We were going to move on to the post we published on Ridley on July 6, but we have some urgent news. On our new posts, we received these comments:
One from Anon:
And then Gen posts Athena’s and Melissa’s addresses and phone numbers and somehow that’s just fine. Doesn’t put these two women in danger at all, does it?
http://genxpose.blogspot.com/2013/01/stgrb-facts-rumors-speculation.html
It is telling that Gen deleted the comment verifying that Athena and Melissa were neighbors. I guess she couldn’t handle information that didn’t fit her theory. I wish I had taken a screenshot of the comment to show you guys.
And one from Observer:
You all remember that loser named GenX you banned from your site a while back? Kudos to you because she just published a douchebag post revealing Melissa Douthit’s private information.
http://genxpose.blogspot.com/2013/01/stgrb-facts-rumors-speculation.html
It was bad enough when Lucy Low Life threatened to do it. This wanker actually did. No wonder you banned her. The hypocrisy of these people never ceases to amaze me. Aren’t they the ones who were complaining about putting “women in danger”!?!?
Does Melissa know about this? Maybe someone should tell her. I mean, the information this asshole posted is nothing we haven’t seen except for the fact that she actually lists Melissa’s address and phone number. Melissa should know. Like the other bullies, Gen drew links between Melissa and Athena, but – get this – someone tried to give her information verifying that Melissa and Athena used to be neighbors in California and Gen removed the poster’s comment! I just thought you should know.
Well, if Melissa didn’t know about this, she does now. She just contacted us to let us know that she received a threatening phone call and unlike Lucy’s phantom stalker phone call, this one was actually real. We got her permission to post about this on our blog and are doing everything we can to help her. We won’t repeat what the person said to her but rest assured, they didn’t call to inquire about her well being. The caller’s number had a 503 area code. For those that don’t know, that’s Portland, Oregon. We’re not at liberty to publish the number here and we don’t want people calling this person. I think the caller has enough to worry about anyway because Melissa is taking the number along with links and screenshots of Gen’s blog to the police. All we can say is that this is really serious and it’s a good thing she reported Lucy and Foz to the police back in August. Now she can refer to the police report that was filed to show them that these people are indeed stalking her.
So today, we decided to postpone Ridley’s profile and post More Bully Reviews. This is a post we published on August 27, 2012. We’re doing this to show our new readers the history of Lucy and Foz and the threats they laid against this author.
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I know Athena said that the next post would a fun one on writing reviews, but we’ll get to that next. We had to do this one first because we have some very interesting things to show you. Very interesting, indeed.
First, our team has been flagging these reviews brought to our attention by Stop Them, a recent site visitor:
But, there’s a couple we’d like to showcase.
Now, we’ve been told the bullies at Cuddleboogery have never violated GR’s reviewer guidelines. :
:
And here we have one from Ridley. We can always count on :
And why is she attacking the author? Because of this:
And here’s the lovely Lucy, as sweet and wonderful as always:
“Fuck her and her career.” Nice!
Speaking of Lucy, we have something very interesting to show you, but before we do, we want to explain something first. We want to explain the difference between public information and what the government calls PII or personal identifiable information (you can ask any government official about this – they take it very seriously.) Now, public information is what you find on public social networking sites like Twitter, GR, Facebook, Yelp, etc. PII, on the other hand, is what identity thieves look for when they want to empty your bank account or set up a credit account in your name and run off to the Bahamas. PII includes but is not limited to someone’s physical address, phone number, social security number, date of birth, credit card and bank numbers, etc. Now, taking public information and publishing it on a blog is not illegal. Digging up someone’s PII and publishing it (or threatening to publish it) with malicious intent is. Threatening someone with their PII is a BIG no-no.
Okay, so everybody got that? Good.
Now, with that said, we want to show you this message we received on our site from Lucy on Thursday. It is addressed to Melissa. If you have any popcorn or wine & cheese or whatever in your hand, we suggest you put it down, because this will shock you:
You see that? Public Property Records! Background check sites! And this is from the woman who claimed that she received threatening phone calls but never actually contacted the police about it and has no one to corroborate her story.
You see the kind of person she is? You see why we don’t trust or believe her?
