MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Seriousness Do avatar images influence your impression of personality?

Stitchawl · 11-30-2009, 07:17 PM

Using your real name on a public forum is fine... right up to the point where a couple of cyber-stalkers latch on to it and make thousands of posts in your name, make websites in your name, and follow you around the Internet corrupting everything you say in every group you say it in.

I've seen two very nice, very helpful people, both National Geographic photographers, hounded off Internet photography forums (one was the author of the "NatGeo Guidebook to Photography") by these crazies. It was a loss to all photographers in those forums, and now there are hundreds of posts about these people filled with false information that, because of the shear volumes posted by the stalkers, shows up on the first page of a Google search when you type in their names. Reputations ruined!

Another fellow, an ophthalmologist from the US had so much personal information publicly posted about him by cyber-stalkers (including his tax returns, employment history, college grades, military and police records, fake newspaper articles, etc.,) that the HMO that employed him let him go because they didn't want the publicity, his wife left him, and he finally committed suicide!Nothing could be done to stop the stalkers as they were posting behind double-blind anonymous ISPs.

I'm just one person but I've already personally seen the very serious effects on three different people, and the not-so-serious effects on dozens of others who have been hounded off Usenet sites. I have a feeling that most folks have experienced Usenet at some point, which is why many of us here now prefer moderated groups.

$50 to an Internet Net Detective site will get you all that information in a few days, and anyone with the $50 can have it... about you. After going through all the legal channels, I've discovered that there is no way to stop this sort of action. Unless you can prove that a particular person was actually sitting at the keyboard at the time of the posting, there is no way (according to the FBI and the various Internet protection groups,) of getting any legal action to stop these people. Look at what is involved in getting illegally used copyrighted material removed from a free hosting site like Tripod. It's almost an impossibility to get Google to remove slanderous material, even if you're the president of a country! Facebook? Blogs?

Use your own name with care. Being stalked is not fun.

Stitchawl

11-30-2009, 07:17 PM	#60
Stitchawl Opsimath Posts: 12,344 Karma: 187123287 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand Device: Sony PRS-650, iPhone 5, Kobo Glo, Sony PRS-350, iPad, Samsung Galaxy	Using your real name on a public forum is fine... right up to the point where a couple of cyber-stalkers latch on to it and make thousands of posts in your name, make websites in your name, and follow you around the Internet corrupting everything you say in every group you say it in. I've seen two very nice, very helpful people, both National Geographic photographers, hounded off Internet photography forums (one was the author of the "NatGeo Guidebook to Photography") by these crazies. It was a loss to all photographers in those forums, and now there are hundreds of posts about these people filled with false information that, because of the shear volumes posted by the stalkers, shows up on the first page of a Google search when you type in their names. Reputations ruined! Another fellow, an ophthalmologist from the US had so much personal information publicly posted about him by cyber-stalkers (including his tax returns, employment history, college grades, military and police records, fake newspaper articles, etc.,) that the HMO that employed him let him go because they didn't want the publicity, his wife left him, and he finally committed suicide!Nothing could be done to stop the stalkers as they were posting behind double-blind anonymous ISPs. I'm just one person but I've already personally seen the very serious effects on three different people, and the not-so-serious effects on dozens of others who have been hounded off Usenet sites. I have a feeling that most folks have experienced Usenet at some point, which is why many of us here now prefer moderated groups. $50 to an Internet Net Detective site will get you all that information in a few days, and anyone with the $50 can have it... about you. After going through all the legal channels, I've discovered that there is no way to stop this sort of action. Unless you can prove that a particular person was actually sitting at the keyboard at the time of the posting, there is no way (according to the FBI and the various Internet protection groups,) of getting any legal action to stop these people. Look at what is involved in getting illegally used copyrighted material removed from a free hosting site like Tripod. It's almost an impossibility to get Google to remove slanderous material, even if you're the president of a country! Facebook? Blogs? Use your own name with care. Being stalked is not fun. Stitchawl Last edited by Stitchawl; 11-30-2009 at 07:20 PM.