“Apple ‘fanboys’ have gained a negative reputation as a hostile entity,” Violet Blue writes for ZDNet. “The vitriolic fanboy mob mentality has made online discussions about Apple difficult to keep civil, and has created an environment of increasingly shocking and disturbing hostility.”
“In my opinion, it’s damaging Apple’s reputation,” Blue writes.
“This week, ‘king of the fanboys’ John Gruber and Apple evangelist Shawn King were instrumental to an online witch hunt that eventually included threats of violence toward a female blogger,” Blue writes. “The witch hunt was based on inaccurate information about Macworld exhibitors that the men had provided to the public. I know because that blogger is me. And I’m not the first person to have a troubling story like this about these people.”
Blue writes, “What is happening here is a problem. And I believe it is a lot of what is perpetuating Apple’s bad image. It is an aspect of Apple’s legacy from an older era – one that needs to go away.”
Read more in the full article here.
Shawn King rebuts Blue’s piece here
MacDailyNews Take: You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand. – Leonardo da Vinci
In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity. – Winston Churchill
Lol! What a pussy!
VB is a true legend in her own mind.
Violet Blue- great porn name. But that’s about it.
IRL, she’s a wanna-be porn star. Couldn’t make their, so she writes whoring hit pieces.
How can you be a wanna be porn star? You are either a porn star or you are not, no?
Amateur, minor leaguer, Nationwide Tour?.
Any interested observer should be sure to read this (and the links provided there) to get a more complete background of the situation.
Additionally, Shawn King posts a detailed rebuttal here.
I would read the Curious Rats post on her, too. Violet Blue is full of herself. Unappologetically insulting a female booth vendor programmer, then making the reaction to her rude post about herself.
She is rude and obnoxious and very fond of herself and not conciliatory at all. Really this story is not about Apple fanboys or King or Gruber, who are also both rude. This is about how not to appologize to someone you have publicly offended.
While I concede that King might be going a bit too far in his detailed rebuttals, I don’t see any case for Gruber being rude at all. He simply observed the discrepancies between what Blue was saying and reality, and offered some fairly neutral commentary on it.
I think the only reason Blue lumps him in as a target of her ire is because Gruber’s post brought a lot more attention to her poor reporting in this case.
My comment about Grubers rude attitude is more about his general tone and style of writing. Less specific about his comments directed at Violet Blue.
I read his website and listen to his podcast, and would have to disagree with you. Opinionated != rude.
King’s rebuttal absolutely nails it. Thanks for the closure!
“Women are already geek outsiders in Apple culture”
Just go into any Apple store to see how many women are there at any given time. Douche.
Seriously. The female Mac users in my design department are laughing at this guy.
The quoted statement hasn’t been true for a long time.
was it ever true?
The person who labels a woman as a “Booth Babe” goes on to bemoan the unfair treatment of women on the internet. Me thinks VB is a disingenuous writer.
I swore I’d never read ZDNet again. I can’t believe I got suckered into doing it via MDN article.
MDN nails it:
In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity. – Winston Churchill
Indeed. Whether Blue is full of it on this count or not, I think she has a point of sorts, as does MDN: Let’s be sure to show some class out there following what is on so many levels a world-wide Apple victory.
If you have an important point to make, first be credible.
If you want to make a post about rude behavior or from Fanboys, first be civil and courteous yourself.
Until Mikey Dell shuts it down and gives the money back to the stockholders, until Microsoft files for bankruptcy …
The war will continue as planned.
That’s resolution for you.
A bit of research prior to a post would keep G&K from looking like douches. That goes for everyone. Unfortunately, this is becoming prevalent today especially politics.
A little bit of research prior to the post by Violet Blue would have kept her from looking like a shitty writer who doesn’t fact check. Then we don’t have any drama.
So Gruber and King researching more would not have Blue insult people?
You must work in politics?
Don’t be an idiot. Violet Blue, in the course of bemoaning the plight of women in tech, mocked another women as a “booth babe” when that woman was in fact a representative of NeoPlay. She then tries to blame everyone but herself for her lack of crdibility and non-existent journalistic practices.
