I have filed a trouble ticket against the user harassing me - what do the FA mods do? Delete my journal entry and all the information contained therein for calling out a person who is by his own admission mentally ill and threatening to stalk, rape, and steal from me. I have lost all the information in that post, all the names and links posted.
And no one has even replied to my trouble ticket against him. It's been up there for a WEEK.
I am so angry and disappointed with FA's handling of this. This man is DANGEROUS to me, he has posted MY PRIVATE INFORMATION, PHOTOS OF ME, THREATS AGAINST ME, but FA decides to punish the woman, not the man. What the hell?
I have been so shaken up by this whole experience that I don't feel safe here any more. FA mods don't care about my personal safety, or the personal safety of other women with Qarrezel suits whom this man might harass.
I will be leaving FA for good. Whether I will also delete my account is up in the air, since I know some people have favourited my photos of themselves. I'll let you know before doing so.
Whether you read this before you leave, I am so sorry for you and your situation. No one should ever feel the way you do nor should anyone have what happened to you happen to them. Though I know not the people in this situation, a beautiful lady as yourself should be treated with grace and respect. And for you to be punished for going through what you went through isn't cool. You should be happy, and if leaving fa is what you need to do, so be it. But I want to wish you the best in whatever path you choose.
I really wish you safety and good health, and I hope this guy gets a life and leaves you alone. People like him need help, and to re-evaluate their lives. :/ Take care! <3
let me get my thing and do my evl thing to the guy (my way of bleeping) FA is really fucked up for not adressing this issue. cant blame you for leaving
For helvetes skyld. Viste at Fa var fjern men antok ikke de var så fjerne >=( sist jeg sjekket linkene Swandog ga til meg var bilder av deg slettet, jeg kan se om jeg kan finne tilbake de hvis du ønsker.
Jeg skjønner utrolig godt at du vil dra, selv om jeg syns det er utrolig synd =/ Faen ta FA folka.
I find that rather repulsive, and I've been through a similar situation myself.. that's really mortifying and absolutely awful FA won't do anything about the matter. I wish you the best of luck, Taran. It's unfortunate things have gone this far, it'll be somewhat empty without you here, however you must do what's right.
I hope everything gets sorted, no one should have to live in fear like that. It's so wrong.
Indeed, what the fuck FA. I'm really sorry that this happened to you. I think that's because of new admins that do what they please - after all, they've been chosen only based on their experience that wasn't confirmed in any way. You should probably contact main admin Dragoneer and demand action - treat this all not as the reaction of fA, but one dumbass admin that has been hired recently. If Dragoneer gives similar reply, then it's another story... but you should try contacting local authorities - they have methods for dealing with this kind of stuff, even if it's international. Probably you should even do that now. I'm telling you this because harassing you person is probably going to follow you on other websites, not only fA. Leaving fA won't solve the problem. If this man is really dangerous to you, you should contact local police and let them deal with it.
Anyway, best of wishes to you. I lack words for the situation :I
Oh, crap. This sucks majorly, and you are absolutely doing the right thing in not taking that kind of shit from FA. Have you talked to the police? Stalking is a serious matter...
I also hope this won't deter you from coming to EF as usual, but I would understand if it did. :( You will probably want to let the security staff know about the issue. Maybe keep the phone numbers of a few trusted friends on quick-dial, too, if only for your peace of mind.
Wow... I have nothing really to say because why say anything? This is honestly to out of pure stupidity on the admins, unless if they just did not want to deal with it. I would indeed contact maybe dragoneer and maybe some action will be taken but I honestly have no clue if that admin was even the one who 'helped' you out this way. I hope not. Out of experience trying to deal with some people here I to feel the same way, or at least being ignored because I have reported multiple people, of course not for the same reason but just for being extremely ignorant or 'trolling' my account to make sure no one sees my stuff because I am "Not good enough."
You are certainly in my good hopes deary, I hope this situation passes and we can continue seeing your wonderful cosplay. <3
It's a pity that it's had to come to this. Though the complete lack of regard for an endangered woman's safety by those in power is not surprising. I'm sure they believe the lies spun by this cretin that is stalking you. Hopefully someone finds him in a dark alley and gives him a good lesson. Just don't be afraid to stand for yourself. Never let him control you though fear. That is just one more way that he can victimize you, never passively let yourself be the victim. If you can, stand your ground and fight. If you don't know how then you must learn to. The world is getting to be a darker place for womenfolk because cretins like this are not being curbed like they should.
Hey Taran! I feel what you are doing is very right and I hope that you at least go to the police, since these guys arent doing a damn thing to help you. Leaving this place is something I agree with, these people are no help. Inn the mean time, however, don't forget to pop by the Clockwork stream! We miss ya buddy! <3
Honestly, if the admin(s) responsibly here cannot even get THAT right then there is sod all hope. The hell with FA. Punish the one being wronged and do sweet FA (yeah really! that means FUCK ALL) about the one harassing you.
;w; although its hard to see you go, i agree with your move. I really hope that this gets straightened out soon cuz this has gone on for far too long without any help from higher ups. Maybe the police would actually help
I feel so utterly heartsick over this whole mess...I don't even know what to say, except that I support you wherever you go, and whatever you do, I'll be there for you, sis. <3 *hugs a puppygryph tight*
It is disheartening to hear of your departure, and to a greater extent, the callousness of admins. Safe Journey to you, and may you always breath life and vitality into your Clockwork characters and all those thereafter.
"Dragoneer Posted: 6 hours ago The admin took the right course of action in this case. I don't feel it's something to leave FA over, as if it happened on FA, it will happen on /any/ site. It's unfortunate, but a choice they have made. I'll respect that."
This sadly only cements my decision to leave FA and showcases perfectly why I don't believe this site cares about the safety of its users.
Dragoneer completely fails to comprehend the situation, as is obvious from his response. This is not something that will happen on /any/ site: I am not leaving FA because of the user harassing me, I am leaving because of the moderator(s) who chose to completely disregard my personal safety and the violation of my privacy (having my real name, age, location, job, and photos of my face posted to this site and others) to protect the privacy of my stalker's online alias.
And I am not 'they'. I am 'she'. The man harassing me is 'he'. This is really the crux of the issue. Is it any wonder that there are so few female furries when no steps are taken by those with the means to protect their safety in a highly sexualised community where, just by identifying as furry, they are labelled as 'attention whores' and made the targets of unwanted sexual advances?
This was not a choice I made. I was forced to do this, because of the FA moderator(s) unwillingness to take seriously the violation of my privacy and the threat against me. I have been a contributing member of this site for 2½ years; the user harassing me has posted nothing but stolen art, threats, and lies. There have been no consequences for him, only for me.
After this experience, of being sexually harassed and threatened, of having my cry for help silenced by those supposed to protect me, and after having a local furry 'out' me to my family without my consent, another violation of my privacy, and the local furry community tell me I was to blame, I have lost my faith in the community's ability to police itself.
