Fandom Discussion -- Online Safety

[themostepotente]

This is going to be radically different, I think, from anything I post here.

Some of you may have noticed I have a stalker. This clown I don't perceive as a threat, but there are a lot of scary people out there that would take sending an IM a step further.

Nobody should have to live in fear. Nobody should have to feel like they need to keep their identity hidden to feel safe. It should be a choice 'not' a requirement.

This isn't just about fandom, folks -- this is about keeping safe, so I'm opening up a discussion and encouraging those in fandom to speak up or out, whichever :-)

How much information about yourself is too much to share? When is it okay to trust?

If you have any advice about keeping safe, please come and share it.

If you have a story to tell about being stalked, please, come and share that too.

The holidays are upon us, and some people are especially vulnerable this time of year. And yeah, I know this kinda sounds like a public service announcement, but somebody's advice might save another's life.

Thank you,

--Penny

Comments

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

I was stalked by an ex-bf in the early 90s (no internet angle unless you count the fact that I'd originally met him through a BBS). Cruising slowly past my workplace or the route I walked from work to the bus stop to get home, circling the bus stop when I was waiting for the bus, making false reports to the police claiming I'd called him from my mom's place threatening to kill myself (when I'd just moved out of my mom's apartment into my own place and didn't even have a phone), lurking in my neighborhood, following my friends around... it only stopped when I moved to another state. I did talk to the police at one point, and they asked me if he owned a gun, etc, but otherwise didn't pursue it.

I've been semi-cyberstalked by another ex. Around the time we broke up he moved to another city, and after not being in touch for a long time we started chatting in email, then on AIM. At the time I was with someone else, and the ex started making innapropriate sexual comments when we chatted. I told him to cut it out, he didn't, I changed my SN. Now he makes vaguely hostile comments in my journal once every few months, just often enough to make me a bit uneasy.