Actitivity on that MLPArena

[cowboyopossum]

Oh my God... That's insane! I hope the victims got justice...   

[BlackCurtains]

Yeah. The entire thing is pretty crazy. If you want the link you can PM me.

[Taffeta]

I watched a documentary on YouTube yesterday about a guy who murdered over ponies. There are dangerous people everywhere.

WHAT?!  Oh my! 

Was that the Fedex case with the creepy Applejack letter or another one? Please don't tell me there's been more than one.

I only use FB and I never actually post on my profile anymore, though I am in a couple of groups. Facebook are going to learn very little about me really, but yes, that stuff is creepy.

Mind you, I had that experience in around 1999-2000, when the internet was a lot more basic. You'd be amazed how easy it was for people to create multiple new AIM accounts, and use all their friends to create a 'stalking' situation. One of the ponypeople I mentioned above threatened to send her partner (who was stationed over here at some military base) to see me because she 'knew where I lived'...and so on.

That was the most terrifying time I have ever had in the pony community, hands down. Which is why I abandoned the TP because when I tried to get help, the mods there then took HER side and said I'd written all the transcripts myself and was making it up. Because she was an influential customiser who was popular for her artwork and nobody wanted to upset her.

A lot later more stuff came out. I'll leave it at that.

I'm afraid I've seen the same untouchable behaviour from some other customising people in the years since who are treated as deities because of their craft and thus allowed to behave like monsters in other areas. This is not an indictment of most customisers, I hasten to add - but it has happened and continues to happen whereby people put up with, or even validate nasty in order to get a particular product.

Ways for people to do online nasty - and a lack of people doing anything about it - has unfortunately characterised the internet from the point of start to now. It's easier to attack people now, true enough. But if someone is determined, they will still do it.

I dislike social media particularly because I had that experience at age 18 and I learned very quickly how trusting people online was risky and could hurt. The fact that we've gone more towards that model and less towards this one is very sad in my opinion.

[Snapdragon]

and the whole "if you're not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about" doesn't work if someone mistakes you for someone else online.

Totally agreed! And it's so easy to impersonate other people online, too, especially popular figures. The argument doesn't hold water IMO (although it tends to come up in discussions about privacy online and off) because it's just a fallacious argument to try and get people to hand over their privacy for fear of looking shady, when in reality privacy is such an important right, and one we have to fight for even if we aren't "the bad guys" that a lack of privacy is supposed to protect us from. I shouldn't have to tell people my real name or give a photograph in order to discuss my feelings about Hasbro's oversaturation of the Mane Six in the repro toylines!

Taffeta, it's really scary and sad to hear your story, and I'm glad that it sounds like that person was eventually found out in the end, and you didn't give up on ponies entirely. I've seen people get bullied out of the fandom (or at least the public parts of the fandom, like the forums) by some really nasty behavior over my many years reading and posting. And it's totally understandable, but also so sad, that people could be bullied away from enjoying something that's so sweet and relatively harmless like MLP. (I always hope they can continue to enjoy MLP in private, since you don't really need a group of fans to buy toys you like!) That said, I have seen some of the same behavior from faux-popular folks, similar to your example of customizers, who sometimes attract a bit of a cadre of fans willing to White Knight for them to the point of harassment. It's definitely an issue in the G4 fandom on a larger scale, but unfortunately we're not immune to it on the G1/vintage collector side of things. It's wild to me, because at its peak, the G4 fandom could have several hundred to low thousands of people who were fans of a 'famous' artist or musician; but in the vintage fandom, aren't we talking about more like a couple dozen fans, at most? And that's worthy of going to battle for? That's so silly to me! It kinda helps to put things in perspective, even though it only takes one 'crazy' fan to make you afraid for your safety, as your example illustrates.