This morning I received an e-mail from a fellow travel blogger. The mail contained a comment of a reader who is not amused by the author’s posts, to say the least.
The comment reads [off course I have edited out the foul language]:
Youguys have nothing but trying s**ttiest to pick on someone else’s business website and whatever youguys are doing is such a bad idea.
I will find out who the f**k youguys are and hire some sort of vietnamese gangs to f**k anyone whoever are female in your f**king
family.
then I would love to see your f**kin’ head chopped off and have all kinds of s**t down in your f**kin’ neck, alright?
Don’t go around and do things like that and if I ever get to see this kind of s**t once more then since I know who the f**k you are and you better be careful…
Thanks for the co-operation…
Sic! This is not funny. What to do? Erase it as spam? My first reaction is “A big no! Lodge a complaint with the provider through which the comment was posted and the provider used as “e-mail” adress.”…but it is very easy to impersonate somebody so there is no guaranty the perpetrator will be found. Furthermore I would lodge a complaint with the local police.
So most likely it won’t help. However further than that you couldn’t go if you’re an average blogger on a small budget (smaller at least than the Landlord of my prior post who can afford to sue first and talk later). Maybe it helps getting it out of your system.
If you look up death threats in various search engines you get all sorts of results. At least you’ll see it happens more. Austrian based I.P.I. International Press Institute from which I borrowed the picture, watches over Free Speach. But further than noticing that journalists are threatened and even murdered and offering public concern. They offer no handbook how to handle threats…
The incident kept in the back of my mind and I decided to post about it. Recently another befriended travel blogger got a threat of a civil law suit and took a sabattical week to get it out of his system. I hope this helps my friend getting it out of his system. I also hope the community of travel bloggers offers some thoughts here.
What would you do?
I would just spam it and forget about it.
reminds me of an 11 year old neighbour who once left a profane voice mail message on my phone. It’s the thrill of leaving a profane anonymous message that is driving such an immature message.
Spam it and forget it.
I have to disagree with the others. If you delete it and spam it, they are getting away with it. No one should receive a death threat, no matter how stupid it may seem. Okay, a bit of verbal abuse, spam it, death threats, report it.
I agree with Darren. It’s doubtful that the local authorities will do something about a single incident, but who knows if this is actually a single incident. It may very well be part of a pattern of behavior with this individual — either established or emerging. And, if anything were to happen, if you have filed a report the paper trail has begun. We get threats like this on occasion at my day job — both verbal and written — and we always file a report. Always.
Darren, please let us know how we can track him down! I feel like if a person is that much of a bully, usually they back down when they realize a person is on the receiving end.
@ Guido
What blog software does he use, WordPress? If the blogger does then the IP address should have appeared next to the comment. You can then use sites like http://www.dnsstuff.com and track the ISP (or company) of the person who left the comment.
If the blogger is happy, get them to email me with the IP address and I’ll help.
Great post Guido. Unfortunately while this abuse should not happen, it does. Its not nice neither. I had a similar issue last year, tracked the person and even the company they work for.
Firstly I would trace the IP address using dnnstuff.com find the ISP and go to to the website and send them full details of the complaint and they should act on it.
You can block their IP address too so they cannot post again. I will leave instructions how to do this when I get home, as I am typing this on the bus.
Thanks all for the support.
I’m glad there are down to earth answers to this:-)
Darren
I’m with you. How would you track down the guy?
It’s a wp blog and I pinpointed the IP already to Canada
i would definitely report it – that is CRAZY, the email you got. does canada have a web policing department? otherwise, i’d report it to whoever runs the ISP. that is asinine and should not be tolerated. good luck!
Spam it and leave aside. Unless you get futher threats, I don’t think the local police can do anything, especially with the internet. You can block the IP address as well, but this only works with a dedicated IP the threater uses himself.
hi , its my first visit to your blog ! and i fall in love with it ! i have added your this post into my favorite posts blog ! hope you won’t mind if you do than plz let me know i will remove . regards !
ZINDAGI FROM PAKISTAN
HERE IT IS:
http://myfavouriteblogposts.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/endangered-species-travel-blogger-about.html