Let’s be perfectly clear so even the dim can understand this: if Violet Blue had done her FUCKING JOB, EVERYONE would have known who that woman was, because a real journalist concerned for issues regarding women in tech would have INTERVIEWED THE WOMAN AT THE FUCKING TECH CONFERENCE!
Yeah, imagine a reporter actually talking to someone to get a story. Pretty incredible idea, I wonder if anyone has ever thought of the idea before?
I did hear of such a thing happening around 1956…
Blue is confusing “Apple Fanboy” with ardent fans of Gruber and/or King.
Using an alias is not a license to be an a$$h01e.
That is one of the major problems with internet society, and fan boys are a fair example of that problem.
Use your anonymity to get away with saying things that are stupid but fun, not for being mean.
If you wouldn’t say it to some one’s face, then maybe you shouldn’t say it at all.
Or, I like to say, If you wouldn’t say it to a 240 pound biker’s face, then maybe you shouldn’t say it at all.
It’s not even aliases anymore. I’ve seen several FB comment wars between people who don’t know each other hurling insults at one another. Using their real names.
Un-civil society has reached the point where people don’t care if they broadcast to the whole world that they’re complete assholes. It’s an “attitude”, but what it projects is false confidence.
“The Online Disinhibition Effect”. This writer unpacks it for us:
http://users.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/disinhibit.html
Sounds appropriate, what else do you do with witches, but have a witch hunt.
how do you know she’s a witch?
Is she made of wood?
Build a bridge out of ‘er !
I’m not sure what “misinformation” Violet Blue is referring to. The woman at the booth was not a “booth babe”; she was an employee of the company maintaining the booth. She may not have been a coder, but she wasn’t hired as someone having no affiliation with NeoPlay to doll up the booth either. Gruber and King were much more correct in their characterization than Violet Blue.
As far as the image of the frothing Apple fanboy threatening the innocent woman tech blogger, fucking grow up. People take information that’s presented, regardless of the forum, and make it their own based on their personality. This isn’t an Apple phenomenon.
You’re a public figure, Violet. People watch what you say and call you out when you’re wrong. This may be the first time you’ve been able to generate hits for your masters at hit-whore haven ZDNet, but based on the crap you’ve posted in the past, I have a hard time believing this is the first time you’ve gotten shit for something you wrote.
Violet seems like a pretty messed-up person. It would be nice if she could relax a bit.
She really personifies the worst of old-school feminism — that if a woman (her) is upset, all her judgments about the upsetting situation are automatically correct; that because she’s female she has no accountability or responsibility for her actions; and that the more people confront her about her behavior the more certain she becomes that she’s being persecuted because she’s female, and therefore right.
This is the same woman who went to a mostly-male tech party and pretended to be dumb so she could write an article about how terrible men in tech are because they treat women like they are dumb.
I don’t know if SHE can be helped, but she really hurts whatever reputation her employer still has. They really should fire her.
She’s obviously never had to be the lone (or one amongst a small group in a small in-house studio) Mac-using graphic designer who has had to put up with daily physical and verbal abuse from Windows PC drones, just because we use a different computer.
Whatever the more ”passionate” Mac users do in the ongoing re-education of the PC masses, I say it’s fair game.
With mind/market/profit share on the up, that effort is obviously working.
The ultimate fanboy (Windows loving zombies whose job, personal life and personality require Windows to function) started all this.
We will finish it.
Great! Absolutely right!
Yes! Kill ’em all, I say! (metaphorically)
By the way, how’s Big Sam?
Yes, it’s the ignorant Winboys that usually start the crap slinging these days.
Pooh, I posted something on the Internet, and someone commented something mean about it!
Piss off!
Free speech, it’s a bitch sometimes.
“Apple ‘fanboys’ have gained a negative reputation as a hostile entity,”
Very, very poor point, I think. This has nothing to do with Apple fanboys, as such. Yet again, the finger is pointed in the direction of Apple.
Vitriol, name calling, arrogance and unthinking spewing of emotional trigger words are seen everywhere, on every topic – unless the forum in question is controlled tightly enough to simply block any such post. (Wouldn’t be bad if MDN went a bit in that direction.)
