[oldmanjay]

"Seem" is an interesting word here, as well as the phrase "deemed credible." Both indicate that my point is not being rebutted.

I'm not denying that the scale of the problem has grown to the point that rare events (someone following through on Internet bluster, in this case) will occur. I'm simply remembering a simpler time, when people didn't clamor for the sanitization of their daily Internet lives.

[acdha]

Not wanting to receive threats of violence against you or family members is hardly clamoring for sanitization. Sure, most of those threats aren't actually going to happen but a real human has the stress of having to evaluate each one and hoping they didn't get it wrong.

It's also not as if the only two possibilities are “actual stalker attacks you” and “nothing happens”. SWATing, spamming friends/family/coworker with hateful propaganda or photoshopped porn, placing embarrassing ads with the victim's actual contact info, etc. are all things that happen in the real world and don't require some blowhard to leave their house or risk persecution anywhere near as much as a serious physical attack would entail.

[s73v3r]

I'm sorry, but I think the phrase "clamor for sanitization of their daily internet lives" is very much undermining the problem of people who are receiving death and rape threats by the ton on a daily basis. And further, I cannot, at all, look down on them for wanting that to go away.