I will not be participating in any conventions this year, neither CFz nor EF. I am on the verge of completely severing ties with the furry community at large - not my friends within it, of course, but I will be turning my fursuits into cosplays and I will no longer self-identify as a furry. Maybe in time, I will not feel so angry and disillusioned - but it will be a long time, I think.
It's so damn sad it had to come to this. I hope wherever my stalker is, he realises how much he has hurt me - and stays away from me. As for Dragoneer - he'll respect my decision to leave? Bullshit. If he had any respect for me, any at all, I wouldn't have to.
This is complete bullshit on dragoneers part, this isn't just some guy stealing photos and being nasty behind his little tv screen, this is serious threats and very real harassment. 'Neer should be treating it as such.
I am sorry to see you leave, I took pictures of you at CFz last year and I was hoping to again, however I fully understand why you will not associate with this fandom anymore.
From one female furry to another. You will be missed.
Does this guy harass you on FA itself? If so, can you send me a note linking to this harassment? (Be it comments, notes, whatever)
Did you block him yet?
Now, our rules state that callout journals are not allowed, as such, the admin in question did take the right action regarding the journal itself. However, if there is any evidence of the guy harassing you on this site, there must be more we can do. Send me anything you've got. (cerberusnl[at]furaffinity.net, if you prefer)
Now, I must ask you to please understand that, if all of this is happening outside of FA, we have very little we can do against this person, since he's not technically breaking any site rules.
Also, please understand that we can't prevent him from doing anything off of FA.
Look at the time stamps on Qoph's comment and mine, here. I said I'd look into it before Q commented. In the meantime, I went to bed (timezones are a bitch).
I knew who was involved in this, I just didn't know all the details, hence the need to look into it. (Aka, contact the admin involved when I wake up)
It's great to see that admins are speaking and acting without knowing the details. It's cases like this one which show well FAs administration functions!
Because admins are automatically omniscient and know everything without first finding out about it?
I totally want one of those Banhammers of Infinite Knowledge, then. Maybe I can get some lotto numbers out of it.
Seriously, this is like a couple having a spat and one party asks "What's wrong?" and the other responds "You should already know."
Communication, people. Information does not flow without it. If asking questions is a sign of admin incompetence, we should fire the Senate right now, because their questions aren't even on topic anymore. :)
"speaking and acting without knowing the details" says the furry who did the same damn thing the first time they commented...
It's great to see a site member who is so concerned with puffing out their e-chest that they would belittle an admin who is actively trying to resolve such a troubling situation.
Selkiegal, I've been on FA since 2005 and I've seen the same problems come up again and again and again. Issues such as incredibly poor communication between admins and admins and admins and users, failure to implement even the most basic features like folders, fobbing people off with promises and excuses & worse. No matter what admins say at the time, things still never get fixed and the same mistakes keep happening.
In this situation, it took an immense amount of public pressure, people leaving for weasyl and permanent damage done thereby to the sites community for anything to get done.
When people blindly defend FA and/or it's staff they do everyone a disservice by helping to cement this history into place ever firmer.
... ... beg pardon, but would you mind pointing out where he took action, as in, the act you're accusing him of? and where hs spoke of anything but A) suggestions that any user, not just admins, would and could suggest or B) trying to find out the very details he needs? I mean, unless you figure him to pantomime the questions, he kinda has to speak, ya know?
Oh. No. I get it. You're stating that when someone cries help in a completely unorganized manner (read: journals, instead of trouble tickets), -only one- admin should jump up to help. All the other admins should just sit back and go 'not my problem.' ... that leads to such wonderful customer service
If you are so rigid as to remove a journal warning people about criminal behavior because you consider it to be harassment, then I think it is time for every last member of this site to pack up and leave.
I'm sure if there was legal action taken against neer for protecting this person there would sure be a turnaround. Thing is if something terrible happens to you, it could leave this site liable. Personal info last I heard was serious business these days simply how facebook has been manipulating it and even there people stalk and at times legal actions have to be taken against individuals. The problem is as he said that he gave such a response. It's not right nor should it be accepted. The person doing so with their actions needs to be banned and needs to be reported. It shouldn't be tolerated. He has a point where it could happen anywhere, but that means the problem needs to be halted before it gets further here. Everyone should feel safe to use a website and shouldn't have to deal with such issues.
I wish I saw your pages sooner and got to know you better, but wherever you go I hope its better for you.
It's a pity to see you go, but you're doing the right thing. I hope you'll find peace and happiness wherever you end up. Fare well, Taran, and thank you for being such a nice person every time we talked at EF. You will be remembered, and I hope this will serve as a wake-up call for the FA admins.
"The admin took th eright course of action" ... so the right course is to support criminal activities by covering them up and deleting all the evidence and discussion ... I dont think thats the way to go.
I also tried to contact Dragoneer but he is not answering to me. Apparently it is not important to him that his website is used for criminal activities.
Just a quick FYI hun, site admins are not required to report cases of stalking to the police. Social workers, teachers, counselors, government employees, etc are but not a website admin. And any law enforcement official will say that the victim needs to report the crime to the police, not rely on a website administrator to take action.
That's a crappy excuse. I'm not sure what "requirement" has to do with helping someone out, but you don't just erase all of the info like if she's required to be left in the dust like this..
they are. delayed but I've been told by police that yeah, that is the case. at least in the US, VA to be exact. I dunno. but for future reference... yeah.
Well, the issue was people there are terrified of being accused of kidnapping, after someone tried to help a child, and was given a 15 year prison sentence.
...you've /got/ to be kidding me. this is all new news to me, too - first time I've heard of it. I should look it up.
it's so wrong, that people are scared to be themselves & act on their naturally instilled morals in order to help others. all because of these systems initially put in place to help people, that become turned around, twisted, muddled & manipulated by a select few selfish simpletons. they are indirectly abusing thousands, millions, billions of people. it's disgusting.
Same thing's happened in the UK. Guy driving a white van saw a little girl walking on the sidewalk, all alone. He was afraid to stop and approach her because as someone driving a white, windowless van, he was afraid of being labeled a pedophile. So he kept driving. Later she was on the news, she'd wandered into someone's back garden and drowned in a pond. She'd escaped from a nursery.
I agree it's a sad state of affairs, but we can hardly punish people for not helping when there's the threat of being punished FOR helping.
That's sad. Yes, it will most certainly happen on "/any/ site". The admins and the owner have the power of keeping you safe on this website in particular, and that's all that was asked for. You didn't ask the admins and owner of FA to keep you safe on Facebook or anything else. Here, where they have the power to do so. Just because this issue is on more websites than FA they aren't going to do anything to at least help out here? Seriously? I don't think they're running the website the way websites should be ran. Not any "professional" websites anyway. That's a bit disappointing, too. FA is the biggest website in the Furry fandom. If people start leaving here because of these sorts of issues, bye bye FA. Just plain wrong.
