Annie Wortham wrote:
Over the last few weeks, I have suddenly begun receiving massive amounts of pornographic emails, not just on my main account, but on every single account where I have website space. These accounts are never used for email and I have NEVER, in years on the internet, received spam at any of those addresses. I also have received a pornographic message in my guest book at my main website for the first time ever.
Yesterday, while attempting to find the source of this Internet Vandalism,
I
discovered a newsgroup post that called for an "attack" on my website.
Please read the entire newsgroup thread at:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&ic=1&th=f...,
8& seekm=9d4emm%249k1%241%40slb7.atl.mindspring.net#p
If you will click on the website link of the person posting the disturbing messages, I think many of you will be saddened and surprised to find a rather
prolific
member of this Lyst as the perpetrator. I don't know what to make of this behavior. I'm still coming to terms with it. Until it happened, I wouldn't have expected a fan to do this to another fan.
Julia Jones wrote:
This format will make it easier to use:
I used Julia Jone's url. When you use it, be careful to delete the space that the computer puts in at the line break.
I personally have no use for this Lysator person ever since she attacked me last year for telling people to buy ZENITH and support B7 fandom. She and some others (and I have no use for them either) accused me of using a guilt trip on people. While everyone is entitled to an opinion, I just decided then and there that Lysator really wasn't a list I was very interested in. And that was also reinforced recently when another bunch of posters made such unkind remarks to various people that people started unsubbing. I still miss Penny Dreadful who is a delightful talented fan whose feelings were very hurt.
I only stay on the list to pick up the rare GT news bits, the general B7 news, and to read occasional posts by people who are friends or posters who normally say something of value or interest to me. I regularly delete 50-80% of Lysator without reading it. Sometimes I delete entire digests. I think recently I didn't read one digest for something like three weeks straight. I could tell another argument was brewing when somedays I had to delete four-five digests unread.
There are many people on Lysator who in my opinion should simply be ignored. The inane arguments which last for weeks could not exist if the people on the list who have some common sense, brains, and courtesy would just ignore the posters who seem to thrive on conflict and whose seeming only purpose is to stir up trouble. And some of the posters are frankly so unbelievably rude and mean I frankly wish Calle would unsub them after they have made two or three rude or vicious remarks to other list members. That is one of things I really despise about this list--that such rude behaviour is tolerated.
I think what is happening to Annie is totally uncalled for. It's one thing to be having an argument with a person on the list---it's quite uncalled for to carry that argument onto another list. And electronic vandalism of any sort should never be tolerated.
You have my sympathy and support, Annie. I would hope that most of the Lysator is disguested by the attack and also by the people doing it and also the people who seem to support it or encourage it.
And personally I find some of the current posters to be totally creepy. I do not understand why Lysator attracks some of the mean people it does.
As a teacher in public school for 16 years, I am very aware of how one bad student can ruin a classroom of 30 students, most of whom are very nice. It is so sad to think that about five to perhaps ten people over the course of the last year have made Lysator a very unpleasant list to be on at times.
Thank goodness, there is Freedom City. And if worse comes to worse on Lysator, I am just going to have to hope that the GT and B7 news I want to get also gets posted there because, at least, on that list these deliberate rude and personal attacks by some posters on other posters would not be tolerated.
Anyway, Annie, keep your chin up. And thank you, also, for making us aware of what is happening.
Joyce
Joyce, my apologies if you get this twice, but you did say you'd been deleting digests, and I wanted to be sure you had a chance to see this.
JEB31538@cs.com wrote:
Annie Wortham wrote:
Over the last few weeks, I have suddenly begun receiving massive amounts of pornographic emails, not just on my main account, but on every single account where I have website space. These accounts are never used for email and I have NEVER, in years on the internet, received spam at any of those addresses. I also have received a pornographic message in my guest book at my main website for the first time ever.
