Is fandom real? A case of cyberstalking.
Aug. 27th, 2011 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icarusIs fandom real?
Are our fandom spaces, or our other online haunts like Facebook and Twitter, actual places where we can be stalked, menaced, hunted?
Can we be driven out of our fandom spaces even if they don't occupy physical space (like say, a grocery store)?
If fandom is real, and if we can be driven away from our online friends and made to feel unsafe ... then how vicious does the attacker have to be to cross the line from troll to stalker?
Does it matter who the stalker is in real life? Do threats matter more if the person is an ex-con with a history of violence, versus a pimply ninth grader from the suburbs?
Does it matter how extensive the attack is? We've all probably had a troll for a day or two or three. I even had a wank go on for, oh God, about three weeks before it finally trickled off. What if the attack goes on daily, all day, for two years and amounts to over 8,000 Twitter posts? The New York Times has the story.
I watched this situation unfold and saw the posts this guy and his girlfriend made. They were ugly, crude and misogynistic -- and I could tell when he was posting from his girlfriend's account because he got a lot more sexual, and not in a good way.
And yes, this is the same guy who copy-pasted LJ posts I made to slam me, which caused me to lock this journal and take my fic down from my website.
Are our fandom spaces, or our other online haunts like Facebook and Twitter, actual places where we can be stalked, menaced, hunted?
Can we be driven out of our fandom spaces even if they don't occupy physical space (like say, a grocery store)?
If fandom is real, and if we can be driven away from our online friends and made to feel unsafe ... then how vicious does the attacker have to be to cross the line from troll to stalker?
Does it matter who the stalker is in real life? Do threats matter more if the person is an ex-con with a history of violence, versus a pimply ninth grader from the suburbs?
Does it matter how extensive the attack is? We've all probably had a troll for a day or two or three. I even had a wank go on for, oh God, about three weeks before it finally trickled off. What if the attack goes on daily, all day, for two years and amounts to over 8,000 Twitter posts? The New York Times has the story.
I watched this situation unfold and saw the posts this guy and his girlfriend made. They were ugly, crude and misogynistic -- and I could tell when he was posting from his girlfriend's account because he got a lot more sexual, and not in a good way.
And yes, this is the same guy who copy-pasted LJ posts I made to slam me, which caused me to lock this journal and take my fic down from my website.