Re: How to NOT feed the kooks was OT Re: Someone's Legal Name


"Enzo Matrix" <enzo55@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uN-dnXeInNnqxFXanZ2dnUVZ8smgnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
George Shirley wrote:
Charlotte L. Blackmer wrote:
In article <fq72gq$5k18o_004@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Little Malice <Little.Malice@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
One time on Usenet, clb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Charlotte L. Blackmer)
said:
In article <62n7c9F23urcsU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Ophelia
<O@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: <snip>

If you were being attacked in this way, how long could you
restrain yourself from defending yourself?
Do a google groups search on my full name as a phrase - both with
and without the initial - and get back to me on that. I've had
one particular pet kook for over a dozen years now.
Wow. I'm really sorry about that, Charlotte. I witnessed one death
threat to a friend 12 years ago and it scared me enough to stop
using my legal last name. I can't imagine what you've been through.
I feel sort of cowardly now...

You know, I would never think you were. There are a lot of good
reasons to use pseudonyms, as I well know. Anyway, sometimes I am
too damn stubborn for my own good ;). There are plenty of people
using screen names who are "present as themselves" and not doing
anything
that would qualify as "hiding behind a keyboard". That last is, of
course, a sad fact of internet life - it's a true mark of character
to see what someone does when s/he is assured of being able to "get
away with it", and many people on the Net fail that particular test.

In places with a good tradition of offline social interaction (like
RFC!), there's less of that nonsense. Long-term also helps.

(Mind you, Asshats Hiding Behind Keyboards are the reason that
moderated web fora are so popular these days. I think most of them
have taken to drive-by comments on blogs, or on news sites these
days.) If my kooks weren't basically cowards, I would have done the
following: 1) filed a police report
2) change accounts and disappear for a while
3) target practice for self-defense

Now the thing I won't go anywhere near these days is posting from a
work account or through an employer's system (and that counts posting
through Google Groups). When I was first on usenet, I was on a
company account. (It was early days, so there was no AUP then. But
I will note that I was often there evenings doing system work.) It
was, however, scary when I acquired StalkerBoy by the simple
expedient of turning down his request for a date - he knew where I
worked. In later days, I have become one of those people who sets up
that
sort of infrastructure at the office and investigates abuse reports,
so I so don't want to go there. ;)

ObFood: Will read and interpret Internet headers for it.

Charlotte


About 8 or 9 years ago an elderly woman who was a member of a mailing
list I used to run decided she was going to "get" me. Lots of foul
language, threats, etc. Banned her from the mailing list, started
getting emails direct. Finally called the police where she lived and
filed a complaint of stalking. In a few days they called me, had
arrested her, she was undergoing psychiatric testing. Ultimately they
let me know she had been hospitalized and was being treated for
schizophrenia. Some folks on the internet truly are kooks. Anyway I
never heard from her again and have no idea of the ultimate results of
her hospitalization.

I would say you behaved responsibly and in fact acted in her best
interests.

Something to think about eh Enzo?


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