Yesterday, while attempting to find the source of this Internet Vandalism,
I
discovered a newsgroup post that called for an "attack" on my website.
Please read the entire newsgroup thread at:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&ic=1&th=f...,
8& seekm=9d4emm%249k1%241%40slb7.atl.mindspring.net#p
If you will click on the website link of the person posting the disturbing messages, I think many of you will be saddened and surprised to find a rather
prolific
member of this Lyst as the perpetrator. I don't know what to make of this behavior. I'm still coming to terms with it. Until it happened, I wouldn't have expected a fan to do this to another fan.
Julia Jones wrote:
This format will make it easier to use:
I used Julia Jone's url. When you use it, be careful to delete the space that the computer puts in at the line break.
I personally have no use for this Lysator person ever since she attacked me last year for telling people to buy ZENITH and support B7 fandom. She and some others (and I have no use for them either) accused me of using a guilt trip on people.
Excuse me, but this is a mistake.
(1) I'm the person who used the term 'guilt trip' in the Zenith thread. I didn't do it to hurt you, Joyce, but to let you know - after the topic was already being discussed - why one particular thing you wrote might be construed as hurtful by others. I am baffled why letting you know that _I_ was hurt by something _you_ said should be considered an attack on you - I guess I'm just stupid for thinking you might want to avoid hurting people.
(2) I completely abhor the attack on Annie, and am not involved in it. The person who has launched this attack has referenced a post by Leah, replying to me - I have no control over what posts are pointed to in the archive. This is not my doing, and I'm hurt by my identity and position being misrepresented in this way (by the attacker, not by you, Joyce; I assume you are making an honest mistake here).
(3) I'm genuinely sorry that I haven't always been able to express myself in ways you find acceptable; however, that works both ways. Sometimes it seems impossible to communicate one's ideas in ways that all Lystians will find both comprehensible and kind - I do try, but we all have different ideas of what that _is_. I have appreciated your contribution to the Lyst, and I hope it settles down very soon to something you can be comfortable with.
My apologies to other Lystians for this use of bandwidth, but I wanted to correct any false impression that I am collaborating in this unprincipled and deplorable attack on Annie.
Mistral
"JEB31538" == JEB31538 JEB31538@cs.com writes:
So I'm reading this very late and it's hopefully all over, but I feel I should make some sort of response and this was a good post to hang it off of.
There are many people on Lysator who in my opinion should simply be ignored.
You are of course completely free to do so, as is everyone else.
The inane arguments which last for weeks could not exist if the people on the list who have some common sense, brains, and courtesy would just ignore the posters who seem to thrive on conflict and whose seeming only purpose is to stir up trouble.
True. And I must say that overall I am quite pleased with how you all on the list have handled the latest debacle. I have seen far worse responses to kooks and trolls. I also hope that you will remember this when the next kook appears, so that you all start ignoring it earlier.
And some of the posters are frankly so unbelievably rude and mean I frankly wish Calle would unsub them after they have made two or three rude or vicious remarks to other list members. That is one of things I really despise about this list--that such rude behaviour is tolerated.
Any freedom of expression worth the name must necessarily include the freedom to behave like a complete and total asshole. If you want a list where rudeness is outlawed, you'll have to start your own (or, of course, wait until someone else does it).
The correct response to someone who is being rude on the net is not to try and shut them up, it is to stop listening to them and to not reply to their posts. By using killfiles (or, with more sophisticated software, filters and prioritisers) it is easy to do so.
And electronic vandalism of any sort should never be tolerated.
Very much true. The proper response to _that_ level of misbehaviour is to contact the relevant abuse authorities (if it's hard to figure out who that is, ask the abuse people at your own ISP to help find out where to send complaints) and have them deal with the problem in RL.
And personally I find some of the current posters to be totally creepy. I do not understand why Lysator attracks some of the mean people it does.
As of this moment, we have about 250 people on the list. I don't think it's realistic to expect _all_ of them to be nice.