The True Crime Weblog Message Board

I have participated in Usenet discussion groups for years. For those who don't know what Usenet is, it is a network of bulletin boards that predates the web. Most of these boards are unmoderated, and it is common for people to berate each other in the most vulgar terms imaginable. I don't endorse such behavior, but I wouldn't read too much into it either.

Charlie

"You guys better be careful about who you think you are secretly having behind the scenes conversations with. I might end up with your email....

Now you know why I questioned the IP's.
BackToDetention | 04.29.08 - 3:57 am |"


I believe that the interception of personal communications is a federal crime punishable by time behind bars.

Charlie Wilkes wrote:it is common for people to berate each other in the most vulgar terms imaginable. I don't endorse such behavior, but I wouldn't read too much into it either.
Charlie

It might be common, but that doesn't make it acceptable, especially in a sensitive case such as this.

When a young girl has been savagely murdered, it's quite bilious to witness the lack of respect or sympathy for her, while having to tolerate other people's broken-record defence of the suspects. I do not believe that RS and Amanda have been detained for 'fun' or out of 'boredom', but because there are too many inconsistencies in their stories.

We may not be privy to all the facts/evidence as I said once before - but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

If by abusive language you're referring to some of the stuff we saw over the weekend, I think people will be differentially sensitive to it. Different people will read different things into it, depending on their own experience and understanding of psychology and language.
Women are generally more attuned and sensitive to the language of bullying and abuse because we are more likely to be on the receiving end of it.
Anyway, with respect to any particular case, you can choose to not read anything into it, find justification for it, approve or disapprove of it, be alarmed by it, and so on. It may or may not turn out to be relevant to this case.
The relationship between the two flatmates is part of the background of this case, so naturally people are interested in things that could shed light on the personalities of the two parties to that relationship. How relevant it is to what happened remains to be seen. In the recent documentary shown in the UK (Sex, Lies and the Murder of Meredith Kercher), it was noted that Meredith was alarmed by the strange men her flatmate brought home--alarmed enough to talk to her father about it. Is that relevant to this case? It may turn out to be.

Charlie Wilkes wrote:I have participated in Usenet discussion groups for years. For those who don't know what Usenet is, it is a network of bulletin boards that predates the web. Most of these boards are unmoderated, and it is common for people to berate each other in the most vulgar terms imaginable. I don't endorse such behavior, but I wouldn't read too much into it either.

Charlie

15 years ago the online discussion arena was the wild west. You've been so busy you may not have noticed: Things are different these days Charlie, and believe it or not people even use this newfangled "information superhighway" to get actual work done.

Charlie,
I'm just curious. Do you think it is standard practice and/or acceptable for individuals to use the boards to threaten other people?
If you felt threatened by somebody on a board -- let's say someone who made comments about your physical appearance, suggesting they had done some research on you, and hinting that they had your email address and real name -- how would you address the problem?

skeptical bystander wrote:Charlie,
I'm just curious. Do you think it is standard practice and/or acceptable for individuals to use the boards to threaten other people?
If you felt threatened by somebody on a board -- let's say someone who made comments about your physical appearance, suggesting they had done some research on you, and hinting that they had your email address and real name -- how would you address the problem?

I don't think threatening comments are acceptable, but I realize that in most cases, the threats are hollow.

The only time I have ever complained about anyone was when some joker got my IP address and used it to upload malware to an unprotected machine, which caused me a day of grief while I figured out what was going on and dealt with it. I contacted the guy's service provider and he lost his account. Then he and his friends started posting all kinds of vague, ominous threats, and I finally told them where they could find me and invited them to come get me if they really meant it.

But no one did.

As far as getting the police involved, it really depends on how far things go. From what I have seen over the years, things can get out of hand in a couple of ways. One is when someone who knows a person's real-life identity decides to harrass that person with phone calls or some kind of physical stalking. The other is when someone obtains personal information and posts it so as to encourage harrassment, e.g., "here is so-and-so's real name, here is where he works, let's all phone/email his boss."

I know of several cases of that nature where the police got involved to the point of telling people to knock if off. I have heard about one case (rec.skiing.alpine) where a judge actually issued a restraining order to bar someone from posting on a newsgroup.

I haven't seen anything here or on Haloscan that approaches the threshold at which the authorities would be interested or inclined to take action.

Charlie

Thanks for the information.
It's good to know that there are some ways to deal with the phenomenon of stalking when it spills over into the physical realm.
I'd be interested in knowing how your malware infiltrator got your IP address in the first place.

skeptical bystander wrote:I'd be interested in knowing how your malware infiltrator got your IP address in the first place.

Usenet headers include an IP address. Many news servers insert the server IP, but I was posting from one that inserts the user IP. And I wasn't running a firewall or a hardware router. I was being sloppy.

If you do a lookup on my current IP address, it will point to a server in Georgia. But I'm in the San Juan Islands. So it's not that useful for tracking people down unless you have a subpoena. It can be quite useful if you need to ban someone who sets up multiple accounts and starts flooding your board.

Charlie

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