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fubarobfusco comments on Open Thread, December 16-31, 2012 - Less Wrong
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This isn't uncommon at all. A lot of bloggers who discuss anything controversial receive death threats, rape threats, or other threats of violence. Fortunately, the threateners are almost always Internet Tough Guys, all keyboard and no fists.
I've been targeted by an online stalker once over stuff on Wikipedia — fortunately he was incompetent and the personal information he posted about me was obsolete. (Ironically enough, he thought of himself as a privacy activist. Self-righteousness is strong in that one.) An ex-girlfriend of mine who blogs about mental health issues has been repeatedly harassed, had private email messages leaked and posted online, and has been threatened repeatedly. And some organizations (e.g. Scientology) have quite a reputation for attacking people who criticize them online (or in print) ....
I was aware of this for specific things, (e.g. blogging about gender and sexuality issues, or the weirder parts of reddit or 4chan). But I'd always thought of wikipedia as a nice friendly place. Basically I thought it was a risk you took on in certain areas not a general background thing.
The vast majority of activity on Wikipedia is nice and friendly. But some of that minority, well...
(More in high-conflict areas than elsewhere, yes, but crazy people are everywhere. Articles get written on obscure subjects because no matter what the topic is, someone is obsessive about it. But people go crazy about unexpected topics, because no matter what the topic is, someone is obsessive about it...)
Wikipedia doesn't have a culture that promotes being awful to people, the way that some sites do — but it's a high-value target.