But wait! There’s more! This is not the only person to send us a threatening message like this addressed to Melissa. We received this from Foz M. via our Contact Us page last month:
To which Athena responded:
And then, Foz wrote back:
We cut if off right here because Foz actually lists Melissa’s PII in the email. Then, the email ends with:
Then, Athena said:
Okay, let’s stop here for a second and take a slow, calm breath. This is Foz. A woman who BERATED us on HuffPo for posting public information on our blog – information published on public social networking sites by the bullies themselves. We never threatened anyone and we never lied about what we did. And we have NEVER published addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, etc, on our blog. Never. You will not find a single screenshot of us doing that because it NEVER happened. We never even looked that stuff up. As far as we’re concerned, that’s off limits. You don’t even touch that stuff. But these women, not only did they look it up, they threatened her with it. You see how vicious these people are?
Lucy, Foz, you’re busted.
We took screenshots of these messages and have sent them to Melissa. She is taking them to the police, not to press charges, but simply to alert them in case something does happen, the police will know to respond to Melissa’s 911 call immediately. Melissa has also alerted her neighbors, who are keeping on eye on her house for suspicious activity. So she is very protected right now. Also, if something were to happen to Melissa, leaving her incapacitated, we know exactly who to contact in the Utah police department and we know exactly where to point them.
Now, as to the question: did Athena use Melissa’s former address when she started this website? No. She used her own address – same street, different house number. Was Melissa Athena’s neighbor a few years ago? Yes. Do they know each other? Yes. Is Melissa involved in our website? No. She has never been involved in it. She has stayed out of the whole thing, or at least, she’s tried. We’ve tried to keep her out of it, too, but the bullies just won’t have it. They keep dragging her back into this. Why? Because they must have a ‘witch’ to hang for what they consider our crimes against them, that is, exposing their behavior and posting our opinions of it on our blog, which is not a crime at all.
Lucy, Foz, you should never have left those messages on our site. Bad move, girls. REALLY bad move.
Say what you wanna say, but these people now officially scare me. They are beyond vicious, and posting someone’s contact information online for 100’s, possibly 1000’s to see… It leaves me at a loss for words. They are aggressive and don’t give two fucks about how they hurt you or how they put someone at risk. I really hope someone takes a stand against them very soon, and puts them out of business. What they are doing… May the deities have mercy on us all.
We’re with you on that, Belle.
Well, honestly, where’s the real harm in having one’s contact info made public? I mean, until very recently, everybody’s name, address, and telephone numbers were published in phone directories (and were even available on line for a while.)
I think the people who insist on violating on line privacy do so because they hope people will harrass the “exposed” person (via phone call, hate mail, etc.). While I don’t doubt there are some people dumb enough to do this, most people are probably more prudent and will act no farther than to mock the “exposure.”
These people want to feel assertive, brave, and powerful. The only way they can do that is to maintain their own anonymity and distance. They won’t show up at someone’s front door or attempt any behavior that might actually put them in harm’s way OR at risk of being held accountable for their actions.
Think about it. Do you really think Jane Litte or others like her would ever have the nerve to face one of the authors they’ve mocked or attacked and say the same mess to them they spout on the internet? Why do you think they whine and pout whenever an author, publisher, or fan challenges them? Getting up close and personal with the people they wrong is the LAST thing they want to do.
Those are valid points. I think the harm comes in when some lunatic like the caller from Oregon decides they are actually going to get up close and personal. You never know who is reading Gen’s website. Someone like her attracts all kinds of crazies, I would expect. Taking someone’s address and phone number, although already accessible through domain lookup, and publishing them invites these kinds of people to harass the victim.
One thing about STGRB that I can say is that I’ve never seen them do what Gen did. At most, the only thing they published was stuff they found on goodreads or twitter like pictures, names, or cities. They never published anyone’s phone numbers or addresses.
Oh my god! I have no words for this. You’re right, Belle. They don’t care who they hurt or how it affects them. As long as they get revenge on someone. It’s beyond disgusting.
I think this person, GenX, has mental problems. When she first came to our blog, she tried to post some comments but our spam filter accidentally placed them in the spam folder and they got deleted, as all of our spam comments automatically do. She emailed me to ask for help. I told her I was sorry and tried to help her. She was immediately accusatory and demanding. She spoke as though we had deliberately deleted her comments on purpose. Because of the way she was acting, I told her that she had lost the right to comment on our site and that she was banned. This is what she said:
“Athena, since you have waived counsel to contact me directly, all applicable correspondence and notices will be sent directly to you and treated accordingly. I’m going to offer you an option. We can continue in the manner in which you have chosen, like this, or you can deal with me personally to resolve this issue to my satisfaction. Your choice. -Gen Xavier.”
