who are targets of these teen terrorists. Apologize if you’re wrong. Yep, apologize! But don’t be tempted to retaliate in the future using similar public tactics. It isn’t civil.
If your rationale and explanation is valid, then how do we deal with terrorists? Walk away? Bow down? Get freaked out over these al jazeera type spam broadcasts? Don’t even be tempted! Terrorists WANT to freak you out. Unfortunately, I’m already a jaded bastard so my skin is thicker than most.
Post what you believe and forget spam terrorists. Think the world should stop using CSS? Say so! Think Explorer is better than Firefox? You’re confused but say so anyway. Think Ashley Simpson is a great singer? You may have bad taste but say so! Let the hate mail pile up but stand up and never back down.
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Rainbows
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Vanishing America
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Old stamps
So the logs suggest that the digital spam attack this morning primarily originate from humhum.be
It’s a design forum. Many of the emails I got from the design terrorists at humhum.be said that my site here at kellysmith.com sucked and that the blog design was lame. To the dozen or so who left that message, I emailed back asking to see their website.
Do you know how many have responded with links to their own sites? Of course you know the answer already don’t you? Zero. Not one single person would send me the link to their site.
While I’m not even a designer my website is my own so I’m sure all my friends will be anxious to see what a professional can do with WordPress. I’m still waiting on those URLs!
But since we’re on this topic of design forums, check out http://www.yayhooray.com
You might even find it’s members to be a little more…uh…sane.
Nice site!
Don’t mind those pompous ass clowns.
There’s a documentary about Al Jazeerah called Control Room that you should watch, I’d say it is relevant.
Welcome to yay!
Ok terrorism is a very strong word in the states, and one you seem to be playing on. As I have said in another post things got dealt with wrongly. Very badly, and their is no excuse for that, but playing on a fear of terrorism is slightly worrying for me. you are playing with a gungho frame of mind for reasons to suit you own.
Actually terrorism is a very strong word in Spain and the UK too (think trains and subways). In this case, its actually a really good analogy. Shoot first, ask questions later and don’t worry about the innocents because everyone’s guilty as far as radical design forums are concerned. Its fitting enough of an analogy and since I’m the one who had to dig through hundreds of spams, comments and customer issues so I’m pretty comfortable with the term. Having said that, I’m a liberal democrat. So, I know where you’re trying to go with the “gungho in America” thing but I’m not taking the bait. In fact I’m half tempted to actually re-post many of the comments from humhum on this blog so you and others can think pretty hard about the character of your esteemed membership base. Let’s see, here’s an actual quote: “We know where you live and we’re going to come kill you MF’er”. You seem like a smart guy Tim. These your beer drinking buddies? Sound a little “terrorist” to you? I’d be happy to post a ton more…
“design terrorist”?
Isn’t that taking it bit too far, really? I am quite sure Spanish and Brits (or the rest of the world, if you like) have a quite different approach on using that word than you americans. I could go a mile on why that is so but will leave you the word “history” instead.
Sami,
I don’t mean to be an ass but I suspect I’ve probably spent more time in more countries than you have. I obviously don’t know you so I can’t say for sure but I know my own travel and living record and its a bit out of the ordinary to say the least. Having lived in London I can tell you there isn’t much difference in how the Brits and Americans would use the term…if any.
Nonetheless, it was meant to be an ANALOGY. Isn’t a targeted “spam bomb” a relevent incident for such an analogy?