I agree, please take it down. This is a public journal, if she's already having issues with her info out there, then send this is a PRIVATE message or email to alert her.
This can be taken as a very rude, impolite and insensitive gesture, please think before you post, otherwise it is very inconsiderate.
Second, the fact that one of their other (now hidden) comments got chastized by others for containing info that was deemed to private to post in public, something he's also notorious for doing. I can't link to the actual comment, but i can link to the first person who replied to it, for the sack of context: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/...../#cid:31827142
And that's to say nothing of the fact that the account is only 7 days old (which would mean that the account was made AFTER Taran blocked her stalker), the fact that he admits to ALSO being from Sweden in his "intro journal", AND the fact that he claims he's besties with the stalker, and that that stalker was why he got into furries. Way, way, WAY too much coincidence, there.
MAYBE I'm wrong, but if I'm not ... this is the giant neon-flashing "get your shit together" sign the FA admins are going to need to respond to. They needed a reason to perma-ban the perp? Welp ... NOW they have it. =/
i was thinking the same thing, also the fact that their favorites are VERY similar in style and same pictures as the regular account :I i didnt want to say anything in case i was wrong but i had a gut feeling :I
Look at my comment below this. =3 Some tangible evidence turned up on the site, as he tried to get around her with a new account. If we'd had this originally we'd have taken action from the get-go, but I don't want to take severe action based on off site/partial evidence.
That said, I also included an IP Ban in the care package I sent for Taran's piece of mind. I respect that she may not come back to the site, but I can at least try to make sure he doesn't do it to anyone else.
See? Amazing how much of a mess something can be when people don't understand how to be an admin. It's not all "ban someone the moment someone makes a claim" and I believe I responded on another journal that typically a stalker who is doing things on other websites will eventually do it on this one too if the person they are stalking is active here. Then once they violate FA rules and you have obvious evidence.. then you take action. Not trying to white knight the issue but from an admin perspective... I felt it was dealt with properly. I also agree that call outs to specific people in journals should not really be around because honestly that can lead to a lot of slander as well, another crime. :P This shouldn't have even really touched FA in my opinion and just gone straight to the police. At least that's what I would do if someone was dishing out my personal info online and making suggestive threats and so forth.
Verified that this was a sock puppet account. The Fredriksam account was abandoned then the Garageman account was created moments after with this lovely "story" about what happened. Basically, created a new persona to get around her, but couldn't figure out how to properly do so. This is the kind of evidence we needed from the get-go.
If a sockpuppet is created to get around a Block a user put in place (an action which I think is against the ToS), then that is solid proof that the person is stalking and harassing a user, which gives the administrators the ammunition to do a permanent ban. ToS Violated = Actionable.
Without that, you just have hearsay, which isn't always very reliable. Make sense?
What irks me, tho, is that me, whose not even an admin (thank god, or you'd all be so fucked, LOL), had to essentially do all the legwork in order for this creepy-ass stalker to finally get perma-banned on both accounts. If the admins actually investigated the situation, themselves, they could have JUST as easily found EXACTLY the same things I did, and reached the EXACT same conclusion on their own.
It's like if when someone tried to file a police report the officers would just tell the person to go and investigate the case FOR them, so that all they have to do is make the arrest. That's ... NOT the civilian's job, it's the law-enforcement's. The admins, here, are FA's closest thing to law enforcement, sooo ... yyyyeah. WHY are "civilian" users having to to their work for them, in order to ever actually obtain results? This is starting to become habitual of FA staff, and I REALLY don't like the implications. =/
Well, not to make excuses... I'm sure there is an issue of time management and available manpower for admins on FA.
Law enforcement doesn't work in a vacuum. They require civilians to submit reports, to bring awareness of issues and to provide accurate accounting as they can.
Bringing awareness and doing all the work FOR them are two completely different things, tho. THAT"S the thing. =/
And my grievence is with the fact that admins DID respond to Taran ... but until I brought forth evidence of sock-puppeting by the perp, they were all the WRONG responses. That's ... that's just embarrassing, is what it is.
"So basically ban evasion is more important than the the enforcement over a stalker's exploitation of your site to harass other users "
A ban evasion is far more cut and dry, easier and much faster to investigate. You don't have to get anyone's side of the story, for instance, just look at a server log.
Mmmm, I probably should have continued in my first post, but the point about investigating a ban evasion -- it's low-hanging fruit. I've been staff on other sites before, and work helpdesk in RL, and when you have far more work coming in than your staffing levels can support, you look for low-hanging fruit. In fact, it's the first thing you do, doing the quick stuff first so you can show you're doing something. Unfortunately that often leaves trickier things to get kicked down the curb repeatedly.
I can understand that you would be explaining the ease behind figuring out a ban evasion, but it shouldn't make it an agreeable enough resolution compared to user communication and plain research on the issue because "it's easier"
So requirements for you to take proper course of action is a bunch of well-known people leaving for another site, wide-spread "drama" about the whole situation and general displeasure of the community?
There's also another thing I'd like to know about the admin that initially responded to Tarangryph ticket. What consequences have been pulled out for him?
>requirements for you to take proper course of action is a bunch of well-known people leaving for another site, wide-spread "drama" about the whole situation and general displeasure of the community
No. If Taran had come to me I could have looked into the issue and tried to find out what was going on. But Taran never came to me, or anybody else except for one person to ask what I thought of the admin's actions. And, from what I could see at the time, the actions were legit.
Andt he admin who was handling this has stepped down.
Hopefully this wasn't one of the 'newer' admins that had to go through what we were told were interviews and checks and whatnot. Not that you would admit to that anyhow, seeing as that would crumble whatever confidence we would have in newer members of the admin team.
Then again, I was helped briskly recently by the admin team so I've got no personal qualms about their competence, but something like this needs to be taken very seriously, and needs to be even more publicly made aware to people by yourself in a journal of your own. There definitely needs to be a formal acknowledgement that any form of repeated harassment will NOT be tolerated on this site -- perhaps include a clause where admins CAN and SHOULD, in certain situations, take into consideration proof about another user harassing another on another site. At the very least, we can make a stand that no matter what, you will take a stand to always make FA as safe as you possibly can.
So instead of filling harassment report user is supposed to come directly to you. Interesting. I'd say that filing a harassment ticket is contacting staff. Staff you are part of. Staff you are head of. Staff you are responsible for. You should've long since realized that admins you so recklessly recruit will act on your behalf and as FA itself. Seeing that users have to come to you is bad enough sign that you should immediately check the whole situation, instead of blindly saying that admin's actions were legit. Yes, blindly - because not replying in any way to ticket and punishing the person filling it is not legit in any way.
He has stepped down you say. He should've been thrown out before having a chance to step down, including public statement of what happened (with no nicks mentioned) AND at least an apology and promise that this would not happen again.
