A PSA on Stalking and Harassment

[Guest]

For everything but this, we don't mix off-site stuff with on-site stuff, but this is an issue we take incredibly seriously. With permission of the victim, we bring site-wide awareness to stalkers and harassers. This is an incredibly serious matter that we do not mess around with. If you have a stalker offsite and they make an account on Phoenixed, immediately report it to us with as much proof as you can give us.

We send one warning banning them from mentioning or interacting with you again, and if they do it anyway, its a permaban. Every alt they make is a permaban for ban evasion. Every new member immediately gets an IP check and anytime a new member happens to single you out? Thats a ban too.

At Phoenixed, no one should be fearful their harassment should continue for fear of us not believing you. Phoenixed should be a place where you flourish in ways you're most comfortable- and not have to self edit your posts just to be left alone.

Please let us work with you to make sure Phoenixed is safe when it comes to systematic harassment.

In case it wasn't obvious, this is a very serious thread and beloved shitposters/trolls on phoenixed, doing your thing isn't cool here.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, CPU said:

It's not stalking it's  love.

I forgot to add, but this is a very serious thread and no shitposting or anythin like that is welcome. Stalking is an incredibly serious thing and it scares the shit out of people. It chases people out of places they love if it gets bad enough. Please refrain from jokes like that in this thread. 

[RTDragon]

So i wonder who got stalked this time? usually this doesn't happen unless someone started it offstie.

[Sidewalk Surfboard]

So what exactly happened to have this thread crop up?

[SlickeHedge]

Oh man...

[Guest]

1 minute ago, RTDragon said:

So i wonder who got stalked this time usually this doesn't happen unless someone started it offistie.

 

Just now, Sidewalk Surfboard said:

So what exactly happened to have this thread crop up?

Out of respect for the victim, I myself may not disclose who and what. If they like, they may come forward, but we've been working with them since april keeping an eye out on the stalker until they incriminated themselves.

Rest assured, the stalker is permanently banned and is on the permaban list just like eversleep is. 

[RTDragon]

So this has been going on for months, This is rather concerning considering the implications this is.

[root]

Well that's rather odd... Not entirely sure how effective banning will be.

[Kosha]

I'll keep an eye out for suspicious behavior and will report it at once.

[PastryOfApathy]

I dunno if this is considered private but whatever.

Were they like an actual poster people may have actually seen, or did they just make a random account purely to harass them with PM's and shit?

[TrishaCat]

Its about time. Although I have concerns over the effectiveness of IP banning. Its not all that hard to change one's IP.

[PastryOfApathy]

5 minutes ago, Battlechili said:

Its about time. Although I have concerns over the effectiveness of IP banning. Its not all that hard to change one's IP.

While that is true, it's not like there's anything you can do about it except stamping 'em out as they pop up.

I mean if 4chan hasn't found a fucking way to get rid of ban-evading tards (ie barneyfag, /pol/ shitposters, etc.) after like 10 years we ain't gonna be able to do it lmao.

[Photoshop Amateur]

I'm honestly surprised that people actually stalk over a forum. How pathetic can you be? Like holy shit man

[Wax]

2 hours ago, Photoshop Amateur said:

I'm honestly surprised that people actually stalk over a forum. How pathetic can you be? Like holy shit man

People are capable of fucked up shit, and that makes me sad.

However, I'm glad this thread exists, and Phoenix have an extremely good, well-rounded stance on the thing.

[RTDragon]

16 minutes ago, Ricky said:

All jokes aside, if it's internet stalking remember IT IS THE INTERNET AND NOT REAL, that's all kids.

That stuff does happen for real. It can easily go into real life territory. So it's not something to joke about.

[Sidewalk Surfboard]

18 minutes ago, Ricky said:

Oh, real life. That would be like... the OPPOSITE of the internet. So yeah, as I was saying.

Internet =/= IRL

You sure seem oblivious to other people's problems.

[Terminal7]

20 minutes ago, Ricky said:

Internet =/= IRL

It's simply not part of some people's lives - or does not play a huge role. It may not be a significant or serious part of everyone's lives, but it's still a branch of it. 

Internet ~ IRL & Internet =/= IRL

 

 

Edited May 25, 2016 by Terminal7

[Kinare]

Well, yeah, I mean technically since the internet is real and part of our lives it is part of "real life", so the effects of what happens here, whether some deem them "real threats" or not, can still have a great impact on a person. You could make that same "it's not real" argument about cyber bullying, but people kill themselves over that too, just like IRL bullying. Words can still hurt, no matter where they come from. It might seem lesser to many people because a lot of folk can probably distance themselves from it easily, but not everyone is able to do that for various reasons.

 

Thank you for taking this so seriously, staff. I had an incident myself in the past, so I definitely feel for the victim here.

[Sidewalk Surfboard]

2 minutes ago, Ricky said:

Who's problem am I ignoring?

The invisible Straw Man lurking in the shadows?

I'm sure he'll start e-stalking me, find me IRL, rent a hotel room and IRL stalk me from there :V

Right, but it's a ridiculous assertion to try and equate something *actually dangerous* to The Land of Make-Believe.

Just. Stop.

I'm dumbfounded at your ignorance. There's no point in even trying.

[Kinare]

Just now, Ricky said:

*snip*

Yeah, this entire post screams of ignorance and refusal to budge so I'm done after this post, you're not worth bothering with if you're going to pull nonsense shit out of your ass like that. You're just grasping at straws (haha, cuz strawman bullshit) trying to not look ignorant of other people's problems.