I showed her email to the others and Tinkerbell was like, “Is this person of her rocker?” Then I wrote Gen back saying:
“Gen, you don’t seem to be getting this. You have been banned from commenting on our blog. It’s over. It’s done. There’s nothing to resolve. For future reference, don’t bother to email us again. Not only has your IP been blacklisted on our site, your email address has been blocked as well. Do not bother to contact us in the future. Your messages will be automatically deleted.”
She still didn’t seem to get the hint because she sent me back a nasty email from a different email address! I didn’t respond. I knew at that point I was dealing with a whacko and I warned Carroll about her. She had been trying to address him re: his problem with Jude and her friends.
Now Gen’s angry at me for banning her and this latest blog post is an attempt to get revenge. Only she’s not hurting me. She’s hurting someone I know. She’s hurting a friend. I spoke with Melissa and told her that I am really really sorry about what happened. Melissa is amazing because she said that she doesn’t blame me at all. She knows how these people are. If they think they’re going to scare her, they can think again. She’s a tough cookie.
Athena, how is Gen not hurting you? She listed your information as well.
For one, I’m not an author. I don’t have books to worry about. Secondly, the information she listed for me is the address and phone number I had back in July when we started the website. Since then I have moved and have a different phone number. But as far as I know, Melissa’s information is current and that puts her in danger because Belle is absolutely right. Gen exposed her contact information to hundreds if not thousands of people. If something were to happen to Melissa, Gen could be held responsible.
This is what happens when unstable people are given free access to a computer an the internet. She should seek out counsel with a shrink and get a prescription for some happy-pills. 😀
This is going to sound horrible but this doesn’t surprise me at all. These are people who come from the lowest dregs of society, hide behind computers, and get their kicks by terrorizing and hurting others. They are just one small step up from those people who shop craigslist for free animals to adopt just so they can torture and abuse them. They are filthier than dirt and it’s time for all of us to do something about it.
I’m going to offer you an option. We can continue in the manner in which you have chosen, like this, or you can deal with me personally to resolve this issue to my satisfaction.
Um, yeah. This is just psychotic. Once someone tells you that you’re no longer welcome, you don’t sit there and “offer them an option” or tell them that they can “resolve the issue to your satisfaction”. Athena was nice. If it had been me, I’d have just said, Hey! F**k off, psycho!
I’d like to see these assholes get their just desserts this year. I have a good feeling that it’s going to happen too. Take white trash somerloon, for instance. I’d love to see her get busted. She’s written on her blog that she’s made a new year resolution not to talk about STGRB. Ha! Yeah, we’ll see how long that lasts.
We’ll look into the twitter feed. So far, it’s something we haven’t really considered.
Yes it would be great to share some of the posts to Twitter and Facebook! Good thinking!!!
You should be able to find sharing buttons on all posts and pages now. We should have done this earlier. Sorry about that!
I’m really sorry to have to keep doing this, but here is today’s bulletin for who’s being attacked on Amazon:
I don’t think this is the first time Mary E Tilley has been attacked; her name rings a bell. But I can’t remember the details of the previous incident.
Surprise surprise! The usual suspects doing the bullying! Do they ever get sick of listening to themselves??? Day in day out they are on forums spewing hate! What a sad existence!!!
Honestly? Mary needs to stop commenting–she just made it worse for herself. Her comments are just as childish as the other’s. Also, her review seems to be more focused on how nice and wonderful the author is…but as a potential buyer of the book, it did not help me any. I want to know about how wonderful the book is and why, not that the author has a lovely smile.
Yes, it is always the same people doing the bullying. I’m afraid that Jenn is right. The best thing is just avoid these people altogether.
And honestly, ignoring them isn’t that hard. Most of their comments are pretty similar and run together and are mostly quite forgettable. I don’t even waste my time blocking them, I just skim quickly to see if they’ve posted something relevant and move on.
I am part of the Amazon Vine program and got a comment from another Vine voice on one of my reviews. He left a four paragraph comment on my review, questioning why I gave it three stars based on the comments in the review (it wasn’t an overly positive review, and three stars on Amazon means “It was OK”. The book was readable, I just didn’t particularly care for it.) I addressed his issue as best I could, and then got a very gleeful response from him. It was at that point it became clear to me he was looking for an argument and got off on it, so I didn’t respond. He was doing his best to make me look stupid, and it just wasn’t worth it. Plus…I looked at some of his reviews, and it seems he has a habit of getting into it with other commenters.
By the way, that review has 29 of 32 “helpful” votes, and is the first review anyone will see when they look up the book, so obviously I didn’t do too bad of a job with it.
Tried this link and it’s no longer there….would have like to have read it.