Considering most admins have right on their Profiles NOT to contact them directly about site problems and to File a TT instead, I can agree to this comment.
The admin that stepped down was a girl and second they made a journal with an apology. But I don't feel they need to have public shaming done upon them either, humans make mistakes, some have worse consequences then others but at least the problem was taken care of, maybe not in the time that everyone else would have liked but it was taken care of in the end regardless :X
It's good it has been taken care of, true. However I'd like to clear out one thing - having an public announcement, and making public shaming are two completely different things. Until your comment, I had absolutely no idea what happened to that admin, what is her gender, and who it is at all. I do not need to know it. That's why there is no need for personal journals somewhere out there barely anyone sees - there should be a public announcement that "that admin who initially responded to Taran's trouble ticket" has stepped down/been dismissed. No nicks mentioned, let the admin take consequence in being thrown out and feeling bad. This way no one knows who it was and no one will put any direct shame on that admin. Community is informed better and taken care of, and most importantly - taken seriously. It also could restore some credibility to FA staff and show that no admin is free from consequences (because now admins can do what they want - stepping down voluntarily is not a consequence, it's a choice).
I hope you understand my point of view better now :]
"No. If Taran had come to me I could have looked into the issue and tried to find out what was going on. But Taran never came to me, or anybody else except for one person to ask what I thought of the admin's actions. And, from what I could see at the time, the actions were legit."
..............W ... -What-...? Are you SERIOUSLY serious? Seriously? Truly and sincerely?
Just about EVERY single admin, without fail, has it written ON their profiles NOT to come to them directly. It's IMPRINTED into people to NOT contact admins directly about issues, and simply abide by the "file a TT and wait" modus operandi. Which Taran DID. Granted, your OWN profile has a slight variation to this same message, with a notable difference:
"NOTICE: Due to the overwhelming amount of notes that I receive please note that response times may vary. If you need assistance please open a Trouble Ticket. Do not note me regarding FA issues unless you have already opened a ticket. Our staff will respond to you as soon as we are able."
Sure, users are advised to contact you directly AFTER filing a TT ... but given your own admission, RIGHT in your notice, that you receive bazillions of notes per day, don't you find it EXTREMELY asinine to expect someone being threatened with RL rape to place all her hopes upon your hopelessly-overflowing inbox? It's the equivalent of calling 911 and being put on hold while a chainsaw-wielding psychopath is trying to break into your house.
Truly--what is the point of even HAVING staff, if your first and primary response is to insist that ALL emergency situations be directed towards you, rather than having your other admins attend to it? Is your staff ill-trained to properly handle emergency situations? If so that's ... EXTREMELY disturbing. To go back to the previous metaphor, it's akin to having dozens of people at the phone lines for non-emergency calls, but only ONE person on the emergency line. It's ... HORRIFICALLY inefficient. =/
So...Taran shouldn't have opened a trouble ticket and came to you instead, despite the fact that YOUR page says, and I quote here:
"NOTICE: Due to the overwhelming amount of notes that I receive please note that response times may vary. If you need assistance please open a Trouble Ticket. Do not note me regarding FA issues unless you have already opened a ticket. Our staff will respond to you as soon as we are able."
That's beyond conflicting information and only confuses us users more. Which is it? What's the actual truth here? I smell something fishy.
you know you can always contact him via email....you know....the email posted in his profile...its like the second line down. It doesn't come attached with a (DO NOT CONTACT ME VIA EMAIL) message next to it.
That disclaimer bit below it is for Notes. Email? Email is the fastest way to contact him about a serious issue. Understandably, Taran may not have known that they could do that :(
Riiiiiiight, because there's no POSSIBLE way that his email could POSSIBLY also be flooded with other users ALSO thinking they'd be oh-so-clever by emailing him directly to get past the fact that his FA inbox is flooded.
If a couple thousand people all decide at the same time to avoid the line at the front door by going through the back door ... you just end up making another line. =/
tis true- His email could get easily flooded...which is why it's probably so sneaky on his profile. But it's worth a try for the sake of being able to say you tried.
Be that as it may, but it doesn't subtract from my initial point:
Even if you have multiple methods of reaching that ONE emergency dispatcher in a crisis ... it doesn't change the fact that there's only ONE dispatcher.
Neer, by his own admission, here, is basically appointing himself the SOLE solitary go-to person in the event of an emergency situation that isn't being addressed quickly enough by the TT system. Am I the only sane person, here, that finds that to be a CRITICAL design flaw within the structural integrity of this site's rule enforcement? There needs to be MULTIPLE go-to people for these situations. Other admins, appointed by Neer, that users can turn to directly, if a time-sensitive crisis isn't being taken care of fast enough via ticket.
Leaving it all hanging upon ONE human being, on a site that boasts tens of thousands of users? That's BEYOND insane, and it's a structure that is, at its very core, doomed to fail. In other words, situations like this will KEEP happening.
I agree that it is insane and there should be a better system and more open communication. One guy managing hundreds of thousands of users issues is ridiculous. I also understand that this site is 1) run by volunteers, and 2) it's free. I don't expect the best decisions or a well-oiled set-up for moderation on this site. I honestly think a lot of people on this website feel 'entitled' to the best and most responsive administration, they get upset that they don't get it, and then they leave. They are upset because a website that holds such a strong community has less than optimum administration response. It eats their shorts. alas, there is no perfect website for furries.
Hell, deviantart pays their admins and still people are unhappy with decisions made by administration. It just tends to happen more frequently when the people running the site do it in their spare time. *coughs*
There's a lot of things that could be better about this website so I'm not going to sit here and judge people who decide to leave. People aren't perfect. People make mistakes. A lot of people made mistakes in this mess.
I'm not shocked or surprised. I also don't expect Dragoneer or any member of his staff to keep me safe on the internet. I was always under the assumption that was my own responsibility.
I do hope this incident opens some eyes and the admins reflect on ways to handle an issue like this better. It sounds like they have already begun to reflect.
Syn, every time something goes down I'm always looking for your comments. You're like this awesome Sherlock Holmes/Tin Tin/Lassie detective that always knows their shit and doesn't take shit. I'm like "Aw shit! Synwolf is here. Shit' s about to get real." I mean seriously are you some CSI person irl cause you should be.
On a more serious note though...that's just creepy as fuck
I have to agree with the comment above. I literally seek out your avatar and read what you have to say - you're one of the few that makes sense of situations. I think the last bout I saw you in was the issue of the stolen fursuit head drama?
Very good work there. And even better here - it's sad you're doing the admin team's jobs for them.
You honestly need to contact the police. I'm not sure of the harassment laws where you live but legal action needs to be taken care of. What Dragoneer did is completely idiotic but there's only so much he can do on a website (IE banning). If this is as serious as you say and pertains to a threat of health, body, and wellbeing, you NEED to get the police involved.
