Barbara Rushkoff seems to have removed her post about her husband’s Christmas Eve mugging from  A Girl Grows in Brooklyn on Babble.

You can’t blame her. I’m guessing she was disgusted by the firestorm it set off. It’s obvious that the recent hoopla about Doug’s Christmas mugging post has caused both Barbara and Doug to rethink personal blogging.  

When I mentioned the mugging story on my  blog, there were a bunch of  needlessly nasty comments.

Still, I find this all very interesting. Doug’s site is, afterall, a promotional site for the brand of author Douglas Rushkoff. That’s pretty much what a blog is. Still, he has every right to feel violated.

Nothwithstanding, he did become a minor sensation overnight.

He was probably already famous enought. He has written ten really interesting sounding books (see my post I Agree with Douglas Rushkoff for a list of his books). But still. Not a bad marketing strategy. Maybe I should get mugged, write about it. Then I’d get an agent (did I just write that?).

Some say all publicity is good publicity. But people are nasty – especially in the anonymous sphere of blogging comments, where it seems to be all about personal attacks. Blog comments can truly be the dark side of blogging. The flip side of the free expression that blogging represents.

I totally agree with Doug on that point and I understand why this unwanted attention has made his family feel vulnerable to the anonymous personal jabs that
constitute unmoderated discussion these days. Here’s an excerpt from a recent post:

I’ll be closing out this blog and moving over to an open source something-or-other in the next weeks.

I’ll
also use this occasion to change the content, here. Although I’ve
usually made it a rule not to post anything personal here, I let that
slip recently, sharing my thoughts and feelings after being mugged on
my front stoop. I see that this was mistake, as it ends up making this
space more about me than about whatever it is I have to contribute. And
it also makes my family vulnerable to the anonymous personal jabs that
constitute unmoderated discussion these days.

There are enough
personal narrative blogs out there to fill an Internet, so I’m not
worried about hurting the supply. Meanwhile, sharing personal
information just gives more fodder to those who tend to turn all
discussions into personal attacks. I remember a while ago, my
suggestion that putting ads on a blog makes the blogger vulnerable to
market forces ended up leading to long tirades about the fact that I
take money for writing books. And while that’s quite a non-starter (my
books are certainly vulnerable to market forces), my using this space
for anything personal leaves the discussions open to such digressions.

See you on the other side.