What do you call someone who you ignore, but they won’t stop writing about you? Who imagines a rivalry with you when you just want to ignore them? Who once asked people to stalk you on your honeymoon? Who you banned from your site because of their incoherent rantings? Who just sent a seemingly friendly and complimentary note and on the same day trashes you on their blog? Who points out your family holiday photos and makes wisecracks about them?
Crazy? Stalker? Take your pick.
Frankly, I wish they would just go away and forget I exist. Look, I’m not writing all that much anymore. Just leave me be. Sheesh.
I wish I could “find” the blog you’re talking about
Sorry Dom.
I’ve been harrassed on the internet before myself. Nature of the beast I guess – the internet, like everything, can be used for good or ill. I don’t know who you are referring to, but is there any way you can block them from emailing you? Do they have a family such that they might consider how it would feel if someone did that about them?
I know very little about computers or the net so I’m afraid I don’t have any better suggestions but we will keep Mr./Mrs. X in prayer that he/she remember to be respectful of others and remember whatsoever is done to the least is done to Christ.
I don’t want to give them too much attention by naming them. As it is, I’ve blocked every user of a particular ISP in the particular city that person lives in to keep them from even reading this site. I’m also auto-directing their email to the trash and I’ve blocked any links from their site to mine so that you can’t even click on those links anymore.
This person apparently has a spouse, and I’m contemplating doing some research to find their contact information, but I’m not sure I’m ready to go even that far yet. Maybe they’ll get the message now.
I’ve dealt with people being nasty to me online before, here and on other blogs, but this one is just creepy.
Well, I’m glad you know more about computers and the net than I do and have been able to do all you have done. Hopefully their immature disrespectfulness will cease
You could always look up the lists of Shakespearean insults to find a better name. Lackwit is one of my faves. At least if you’re not writing a lot you are putting up pictures of the babes.
Some state courts have been construing antiharrassment language to include harrassment by means of electronic communication (Facebook, for example) and some states have amended their anti-harrassment laws to expressly include harrassment by e-mail. I believe that happended in the Southwest recently, when a woman’s harrassment by the internet led to the suicide of a teenage girl. Not sure what’s going on in Massachusetts, but you might want to look into it. In any event, you have nothing to lose by contacting the police. Maybe a visit from them
is all this person needs to realize that you are serious and you have your limits.
I think I found it; the person involved has got a fair amount of suffering in his/her life, and seems to be flailing about at people who don’t happen to have those particular sufferings.
What can one do but entrust the person to our Lord’s Sacred Heart?
RC,
That was my impression as well. The person seems to have struggled and suffered a great deal and copes by being disrespectful to those who have what this person wants. The person seems very bitter but I think it comes from having been through a lot of pain. And, honestly, I can’t help but wonder if the reason this person picks on Dom and Melanie is because this person sees what Dom and Melanie have as what they wanted for themselves but never got.
We should all pray for this person as well.
I have one of those, too. Let me know if you find a cure! (Or an explanation as to why it’s fun for them.)
I have read this incoherent blog a long time ago, it was and still is filled with anger and hatred. This person has serious problems and does not seem to be getting better. Envy is a major sin, and it seems envy of the ability to have children that is behind the hate.
Dear Dom,
<chuckles>I am guessing that you must be speaking about my old “pal” Jeannie-poo Stark? I have my own issues with said-crazy lady—and she goes after me from time-to-time with the same paranoid, psycho-babble lunacy.
My answer: Give it right back to her with the facts of reality. She dished dirt, I respond with prayers and snippets of reason. She gets mean and fills my voicemail with diatribes that would make a delusional blush, I send her e-cards.
The wierd thing is that she’s always claiming to know people she sees on the television screen, even when it can be shown to her that this is simply not so. This is the only thing that scares me—people this unhinged can only go one direction, and that’s down.
I’m sorry she’s picked you as her newest target but, honestly, I can say that having my curiosity piqued by her lambastings of you and yours, your blog turns is a wonderful place to hang out and learn a thing or two—maybe someday, given enough prayer and grace, she’ll see that, too.
Keep up the beautiful work!
In His Grace, miki
By the by—I do have Jeannie-poos hubby’s work info, if you ever need it, Dom.
A couple of years ago, she went after me with a vengeance on the Catholic Writer’s Webring. It was when she began making some pretty ungodly threats that I started locating contacts for her people.
Her husband, despite some of her weirder threats, is an estates writer and hardly the kind of attorney interested or capable of “suing” people the way she’d like for imaginary harrassment. Her parish priest says they all just let her rant until she runs out of steam….
As for my previous post, I really do believe that’s the proper tack with Jeannie-poo—once I started dishing it back to her, she became a little less rabid….Even calling her “Jeannie-poo” worked wonders in getting her to shut up and leave me be, although she still mentions me occasionally.
In His Grace, miki
I thought I was a nag.
I took a look at her blog and she seems to be limited in her ability to form coherent thoughts. Furthermore, I am sure she ment no malice and is probably very frustrated in her own personal life and lashing out on others. She is certainly in need of direction and healing from the trauma she has experienced – if you catch my drift. I think it is wise you have blocked her for some are certainly standing on the border between madness and reason.