It's really horrible, I feel so sad for you. :( I noticed the stalker dude is from Sweden like me, found him on facebook, he mentioned in one of his posts there that he was going to visit you when going to Denmark (he didn't go there though). He obviously is mentally ill in some way, so it really makes me feel disgusted that the admins won't help you with this situation. :(
FA is not the furry police. He's stalking you IRL? That's creepy as fuck. He's stalking you online? Also creepy as fuck. Is he bothering you on FA too? Maybe you should block him. Calling him out in a journal? Well, those aren't allowed. There are other avenues for calling him out and warning others, such as LiveJournal or your own blog.
FA commonly deletes "attack journals", as they don't usually serve a purpose. This isn't FA defending "the man" and punishing "the woman". It's just the rules.
The issue is that her TT was COMPLETELY ignored. They simply can't be bothered to answer her plea for assistance, yet have plenty of time to delete her journal? Not to mention that NONE of the journals contents and proof were taken seriously, and the stalker remains unpunished. It's perfectly clear that they couldn't care less that she's been victimized.
If the admins really gave ANY sort of shit about policing ALL of their policies, both Taran AND her stalker would have been reprimanded, but such was not the case. That's the entire core of the issue.
I've had trouble tickets get answered in minutes while others literally took months. Yes, they should get to those faster, but that's not what the "main core" of the issue here seems to be. Seems like this person is stalking her very creepily, and causing trouble for her in the real world as well as online. I have no idea what proof she had of this and how much of it pertained to FA, but if it's all happening off site, why does that make it FA's problem anyways? If anything, she could block him here and wait for said TT to be answered rather than break the rules herself by making a journal calling him out.
All I can say with certainty was that the journal pertained to the things he was doing to her ON FA--which included posting her RP info, posting fantasy RL rape stories about her (using her RL name), posting up STOLEN photos of her suit and other Qarrezel suits. All of which ARE against site policies here on FA, BUT ... apparently the admins prefer to just pick and choose which policies they feel like enforcing. And with Neer's horrible track record of enabling sex offenders on FA and victim-blaming those harassed by sex offenders ... he's obviously grooming the rest of his staff to follow his same warped principles.
According to a followup from Dragoneer on what "evidence" was provided, everything really did happen on DA and other sites. The only thing that happened here were a few comments between him and her. Plus, she had never actually blocked him on his account.
I don't really see how having your admins actually follow your TOS and remain neutral in the face of off-site drama matters when it pertains to FA is a "warped principle".
Incorrect. All you have to do is go to his FA gallery, RIGHT on this site, and you'd see images in his gallery that do NOT belong to him (unless, of course, he's since deleted them from when last I looked). Furthermore, Taran DID block the stalker. 12 days ago, in fact (the timestamp of his last shout made on her page confirms this). All he did was just make a new account, pretending to be a RL friend of the stalker, and continued to post right here in this very journal.
These things fall VERY much within FA's jurisdiction and NOT acting is nothing short of neglect of their duties.
I was going off of what Dragoneer stated, which was "She never blocked him". Unless you have the ability to see inside someone's account settings to verify (Like I'm pretty sure he does), I think I'll take his word for it.
No, but if you look at things different if he goes around those blocks then itll be a quick and easy suspension.
Also why hasn't she informed police?
(I know blocking does nothing, but not blocking is retarded if you are gonna sit there and take it and do absolutely nothing. Along with leaving a site because of a stalker won't fix it either.)
Like Alicen already said, he was blocked 12 days ago. His response? Make a sock puppet account pretending to be a friend of the stalker, and use said account to basically tell Taran "don't worry, your stalker's in jail, you can come back now!" And that all happened in THIS very journal.
Welp, all available on-site evidence of the block-evasion has been put forth to Neer (by me), now, so whether or not he chooses to act upon it is going to be VERY telling. He's got the opportunity, now, to either repair or further destroy his approval rating, so the ball's now entirely on his side of the court. =/
I we had known about the alternate account up front it could have used that against him. The block is merely a starting point for the single account, a starting point to try to get the issue resolved.
Assuming there was ever a crime to begin with, posting all the evidence to a journal against the sites rules and not having any backup of it when it was inevitably removed would be pretty dumb.
Also, highly doubt it would be obstruction of justice in any case. I'll have to consult my e-lawyers on it though.
I really don`t know what to say :/ That just isn`t right. Why punish you? Get the police involved if he`s getting too close off FA. I`ve never had that problem and i don`t plan to. I have a metal baseball bat in case.
It seems he is NOT in custody. As he posted that info from his own secondary account where he claimed to be a friend of the stalker. So that info is highly unlikely to be true.
I agree with the point that you made below. The problem is that the way it was stated was as if the stalker should have been banned on the basis that the OP as a woman must be helped 100% because she is a woman. Like I said, it just seemed unsettling to point out the gender alone. Saying something along the lines of "you're punishing me instead of this very threatening and likely physically imposing individual who is clearly invading my privacy" instead of "you're punishing the woman instead of the man" has such a different sound to it, you know?
It's mostly just because they're one-in-the-same about 98% of the time. Sure, there's the 2% chance you might get a shrimpy guy stalked by a 6'3" amazon...but that's not very likely. :D
It's more that the "trope" and the reality generally tend to match up. *shrugs*
Equal treatment and no special treatment aren't as simple as that. In order to treat two people equally, you have to balance the equation first. If one is almost invariably stronger and more aggressive, then that factors in. You have to focus more on the other person to balance the scales, both physically and emotionally. To do otherwise is to state that having a mind and body that work differently is a weakness, and that would be wrong. People aren't equal, so in order for there to be equality, most of the time you have to take sides...at least to some extent.
A society that enforced equality in the literal sense, rather than the interpretive sense, would produce nothing but poorly-educated hard-ass bullies.
You have someone make a stalking claim. A lot of us see it one way or the other, but the proper way to see something of a serious psychological nature is Schroedinger's cat. That it both did and did not occur, so we can pursue the best option.
Some folks are seeing the 'no immediate proof' side, and it's a valid side. You cannot expect staff to ban someone if you don't have something.
Some folks are seeing the 'marginalized' side. That's also a presumably valid side. If Taran's claim is substantive, she feels victimized, and it's important to handle the matter with concern and transparency.
I believe the admin, from what I'm gathering, got the first side just fine. But he neglected the second side. Hence the outrage that some people see and some do not.
You need to treat a matter like this as if both are valid possibilities. ... And Dragoneer, I'll add that first of all, you cannot be magically expected to have handled this if you were not contacted. You are not omniscient. But that staff member, if he did not discuss what was going on and at least giving the possibility of credence to the victim, he botched it. And it's good for... well, everyone to know, really. Allegations of this nature are serious. You cannot run off with a presumption of guilt. Or innocence, oddly enough. That's the baffling one to people. But when you talk with the victim, you should acknowledge the possibility. NOT the certainty. And you go from there.
But to the original point, because I don't wanna flood up this matter which I'm sure is getting enough talk. This DOES have nothing to do with gender.
