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Comment by DownvoteMeToWin | Hacker News Reader

As a father, I have warned my daughter about the Ring of Gyges.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Gyges

Look, at the end of the day, it's pixels. You can't even prove that posters are humans or robots on Twitter. Taking umbrage over a Turing-suspicious medium reeks of middle class moral panic and, in my opinion, has no business being on HN.

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>You can't even prove that posters are humans or robots on Twitter.

Did you read the article? Schilling found at least nine real humans. They've been suspended or fired. Some will go to jail.

They were real men making sexual threats to his daughter, thinking they were anonymous. They weren't.

Lots of women online face threats like Schilling's daughter received. Women in the tech industry face stuff like this. I'd say it's relevant.

I doubt anyone will go to jail from this, or even face charges, but it will be interesting to see that unfold.

We live our lives online today, these are our methods of communication. These are the ways we keep up on the news, do our work, keep in touch with our friends and family, indulge our interests and passions, relax, etc. This whole "sticks and stones..." mentality is poisonous. There is no wall, no chasm, no separation between "the real world" and "the online world" the internet is just a medium of communication for communicating within the real world. These people are real people. The way you treat people online matters just as much as the way you treat people in person or on the phone matters, there is no communication medium which magically filters out the consequences of one's actions nor one which filters out the potential to be hurt.

>There is no wall, no chasm, no separation between "the real world" and "the online world"

Like I said, middle class moral panic.

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