Also. It's a very real threat, whether you want to ignore it or not.

[Falaffel]

This isn't an argument worth having.

[willow]

3 minutes ago, Falaffel said:

This isn't an argument worth having.

It most certainly is not. Probably best to stop this now 

[Clove Darkwave]

Regardless of whether or not one thinks it's a big deal, the Phoenixed staff take this issue extremely seriously. If you don't care, keep it to yourself.

[Terminal7]

13 minutes ago, Ricky said:

Right, but it's a ridiculous assertion to try and equate something *actually dangerous* to The Land of Make-Believe.

As in.. immediate danger, right? Then in that situation,  you're right. 

I think comparing the internet to "The Land of Make-Believe" is a bit extreme. Maybe, It's more like "where reality and dreams meet" or something along those lines.

[Thundeere]

They're are arguments in here that are quite unnecessary. 

IMO there shouldn't even be posts in here. This is almost like an awareness ad. Just read and acknowledge it with yourself.

[Guest]

7 hours ago, Ricky said:

All jokes aside, if it's internet stalking remember IT IS THE INTERNET AND NOT REAL, that's all kids.

Low effort, but otherwise, there's a lot of things that disagree with you. On the basis you're not actually adding anything to the convo other than to be an inflammatory, insensitive mouthpiece, I've removed all of your posts. I usually don't do that, but hey, serious topic, serious faces. I've left the thread open as a courtesy for folks to ask questions and get clarification as it is a serious issue that has harmed multiple people on the forum- even affecting some of the moderation team. 

I would politely ask you refrain from the thread since you can't provide anything constructive to a serious matter. 

[Endless/Nameless]

3 hours ago, Sidewalk Surfboard said:

I'm dumbfounded at your ignorance. There's no point in even trying.

This GIF pleases me.

Also, uh, being mean on the internet? That's no good.

Edited May 25, 2016 by Endless/Nameless

[Falaffel]

What you say may be perfectly true, but it doesn't matter. IRL or no, it still negatively affects people. 

I get what you're trying to say - I really do. How you're saying it is wrong, however. Your point would have been made perfectly clear just saying "Internet stalking does not lead to real stalking." and you would have been right. People would have disagreed in a less emotional manner to your peaceful statement. But no, you phrased it as a condescending attack. Right or not, no one will listen to an attack. 

This could have been a peaceful debate that brought to light information about Internet stalking, useful for everyone (knowledge is always useful)! However, it's devolved to a series of jabs. Petty jabs on both sides. 

Things could have atleast stayed civil. Stop trying to evoke emotions to win your battles, stick to facts. 

Edited May 25, 2016 by willow
quote removed

[willow]

This really is not the thread to debate the legitimacy of online stalking and honestly it's a pretty huge dick move to argue that none of it's real, not that I'm surprised it's turned to this. Though if you can't discuss it even in a mature manner, you should leave 

People still have feelings and we're not going to tolerate users who are primarily here to continue harassing others. End of story 

 

[Ricky]

19 minutes ago, willow said:

This really is not the thread to debate the legitimacy of online stalking and honestly it's a pretty huge dick move to argue that none of it's real, not that I'm surprised it's turned to this. Though if you can't discuss it even in a mature manner, you should leave

Sorry, I never actually said that but I see how it could be confusing since another moderator deleted all of my posts. So, now there isn't much of a reference to go by. I even said in another reply that it was disruptive behavior and that something *should* be done about it, but low and behold that post was deleted as well. I wasn't ever being immature, the same can't really be said of others but it doesn't bother me. I don't say things out of emotion but rather use the fact that most other people do to my advantage.

To get out of character for a moment:

27 minutes ago, Falaffel said:

Things could have at least stayed civil. Stop trying to evoke emotions to win your battles, stick to facts. 

He's right, but it's not my fault people post uncivil responses to a completely civil post. The reason I do this is mostly reinforcement, and well.. to be completely honest I like to argue. But neither here nor there, the way this topic was worded creates bait for furry-perpetuated drama. Notwithstanding the reality this can be extremely disruptive for people, I don't like the way it was worded since it makes no distinction based on severity and let's be honest here. 99% of these cases probably have nothing to do with anything offline and the 1% that do should be addressed in a completely different way such as getting a restraining order against the one stalking. The other 99% is probably split between cases that should and shouldn't matter. This is just the law of averages and there are two sides to every story.

If you don't understand what I mean I can explain it in a hypothetical scenario but I think it should be pretty clear.

[Feelwell]

Yea but why're we still debating this? I doubt it'll be resolved in a civil manner and really no ones benefiting from this. Furthermore it's detracting from the original purpose, which was a message ensuring members knew how stalking is not tolerated, and their policy regarding it.

Seriously if it just dropped and everyone stopped replying to the arguement, it'd be forgotten and no one would be viewed worse for having walked away.

[Ricky]

1 minute ago, Feelwell the Rabbit said:

Yea but why're we still debating this? I doubt it'll be resolved in a civil manner and really no ones benefiting from this.

Who was debating anything? What needs to be resolved?

I honestly have no idea what you are talking about.

[Spot]

This is a very good thread. Thanks for bringing this up.

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, Mr. Fox said:

This is a very good thread. Thanks for bringing this up.

No prob. Sensitive issue that's hit several of our users in the last couple days. Thought it'd be good to voice it out. 

Anyways.. since I don't want to entertain this thread becoming a debate, all thats been needed to say has been said. Anyone dealing with this please don't hesitate to private message any of the moderators, as we'll welcome you with your issue with open arms. Thanks for bein' peaches.