Online? Nothing. In RL? Everything. There's no difference between men and women online, but in real life, it's a very different story. Speaking as a woman, as much as I hate to admit it, most guys I know are way stronger and more imposing. This is what makes male stalkers so worrisome. Online, however, they're just another person with a keyboard.
Yeah, I realize there's the large tendency for males to be physically stronger. I'm just loathe to pay an ounce of respect to the bullshit that is the "traditional" set of "gender roles"
Because it is a common and routine thing to teach women how not to get raped or stalked by men to protect theirself instead of teaching men not to rape and to stalk.
Not saying women can't rape and stalk people, too. They're not innocent. Nobody is. The question is how often does this happen and also; it's about "common knowledge" by media and society and I am well aware that only a few people take the fact that women can rape and stalk too seriously without smiling about it.
It's simply victim blaming and sexism. That's where the user was going. Because it is usual to point the finger on a woman that get's stalked or raped because she asked for it, only wanted attention or is making a drama out of nothing without getting any heelp at all. The person that did the crime will almost always get out of it unharmed or almost unharmed, only with a few scratches.
In this case, the user only got affirmed in their believes.
I'm not saying I am sharing the victims ideology. I think also male victims of being stalked and raped or sexually harassed often leave with empty hands and no justice was solved, no matter if the one who did a crime was male or female. But it is true that no one of these victims achieves the help they deserve. Just like in this case here.
I saw the staff of FA do a lot for people with issues that have been outside of FA. Even for myself and friends. And when you bring this argument and it is uncomfortable, they grab their joker card and come up wiht; why did you not block this person - as if this seriously would have stopped this person from doing anything. And even when the staff would have banned this person, there wouldn't have been any further actions taken to hand out informations about this person and what-not or to get in touch with the police to help the victim. It's really simple but uncomfortable and "over the top" what brings us back to that victims of cases like this don't achieve the seriousnes they deserve.
That's all so far I wanted to say to this whole topic. Thanks for reading.
I'm in full agreement with everything you said. I just felt the need to nitpick about "the woman" and "the man" as needlessly gender-specific terms. Applicable in many cases (and this case) but "the victim" and "the aggressor" would have been better, would they not?
No they would not. If they had any evidence for or against it and refused to present it then they could face obstruction of justice. Now on an individual level the staff might be able to face charges but that depends on a lot of factors.
At least that why my legal friends said when I asked them.
Though really what exactly do you expect Dragoneer to do?
Hate to say it but if this was branching in to real life the person should contact authorities..FA has 0 ability to police beyond the site and while yes they do not always do things fast or correct the first time..I do think they care and do mean well. on top of that it is almost impossible for them to stop it even on their site as these types of scum find ways around everything. I will say im glad the staff did manage to get the evidence needed and handle this as best they could but seriously people..these type of problems are complicated and they cant simply throw ban hammers at everyone on an accusation or well they get attacked for that too!.
Must be terrifying to see stuff like this going on. Especially if one party has the feeling the other knows everything about them. But I wonder where did he get all these information/ pictures from? D:
I mean stuff has to be posted first to get found usually ( on't take it as blaming the victim, it is NOT meant like this ).
I can only advice to protect your real identity in the internet at all costs :c
FA tends to let a lot of those who do wrong.. get away with it and I do not understand why. Gender has no definition for behavior like this. I am sorry that this wasn't judged fairly. Seems to me that FA needs new moderators.
They already have a lot of new moderators and I need to say by personal experience that a lot of the new ones that are in the team for a few weeks now are amazing, full of optimism, they don't avoid work, they act neutral and with common sense and they are helpful and sensitive. I think because they're still new the old staff members did not wanted to leave a big case like this up to them all alone to avoid it would get handled wrongfully - I wish they would have left it to the new ones...
The thing is.. that COULD be a possibility.. but not any single person here has the actual full out truthful story.. and won't. So I don't know, can you really feel good passing a judgement without actually having the facts or truth? People on FA (and many other community oriented sites) white knight A LOT .. and it's often extreme.
I'm pretty inclined to follow my stance that, I strongly feel instead of running off the site? She take a stand and make a difference. Make an example out of this kid who won't stop.. Stitch the community together and make it stronger and have people watch for bad apples like this because if they don't? They just get WORSE.
I also don't rely on FA tickets.. they're not reliable and don't really work. I made a ticket that took WELL over 2 months to get a response to a harassment claim.. which is too slow.
So. that said, the issue is the community itself and the lack of timely fashion. They need to triage tickets and when it comes to harassment, those need to be taken priority over 'I can't figure out how this works'..
*Is a RL victim of a stalker from City of Toronto* Club district, this guy got my number no matter how many times I changed it, showed up at my place, I moved and it still happened, I ended up calling police, but they couldn't ID the guy and in the end I left the city... I was 17 then, young and scared shitless.. I was also FEMALE.. then. >>; I'm a transgender and in process of claiming a legal gender change.
I hate having to out myself but I've already had people throwing 'but you're not female and can't understand' and I say Eff You for daring to make assumptions to people who do think that way. Rawwwr... but yes, I feel she should stand her ground and not accept bullying or the bully to win. IT's how women's rights have become what they are today, because they got sick of it and stood their ground and demanded change.
is that the chick who got banned here for faking identity and takes money from people for commission and takes at least a year to even respond and then may NEVER actually do anything? I had a friend that paid her 80 bucks in pics from her and he never got anything for over 2 years XD
I am astounded by the Ineptness of FAs Team on handling the situation. Almost sounds like a Locker room boys club. But if you do go you will be missed.
This comes back to trust issues mostly. I don't trust most people as far as I can throw them.
If I was receiving any stalker behavior, I would never put my faith in another person (moderator) and simply 'hope' they do the right thing in a timely manner. I wouldn't even just 'leave it' with the police. In this instance, I would have also left. The immediate threat was seemingly ignored & not acted upon in an appropriate manner. If the purported events are true, I cannot underline enough what a massive failure this is. This bodes ill for any that may (and probably will at some point) follow suit with other users in future. The priorities of the admin(s) are seriously out of whack. Do you trust & support that kind of attitude?
Poorly handled in every way. I know another user who, for FIVE YEARS has done something similar, just not as severe. I've reported him on it many times. Account is still standing. Welcome to FA...what the hell am I saying? Welcome to the internet. Most admins barely do the right thing when the time comes. And what confuses me more is, the guy got banned for sock puppetting. ...wow. This site will go under if this keeps up.
not too sound like a bitch but you fault for not screen capping the evidence so you at least could show people,. the police would want to see evidence and so would admin, you left yourself with out a leg to stand on...
of course screen shots are nice to have. But you should be aware that FA admins dont accept screenshots as evidence for anything, as there is a possibility for them to be photoshopped. So you need to show via link the original site. In our case here the stalker removed all posted photos and things from his pages. Maybe we were too dumb to ask him to do that, who knows. At least now nearly all stuff is gone.
