Nearly a week after Cathy Seipp's passing, the number of comments posted at Cathy's World has slowed to a trickle, but some can't resist stirring the pot at other venues on the world wide web. Cathy's longtime friend, Luke Ford, has written his unvarnished thoughts on Cathy's life and has even defended (to a limited extent) her ubiquitous cybersquatting tormentor - drawing decidedly mixed responses from his readers and a hostile response from one of Cathy's relatives.
Another of Cathy's friends - Sandra Tsing Loh - wrote a piece published in today's Los Angeles Times, taking a dim view of the blogosphere brouhaha surrounding Cathy's death. Loh writes:
"It's like Cathy was the only thing that kept these people civilized!" was the horrified comment of friend Andrew Breitbart who, one should note, edits the Drudge Report. Even he!
Though some of Cathy's regular commenters may take offense at the insinuation of the blogosphere being little more than a rowdy, uncouth mob, I understand Loh's air of dismissiveness (to borrow Gary McVey's term) and underlying revulsion. I doubt anyone, particularly Cathy's immediate family, appreciates seeing dirty laundry aired or lame cybersquatter stunts posted so soon after her passing. Civil society has contracted in the brave new world of the internet, if it ever existed in the first place.
8 comments:
Interesting stuff. I hope things don't get too ugly... that happened when my g'ma passed on; without her as the glue people really turned on each other.
I'm still pretty unhappy to be grouped w/ Troll Dolls (esp. since that was, as Gary has pointed out, a conflict with offline roots), but, yes, unhappiness all around.
Sort of a strange thing to be caught up in, huh?
I can see feeling brushed by Loh's broad stroke, but I wasn't terribly bothered. It's too bad about LF, but the main reason it's too bad is b/c it's hurting so many of Cathy's friends and family.
And as the comments continue at CW, I think BJF is correct that much of Loh's criticisms are directed at meatspace/virtual space crossovers.
Agree w/above, oth, it really doesn't matter to me what Loh thinks of the contributing commenters - which are quite obviously not in the same ballpark as this cybersquatter is. As long as one knows they've behaved appropriately, what difference does another's opinion matter. Our words publicly 'spoken' on her blog evidence the people we are (as do cybersquatter's).
Personally it makes me even more hesitant to publicly post about my life because I am realizing again just how far-reaching and powerful the internet can be, and obviously not everyone has good motive. Cathy was very fortunate that the vast majority of her commenters were decent folk but unfortunately for her, too, she chose to air private matters in a public forum and someone was not decent about it.
The speed of the internet adds to the strangeness of this whole sad, post-funeral period. There's a natural tendency for newly-unified friends of the departed to separate back into their original, separate groupings: new journalist, old-line journalist with mucho "Seipp Time", invterviewee or media buddy, best girlfriends forever, friends who Knew Her When.
The only difference is that this is all happening within days and in full view. Our friend Cathy is becoming, in effect, the Princess Diana of the internet, and as inevitable as this all is it gives me a queasy feeling.
Its that 'in full view' part, Gary, that's so troubling. I really feel quite badly for Cathy's immediate family as grieving the loss of a loved one is a difficult enough journey in itself when done privately...to have it become what it has now become with Eliot Stein, and other blogger's exposes and all the publicity and yammering has brought an odious crassness to something so personal.
I must be from the old school of life (not media) and really hold that giving those walking through grief space and prayers from afar is the greater act of compassion.
I'm just stunned over people's naivete regarding the power of the internet, the relentless vindictiveness of bad people, and the disappearance of decorum.
I don't feel like posting at CW as it now stands. It feels like I'm playing at some new kids' backyard with a new crew. It makes me miss scuffling over the toys with all the brilliant old squawkers, debaters, agitaters, peacemakers and bellyachers...
Dana,
Come over to the Festering Swamp! This is where you'll find most, or at least many, of the Cathy's World regulars.
We're not going to carry on as if nothing happened. Something precious left us forever when Cathy died. But remember, it wasn't Cathy's work alone. She attracted some extraordinary people who made the site thrive. So on Festering Swamp, we will carry on to the best of our ability, not making demands of Cathy's relatives and close friends. (Maia is helping out, but I hope she puts UCSD first.)
We are fortunate that Cathy left behind a voluminous record of work in many areas. And with the help of Cathy's fans, the well will not go dry anytime soon.
Dana, it's especially strange because we had so much time to plan, and it still has turned out differently than we had hoped. Still, we have hope. I don't know if the Swamp will work, but we'll all try to give it a go. We'll keep these bookmarks. though.
Yes, we had time to plan, but there's always a psychological barrier to recognizing the inevitable Grim Reaper. So far, the Festering Swamp seems to be working. One of the nice things that's already happened is seeing people like Charlotte and Dmac and Dana piling on board. We are getting a good amount of traction, and just need to keep it up.
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