It's a reality I've learned to deal with over the years that upon reaching any level of notoriety, crazy comes out of the woodwork. That's not to suggest I'm a celebrity by any means, but I've been on the internet a long time — some of my earliest writing was on "blogs" before the word ever existed, and I've had to deal with anonymous nastiness in a variety of incarnations. Nevertheless, I have still always been willing to put myself out there; being in the spotlight combined with an opinionated and often acerbic personality means that sometimes retaliation crosses the line. This is my experiences with one such individual, Jonathan Beitel, and how he has been harassing me for the last six months.

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The internet had one of its periodic explosions over something inconsequential this weekend (not Whitney Houston) which, as it's prone to do, became Massive Drama as the initial issue was exacerbated and then picked up by more mainstream awareness. In this particular example, BioWare employee Jennifer Hepler joined Twitter. If, like me, the significance of this action flew over your head allow me to explain what I've learned from my deep minutes of research into her identity.

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Wherein one demure piece of criticism becomes a license for "professional" bloggers to invite the internet as a whole to harass critics.

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I do not like Jim Sterling. This isn't anything I'd really classify as a recent or sudden discovery, but rather — much like with 4chan trolls in general — something I prefer not to talk about much because Jim Sterling is the sort of individual who thrives on negative feedback, seeking to inspire as much of it as he can to validate some stylised image of himself as a Disaffected Internet Cool Kid. As a regular writer for Destructoid (amongst other places) he typifies the mentality that makes most people think of immature, greasy basement dwellers when "gamer" is said out loud.

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