The problem is that they are in two different countries and on line harassment is not enough for the law to do anything.. if he showed up and contacted her in person.. then .. there would be more of a case... and even then you have to prove it is unwanted contact.
GRRR that shouldn't matter, there need to be a report on file! if the syco shows up. there already a complaint on file for the local law enforcement... I've gone though this once. CALL make the report. dont= wait for something bad to happen cause then its too fucking late.
It doesn't matter. I have the same problem. I've gone to the police and until this guy actually attempts something physical, they can do nothing about it.
i had this too they cant do anything yes. but they took a report. yes? if not they should have. i dont think anyone here really understands the importantes of a damn report when shit hits the fan.
Well, I honestly don't mind it anymore(it's been over two years since I've gone in to the police). Ignoring my problem has done the job fine. But still, what I'm saying is, report or no. Unless he does something physical, they can't really stop a stalker from harassing someone over the internet. And for some people, the fact that they're living in fear of their safety is the problem. Because it can cause damage to their mental health.
well this situation seems too been settled tho i feel it was only because the mass of people with there support. i done research over it all. and what i gathered its far more. soo. it depends on what happen. anyway this should be dropped. Im on weasyl and not gunna really use FA anymore
The issue might be claimed to have been solved, but I and MANY of us I'm sure still believe, from Experience, weither personally or through friends, that this one fact is true.
We beleive the Admins and their crew are STILL fucking retards, because they can't punish fairly, or get their heads out of their asses, amongst other reasons.
Don't forget the amount of emotionsl terror and outrage from the community it took before action was taken into consideration even a little.
Wow. This seriously has me considering leaving FA. That's downright creepy and wrong. I don't care if you didn't have him blocked or not, what you had should have been enough for the mods to ban him for being a downright stalker. I can't even believe the admins would be that stupid about an issue like this.
I do hope the 'admins' take this as a lesson. seeing how many people are leaving and taking off to weasley now due to this. it's spread like wildfire. and it took having some of the most well known and well respected artists of this community to POINT IT OUT for them to step up and get shit done.
hopefully now they'll stop being lasy and take some more time and effort into investigating before going 'nope not our problem'
because yeah. it is their problem. they are the ones with the control to stop these fucks from continuing their bullshit.
Facebook will go out of their way to take this sort of thing TO AUTHORITIES with given information so something can be properly done.
but what FA can't be bothered?
I can't say weasley is any better at handling these situations as i know from a bit of experience with their admins and from the effects of some one else that they arn't exactly on par as a better place to flee to. however it's got a cleaner slate than FA for sure.
how many times is it going to take something major getting out to the MASS public to get the sites shit in gear huh?
The real problem is that the admins waffle on a lot of things, and are more interested in keeping the peace and their public image (whatever's left of it) than on things like rights or free speech or justice. They just "don't want drama". In fact, the current rules on "harassment" on FA do come dangerously close at times to overstepping US civil rights...including the right to truthful public accusation, self-defense, and free speech. At best, it's riding in a gray area.
Fur Affinity is a privately owned website and as a result has zero obligation, legally or otherwise, to provide a free speech environment in any form whatsoever. Fur Affinity does strive to provide an environment through which users can express themselves as much as possible, but it does this only through its own volition.
Civil rights generally refer to a government entity.
Unless people start paying FA taxes, we're not a government, but a private entity. If FA was a storefront business, we would be unable to discriminate based on several items, but we could kick out anyone for any other reason, just like Starbucks can kick out someone yelling at the Barrissta.
You should know that call out journals can be construed as harassment as well. Kinda one reason why they are not exactly allowed. ;) They also tend to lead to slander as well since people who post them are usually highly emotional when they decide to post one and very often facts are distorted. You know the 'ol saying..."there are two sides to every story and the truth is somewhere in the middle."
FA cannot make a rule against "harassment" that violates US law, however. Defamation and slander only apply to false accusations. The ability to make a public accusation against a person, if that accusation is defendable as the truth, is protected by US law. Truth is as simple as "I feel genuinely threatened", and that the harassing individual has at least some provable examples of harassment.
I know defamation of character and slander apply to false accusations however there are plenty of people online who do post around such things to gain favor or to just genuinely piss off someone else. One thing you also have to remember as well freedom of speech is not a constitutional right on privately owned websites. This is technically private property and if the administration does wish to enforce a 'no call out' rule they are legally allowed to. So while this may seem like a public form, in the eyes of the law websites are technically private property. Freedom of speech (particularly in the case of making a public accusation) can apply but it does not have to be allowed on private property nor is freedom of speech without consequence.
Your example of truth being defined as someone saying they genuinely feel threatened is exactly only true if there are provable examples of the harassment. Also with something like stalking.. that's not up to the administration to police or take action on. There is no legal requirement for them to do and also warning someone of a stalker on a site where call out journals are not permitted... not exactly a good idea. Two wrongs do not make a right. I still stand by the adminstration's initial decision on the matter. What people do off-site is not their concern no matter what it is. But the moment the site's policy is violated then yes action can and should be taken and it was. Just people did not exactly like the initial response because she broke the rules and did a call out journal.
I understand it's a scary thing when you have someone on your tail like that and making some pretty serious threats. Fortunately from the comments I've read earlier said person is in police custody. Also you will note Dragoneer had reported too that this person did not block the harasser at all. When someone is harassing you... it's called "block"... but we won't dive back into my rant on people taking personal responsibility victim or otherwise.
TL;DR Admins did in this case exactly what they were meant to and should not be expected to take any action against someone because someone feels threatened and there is no reasonable proof that someone is doing it on the website they are running. Only when the harasser takes action on the website is when administration can and should do something.
Technically it's not legal. Nor is it exactly illegal. This is why I said FA and a lot of other websites (not to mention game companies) have been really abusing this gray area. Strictly speaking, limitation of free speech in the US is allowed only to private homes, private businesses, and formal contracts (such as a non-disclosure agreement). This limitation is meant to be only for private venues, not massive social groups. The "terms of service" that so many websites employ are decidedly wrong, being that they are public forums, but there's no explicit law to stop it.
Also, I should add that none of these override the right to public self-defense, even though managers of websites and businesses alike exploit and abuse the lack of enforcement of this. Anyone who has ever been fired for defending themselves against a "customer" (even if they're a criminal) while on the job can attest to this.
Taking away a right to verbal protest/defense is just more of the same thing. It's all about making the people feel powerless.
Hee! ^__^ I put up another reply to him, basically saying that you can violate the spirit of US law without actually breaking any laws. Every gray area is abused by everyone these days, and it's kinda sad. The blanket crap that everyone - from websites to games - puts in their "terms of use" are ridiculous.
Unfortunately, noone's been blatant enough about it yet to attract the attention of those in charge, at least not enough to force any new laws or restrictions.
