Do You Know How To Deal With a Cyberstalker?
Written by Matt B · first published 14/02/2008
Happy valentines (what's left of it) - I hope your love life is going well even if the local blogging is not.
The big buzz across the Thanet blogs is the closing of a prominent blog (I'll not link as solicitors threats are not nice and I can not be bothered to pay lots of money to defend my right to an opinion), the defacement of another (allegedly, but I've not looked into it) and the mentioning of other forms of blog based harassment.
Let us be quite clear that we are discussing not only trolling (posting volatile or inflammatory comments for the reaction) but also illegal harassment. The more "famous" a blog and it's blogger the more that personality will become the target of the attention of others. This is normal but death threats are a crime and should not be tolerated.
Cyber bullying was one of the issues at the heart of Internet Safety Day but it does not just happen to teenagers (a third of all kids have experienced this according to some sources). It also happens to bloggers of all levels, ages and political leanings.
Who can forget the high profile harassment of Kathy Sierra who not only stopped blogging but canceled speaking engagements and was to scared to leave her house (Wikipedia article). Then there is the story of the 78-year-old Holocaust survivor attacked by a nutter who traveled a very long way to carry out his threats. This form of behaviour has prompted repeated calls for a "blogger's code of conduct" and one of the reasons I have a written comments policy.
In that gray space between the cut and thrust of a hot debate and the need for arrests there is a lot you can do to protect yourself. There are also some things that you can expect if you get mildly famous. Things that (often) go with the territory.
Even without fame you can pick up weirdo followers. I myself picked up a stalker that appeared to be operating within the Thanet Council's Benefit department. My crime - I said on another blog that Desk One was not a nice place to be (before the "gateway" was built it was, frankly, a dehumanising nightmare. I have no idea what the new solution is like.).
If you actually gain real fame you can expect every rising blogger to disagree with you on some pointless issue and you should expect to be examined very closely. From then on everything you do and say, every thing the public You will be very much like a small flightless bird watched by hungry wolves for the moment you blink at which point your every failure will be capitalised on. It is at this stage that you discover if you have been too "big headed" or "sufficiently humble" to ride it out.
You can expect that any action or statement that is less than 100% transparent will be analysed in minute detail and any sign of egotistical bragging will be slammed, hard. After this if you are still going then you have the right stuff. If you have blogged well and have not been too much of a stuck up jerk you will find that you have floods of fans defending you.
It's not nice but it is a chicken coop in there (blogging) and every hen is trying to peck it's way to the top of the chain. (If you have much experience of chickens you will know that they do not have much mercy and a sharp beak). You need to have broad shoulders and the ability to laugh at yourself especially when the "<<Famous Blogger>:>: ate my hamster" stories crop up - it's just a sign you are going in the right direction.
Rude comments, personal insults and stalking are not.
About the worst thing you can do is "sink to their level" and join in the mud flinging (like the local Conservative and the Labour camps like to do). Trolls and bullies want a reaction - starve them of that and they will go elsewhere. Aside from the ability to phone the police this non-reaction is where your power to be safe comes from.
The number one method for dealing with trolls (those that post volatile comments for the reaction) is the single rule of thumb: "Do Not Feed The Trolls". This can be applied to a degree to cyberstalking but when we get to this level we are not talking about an irritation but a reason to phone the local police. Cyber crime (aka e-crime) is something one such (ex?) blogger is supposed to be an expert on and sadly our police are utterly ill quipped to deal with.
Aside from the rights that you may need to research to push the police into protecting you there are things that you the Internet user can do to empower yourself. Even in Thanet.
The first area of empowerment is your own blog. Not only can you post about the bullying but you can maintain a safe area in the blog - the comments. You have the power - use it.
Do not let the bullies harass you into leaving comments up that you are not comfortable with. You can delete them on almost all platforms and as the blog owner you have that right. On some platforms you can edit them. You have that right too.
Even more effective is to reduce the junk comment to nothingness a method known as Disemvoweling. This painful sounding technique removes the letters A, E, I, O and U thus rendering the text very hard to read. Xeni Jardin, co-editor of Boing Boing, says of the practice, "the dialogue stays, but the misanthrope looks ridiculous, and the emotional sting is neutralized." [link].
I have in my more geek like moments been known to write plugins that help do this. This one is for Nucleus CMS. Other platforms have plug ins or add ons for this too.
The point is not the technique that you use to assert your control over your own space it is only that you do. In a way, dealing with trolls online can be thought of as having to different parts - Ignoring the stupid stuff and deleting what you wish from your own space. Beyond that you have to do what Princess Dianna, Micheal Jackson, Bonno, Sarah Michelle Geller, Brittny Spears and all the others must do - cope or go under.
Blogging is great until you get good at it and then everyone wants a slice of you (especially in Thanet for some reason). There are no easy answers to the downside of the cult of celebrity but there are some basic principles that you can apply. After that it's all just a contest to see who gets the strangest stalker.