And actually, for what it’s worth, I think Apple fanboys, in general, do very well compared to Windoze and Android fans. Wow! The venom dripping off some of those forums is really something!
All right Seamus. You said it better’n me, a bit below.
I’m an avid reader of Daring Fireball. But, John Gruber is the king of Apple apologists, abandoning reason when his arguments get a little too far over the ledge.
Shawn King doesn’t interest me at all.
John will generally own up to his mistakes after he cools down.
Only if those mistakes don’t involve politics, religion, or sports. He has never once shown temperance in those 3 areas.
Does anyone else ever admit a mistake in the areas of politics, religion, or sports? Be real.
Hmm good point.
Though not everyone offers up an opinion so freely in all 3 areas.
Since this has fuck all to do with John Gruber or even Apple and everything to do with Violet Blue’s inability to take responsibility for any of her actions, your commentary is meaningless.
Indeed – Gruber was barely involved in this at all, merely reporting what was pointed out by Shawn King and other commenters on the original photograph. His own commentary is decidedly factual and un-opinionated.
I think the only reason Blue lumps him into the argument as the target of her ire is because Gruber brought this story to a much larger audience, and because his inclusion allows her to try distracting people from her poor reporting by playing the “Apple fanboy” card. As with her original “booth babe” story, she’s once again adjusting the facts to fit the story she wants to tell.
Me thinks ahe needs some of this.
Tempest in a teapot. Girls throwin’ salt on each other’s scratch wounds. Journalism my ass. Blogs is what it is and the nature of such carves out domains in the cyber space for hostile fanboys of any stripe NOT just Apple. Get it, it’s opinion and hit mongering, all of it. Only difference is VB’s instinct to shock first, ask questions later.
Why does ZDNet still exist? All they ever do is look for things to whine about and publish their negative take on it.
“At Macworld Wednesday, popular technology and sex columnist Violet Blue wrote that she saw Jobs on the show floor and decided to go talk to him.
“‘I saw that Steve Jobs was just hanging out on the Macworld Expo floor, not in conversation, not talking to anyone, and poking at his iPhone in the middle of the wandering public, so I walked over,’ Blue wrote on her SFGate.com Open Source Sex blog Thursday. ‘Thinking a girl–in this case, a fangirl, me–will never get anything if she doesn’t ask for it, I lightly touched his arm and said, “Hi.” He looked at me, and I blushingly asked if it would be OK for me to take a picture with him. I didn’t say my name or give credentials or anything else, I was just any girl. He told me curtly, flatly, that I was rude. And turned his back to me.’
“Moments later, Robert Scoble caught up with Blue and filmed her reaction to the snubbing.”
“Violet Blue: Steve Jobs snubbed me”
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-9852738-52.html
We’re way past “you can’t make this stuff up.”
She looks undead. I would`ve been upset to look upon her too.
As an Apple Fanboy, I find her mischaracterizations of what I am or those like me tend to be very ill-informed. Generally I find myself and others like me spending a good deal of time showing new Apple users tips and features of the platform and challenging myths that are pervasive and incorrect about Apple and its products. People who threaten her with violence are not Apple Fanpersons as I know them, but simply ignorant individuals that troll all forums. Lower class (intellectually speaking) society exists on all platforms and I dare say likely is found to a lessor extent among faithful Apple users.
I met Shawn King once at an Washington Apple Pi (Mac user group) event in D.C. once, he is a first Class guy. I would take his word as to what really happen.
Violet Blue is quite literally a media whore.
For a great evisceration of any of her anti-Apple rants, I refer you to the aptly named Angry Mac Bastard podcast series, soon to enter its fourth year of rage!
Clearly another self serving propagandist who cant take the heat but wants her moment in the sun. Pure hypocrite.
I recommend to watch the documentary film “Mac Heads”.
A certain Violet Blue in that movie claims to be an die-hard Apple only girl who even refuses to sleep with a Windows Guy.
So much for her Fanboy ranting.
Hypocrisy, thy name is Violet.
😉
The Lorax said it best, “THAT’S a woman???”