There is always a way to retrieve deleted information. IF necessary, if things were to continue to escalate, you may be able to have a warrant placed to retrieve that deleted information. After all, if it is in fact true what the accused was doing, he could pay a hefty fine and have a restraining order placed in effect. I know I would sue for personal damages.
I hope Dragoneer does do something right for a change, doesn't seem to be the case though. A friend of mine claims Dragoneer is a sexist asshole. I was sure about the asshole part, but I also start to think the sexist part fits just as well.
In any case, there are other furry art sites you can go to. Inkbunny is particularly nice IMHO and you would certainly be welcome. ^^
Let's not play the gender card. :/ That's as bad as the racist one and gets quite hold. Also if you read up in the comments, the said stalker finally violated policy on the site with actual evidence presented (NOT evidence that is based off of stuff that happened off the website) and thus has been banned on both accounts and an IP ban as well posted by Dragoneer about a day ago. Also, if someone is harassing you online you block the person too. By not doing so you're kinda enabling the behavior and the admins have found there was no block on any of the accounts. Regardless of the crime committed there is a level of personal responsibility we must accept and in our hands to take action (such as inform the police) if any crimes committed against us.
he is only polite for as long as you do what he wants. and I am not afraid of him, worst case, he bans my account here which I use for absolutely nothing I can't get back in 3h.
I just found out that your stalker has been banned,or at least temporarily suspended, from Fur Affinity! I have also learned that your journal wasn't completely deleted, just hidden, probably to prevent drama.
You can see the evidence of fredriksam having been suspended if you look on his page. Where the usernames of active members like you (hopefully) and me are designated "Member", his is labeled "Suspended", right next to his icon.
I'm really sorry to hear all what has happened, that is quite terrible :(
And what comes to trouble tickets, I've used those once. It took over a month before I got reply, they didn't fix the problem I had, but closed the ticket, and never replied to my following message. Uh... Well, my problem was miniscule compared to yours anyway.
I've been nothing but a middle observer/lurker in this matter but... Yeah maybe the OP of this journal was wrong in making a call out but I found it appalling that admins would take maybe an important journal that was meant as a warning instead of a callout in face value; along with the comments of the offender in face value as well.
Maybe I'm missing something but I find it very inexcusable to just delete the journal without investigating the offender's data more thoroughly and probably cooperating with the OP more? Along with any hidden evidence on OP's shoutbox by said offender or sockpuppet account similar to said offender that can possibly be block evading. Honestly, I don't think OP would have caused such a big a stir if someone had really contacted her about everything instead of just deleting her journal; which in turn made her feel SHE was being punished, not the offender..
I know in fact the admin who had handled the issue in question did contact her, but she was really offended that her journal was taken down to further work with the issue. I honestly believe that a lot more communication in this issue wouldn't have blown it up so hard. The reason many users are reacting in such a way are BECAUSE of the way it was handled and how OP reacted.. -- There's a lot more things said but I'd just cut things short for now..
It's in the rules. as much as it is, she should have blocked at least ONE of his accounts and contacted multipul admins instead of making it public. the reason they deleted the Journal was it was a PUBLIC journal, and even if it is cut and dry, they HAVE to give the stalker the benafit of a doubt. You CAN'T make journals bashing other Member of FA, it's not right AND it makes it so others gang up on people. Think of the power increadably Popular FA members would have if this was aloud.
As much as i AGREE with your Opinion, i DISAGREE that it should be implamented due to the fact that most people would abuse the HELL out of the system you described.
Woah a blast from that past haha. Yeah I agree but also past me was just saying it could have gone another way, if that makes sense? I wasn't saying it should be implemented but I know words give different connotations and let's say the journal in question didn't seem so callouty but more of a warning and OP was panicked so she felt she needed to post about it publicly?
I mean now that's its blown over its all said and done so there's really not much to say about it anymore. I realize now that the admin in question who did handle it was put in a tricky spot to deal with all of this.And honestly we all can say that this situation could have been a lot lot worse where, let's say the stalker blew up the matter as well to the point wed have to choose a side. But I digress, even so, Even a month later I really don't have much to work with because I didn't see the journal in question/ have screens or have even seen the offender's comments or the OPs comment so I really am not legitimate as far as how things went!
I'd even write an essay exploring why both sides are wrong; especially with that comment above by the OP saying the "because I'm a woman bit", but yeah, again I digress---
"Think of the power incredibly Popular FA members would have if this was allowed." Uh, and you're saying you don't really see popular people now influencing other people to do things right now? Cause I dunno about you but after this whole mess happened some people started jumping off the FA boat. And the reason its big is not only cause this person blew up about it, another person did as well. Then it began a whole snowball effect of "oh this site is lame blahblahblah". Not to mention almost everyone spamming dragoneers shout box and hassling him over the matter. I mean even month ago me at one point was like oh this situation sucks but I realize there's nothing we can do now anyway and it seemed to be the case of who could shout the loudest to get the whole crowd pissed about one small issue that could have been handled differently.
To add onto this statement; I really wish Furaffinity has a clear place to say how to handle harassment/stalking, or a clear place to reiterate the AUP. Cause honestly we have too many people bypassing rules or doing stupid things well within the grey area of illegal or even stepping past the ToS. I mean anyone could honestly miss what is in the AUP or even forget it exists.
And you state she should have contacted multiple admins about it? Well, I honestly wished they had a guide about that, cause usually if someone has a problem they expect the first admin to deal with it to finish the problem, or atleast pass it off to someone more competent in handling it. (Atleast that's the type of service I receive when I had problems on other sites). I mean, I don't go out of my way to bother two admins about one issue when they all have their trouble tickets to deal with.
I don't know what everyone keeps complaining about. Not even four months ago, I had a mentally-unstable user on the site threaten to kill me over a misinterpreted journal posting. I brought it to the attention of a mod, and the situation was resolved peacefully in less than a few days. :/
the mods, admins, or whatever are just as bad on deviantart. you can be harassed, threatened, stolen from, or they could just plain be breaking the rules obviously and provably, yet just because the artist is popular or liked by the mod, they will never do anything about it. Hell Ive seen people banned on FA AND deviantart just for making complaints about mods or admins.
A old friend of mine turned against me and told me to die in a ditch and kept harassing and threatening me and what did they do? Nothing. They simply gave her some pathetic warning and took two weeks to respond to my concerns. She still uses the same accounts to target me every now and then and even knows where I live! It's a horrid thing to think every time I go out that she could be just around the corner *shudders* if I do see her she simply glares at me these days!
I'm so sorry to hear about all the misfortune you've been having at the moment with that stalker. I'm utterly shocked about what FA staff did and do believe it was the wrong thing to do like most of the other users who have commented here will agree.
I hope everything is better now for you and that particular user has left you alone. If not- I'd suggest getting the police involved if you haven't done so already.
Wishing you the very best regards :)
This website uses cookies to enhance your browsing experience. Learn More
fredriksam