The big buzz across the Thanet blogs is the closing of a prominent blog (I'll not link as solicitors threats are not nice and I can not be bothered to pay lots of money to defend my right to an opinion), the defacement of another (allegedly, but I've not looked into it) and the mentioning of other forms of blog based harassment.
Let us be quite clear that we are discussing not only trolling (posting volatile or inflammatory comments for the reaction) but also illegal harassment. The more "famous" a blog and it's blogger the more that personality will become the target of the attention of others. This is normal but death threats are a crime and should not be tolerated.
Cyber bullying was one of the issues at the heart of Internet Safety Day but it does not just happen to teenagers (a third of all kids have experienced this according to some sources). It also happens to bloggers of all levels, ages and political leanings.
Who can forget the high profile harassment of Kathy Sierra who not only stopped blogging but canceled speaking engagements and was to scared to leave her house (Wikipedia article). Then there is the story of the 78-year-old Holocaust survivor attacked by a nutter who traveled a very long way to carry out his threats. This form of behaviour has prompted repeated calls for a "blogger's code of conduct" and one of the reasons I have a written comments policy.
In that gray space between the cut and thrust of a hot debate and the need for arrests there is a lot you can do to protect yourself. There are also some things that you can expect if you get mildly famous. Things that (often) go with the territory.
Even without fame you can pick up weirdo followers. I myself picked up a stalker that appeared to be operating within the Thanet Council's Benefit department. My crime - I said on another blog that Desk One was not a nice place to be (before the "gateway" was built it was, frankly, a dehumanising nightmare. I have no idea what the new solution is like.).
If you actually gain real fame you can expect every rising blogger to disagree with you on some pointless issue and you should expect to be examined very closely. From then on everything you do and say, every thing the public You will be very much like a small flightless bird watched by hungry wolves for the moment you blink at which point your every failure will be capitalised on. It is at this stage that you discover if you have been too "big headed" or "sufficiently humble" to ride it out.
You can expect that any action or statement that is less than 100% transparent will be analysed in minute detail and any sign of egotistical bragging will be slammed, hard. After this if you are still going then you have the right stuff. If you have blogged well and have not been too much of a stuck up jerk you will find that you have floods of fans defending you.
It's not nice but it is a chicken coop in there (blogging) and every hen is trying to peck it's way to the top of the chain. (If you have much experience of chickens you will know that they do not have much mercy and a sharp beak). You need to have broad shoulders and the ability to laugh at yourself especially when the "<<Famous Blogger>:>: ate my hamster" stories crop up - it's just a sign you are going in the right direction.
Rude comments, personal insults and stalking are not.
About the worst thing you can do is "sink to their level" and join in the mud flinging (like the local Conservative and the Labour camps like to do). Trolls and bullies want a reaction - starve them of that and they will go elsewhere. Aside from the ability to phone the police this non-reaction is where your power to be safe comes from.
The number one method for dealing with trolls (those that post volatile comments for the reaction) is the single rule of thumb: "Do Not Feed The Trolls". This can be applied to a degree to cyberstalking but when we get to this level we are not talking about an irritation but a reason to phone the local police. Cyber crime (aka e-crime) is something one such (ex?) blogger is supposed to be an expert on and sadly our police are utterly ill quipped to deal with.
Aside from the rights that you may need to research to push the police into protecting you there are things that you the Internet user can do to empower yourself. Even in Thanet.
The first area of empowerment is your own blog. Not only can you post about the bullying but you can maintain a safe area in the blog - the comments. You have the power - use it.
Do not let the bullies harass you into leaving comments up that you are not comfortable with. You can delete them on almost all platforms and as the blog owner you have that right. On some platforms you can edit them. You have that right too.
Even more effective is to reduce the junk comment to nothingness a method known as Disemvoweling. This painful sounding technique removes the letters A, E, I, O and U thus rendering the text very hard to read. Xeni Jardin, co-editor of Boing Boing, says of the practice, "the dialogue stays, but the misanthrope looks ridiculous, and the emotional sting is neutralized." [link].
I have in my more geek like moments been known to write plugins that help do this. This one is for Nucleus CMS. Other platforms have plug ins or add ons for this too.
The point is not the technique that you use to assert your control over your own space it is only that you do. In a way, dealing with trolls online can be thought of as having to different parts - Ignoring the stupid stuff and deleting what you wish from your own space. Beyond that you have to do what Princess Dianna, Micheal Jackson, Bonno, Sarah Michelle Geller, Brittny Spears and all the others must do - cope or go under.
Blogging is great until you get good at it and then everyone wants a slice of you (especially in Thanet for some reason). There are no easy answers to the downside of the cult of celebrity but there are some basic principles that you can apply. After that it's all just a contest to see who gets the strangest stalker.
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