Evil happens...

This isn’t going to be one of my usual cheery blog entries but I think it is an important one. I have long loved a quote from Victor Frankel, “Evil happens when good people do nothing.” Consequently, I decided that what I have been going through for the last year needs to be talked about and information made available for others who may be experiencing the same thing.

As regular readers here know – especially in the last few days – this board has been plagued by comments from flamers that were so nasty and so persistent that I put the board on Moderate Comment status. These flames are just the latest in a long series of harassing behaviors directed at me by a very small, but very persistent, group of people. The situation began on a message board I was once active on. It was the sort of board where a lot of insults and jabs were traded. At first it was funny but a few people took it to a new level and it became increasingly ugly. All of that would have been tolerable but a few of those people began a second board where they had a positive orgy of nastiness largely directed at me. By last estimate there were close to a dozen threads on that board – which I never made so much as one post on – some of which were evil, invasive of my privacy, and outright libelous.

At the urging of some friends, and with the help of a legal professional, I began to look into the legal protections from such behavior a couple months ago. While I won’t detail what is going on in my situation, I can tell others who are experiencing such abuse what they can do about it.

First of all, save everything! Save the pages of the abusive and defamatory threads on the message boards, save emails, save private messages, save comments to blog pages. Virtually every message board records the IP addresses of the people who post there even when they post under a screen name. On boards such as Yahoo groups, EZBoards, Ikonboard, etc. there is an IP address feature that is usually only visible to the administrators. But those IPs are a permanent part of the record and can be tracked. The same is true of emails even those mailed from web-mail sites like Yahoo and Hotmail. Blogs and blog comments are the easiest to track, especially if the blog resides on the blogger's own FTP, as mine does.

Many states now have laws against internet harassment, defamation, and cyber-stalking, etc. Threatening behavior, abusive comments, defamatory comments, etc. are defined as “unwanted contact” and are against the law. Most police departments today have access to cyber-crime divisions and/or resources and what they can do is amazing. The police professionals in these departments are very helpful and they do not trivialize the threat of cyber-harassment. I was absolutely astonished at some of their capabilities.

Once you contact them and submit message board posts, emails, blog comments, etc. they can identify the IP addresses and track them. A few, isolated communications may not be threatening but repeated, defamatory, abusive harassments are logged, the ISP contacted, and the customer identified. Big providers like America Online, Earthlink, etc. are highly cooperative. When an IP address is identified as belonging to someone engaging in repetitive harassing behavior, their names and addresses can be logged and their harassing behavior tracked. My hosting service automatically logs all referrers (visitors to my sites) and allows me to “flag” ones that I identify as problem visitors. From that point on I can always tell when they post or attempt to post comments to my blog.

This isn’t a fun thing to be involved in but, as Frankel points out, if you let people continue to behave in a criminal manner, you contribute to their evil. If the unwanted contact persists, you have legal recourse – whether it is something as common as filing a restraining order against them to pressing charges.

One very good web site for gaining information is the National Center for the Victims of Crimes - Cyber Division . I am also accumulating other references and resources at: Information for those being harassed and stalked online. (more info added 12/17).

As I have been talking more openly about my experiences with cyber-harassment, I have discovered that I am not alone – others are going through the same thing. Whether it is someone directly threatening you or just using the internet to perpetrate lies, ridicule you, or in any other way defame you, there are resources available to stop it. Leslie Wind and I are planning a Know Your Neighbor type event to inform people in this area of what we have learned about fighting cyber-crime. It is something that needs to be identified and talked about.

I just want to be able to have a nice blog without having to be under siege from flamers. I realize that there will always be those who don’t like what I have to say and register objections – that is fine. But telling me my ideas are crap is a far cry from impugning my character, telling lies about my behavior, denegrating my character and my person, etc. Fortunately, I got good advice and steps have been taken to identify and monitor those perpetuating the harassment. If you are in such a position I urge you to begin keeping a record NOW, check out the laws in your area, and contact your local authorities. Internet abuse IS A CRIME! Help stop it.

Thanks for reading.

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