Tag Archive: News
We wanted to let our readers know that Gavin Hetherington just recently contacted us to thank us for setting the record straight regarding the “Gavin the thief” fiasco. If you all remember, a blog reader left a link on our blog weeks ago about a Gavin Hetherington in the UK, living very near Gavin the author, who stole money from an old woman. Suspicious that it might be the same Gavin, we stated on our blog that we would do some digging to find out the truth. After a bit of research, we discovered that Gavin the author and Gavin the thief were two completely different people. Apparently, Gavin the author hadn’t seen our post on this when we published it. Gavin also apologized for any wrongs he may have done or any hurt he may have caused anyone. Because of this, we have removed from public view the two posts we published on him, here and here. We leave them as a record and will only allow viewing upon special request. We are, however, leaving up our four part series Once Upon a Time in the Land of BookLikes to show what the bullies did to him. This story we feel is important for illustrating to our readers how quickly the bullies will take a false claim, utterly destroy an author with it, and then blame other people (like us) when they find out they were mistaken. Gavin gave us permission to post his email to us: 
Thank you for contacting us, Gavin, and good luck.
*********************************************************************
An addendum
Below is a screenshot of a comment by KarlynP left on Gavin’s recent BL post explaining that he sent us the above email. We are posting it to show people how easily the bullies lie and end up believing their own lies much like the time they thought Google had blocked us. Remember that?
We have one word to describe your comment here, Karlyn: BULLSHIT. We are calling you on your bullshit. You need to get your facts straight, sweetheart. But of course that always seems to be too difficult for you, doesn’t it? There was no blood on our hands and you know it. We don’t know who left the link to the article on our blog nor on Shelby’s and we certainly didn’t call Gavin a thief. Nor did we “make” Shelby accuse him of thievery. She did that entirely on her own. What we said was that the two Gavins could be the same person and that we would do some digging to find the truth. Well, guess what. We found the truth and we posted it for the sole purpose of clearing Gavin’s name. Why did we do that? Because your friend, Shelby, and her minions smeared him throughout the ENTIRE blogosphere. They were wrong and they owe him an apology. And we have yet to see that apology given.
We were contacted just recently by an author (we will call Anon) who was bullied last year. She wanted us to pass along this message to those who bullied her:
This author also let us know that she will be releasing a new book this year. To this author, all we have to say is:
That’s the spirit, Anon! Don’t let the bullies tear you down or stop you! Keep making great art!
And to all those STGRB haters out there, we say:
Cheers! Be patient. So much more is coming.
😀
Over the years, STGRB has grown. What was once just an idea sparked by the oppression of others has grown to become a major player in the fight against online bullying. But with this growth comes an addition of new challenges. We now have more active members commenting on our articles than at any time since our operation began. And herein lies one of our new challenges: moderating these comments.
We would like to remind our readers that STGRB does not tolerate discriminatory comments against any individual on the basis of race, religion, country of origin, sexuality, gender, appearance, etc. We also do not tolerate aggressive and/or disrespectful comments directed toward any members or regular readers of our site. However we have recently been finding ourselves deleting comments from repeat violators.
Therefore, we’re implementing a new warning system. Those who leave comments against our guidelines will be given a warning. Repeat offenders will be given a second warning, and on the third warning, your IP will be banned from our blog. We’d like to remind everyone to keep their comments constructive: attack the behavior, not the characteristics of the individual.
Thank you for understanding.
We wanted to post a quick update before our next story. We’ve received a few emails asking us why we removed our posts on Parogar. The reason is because he made a really good decision and apologized for what he did. He also apologized to the innocent people who were caught in the crossfire.
First, he apologized to Anne Rice:
Then to Melissa Douthit:
And finally, he apologized to the person who deserved it the most. The original author who was bullied on Wattpad. We were able to confirm all of this with everyone involved. We’ve also learned through some solid evidence that Parogar was being counseled by some anonymous emailers who were telling him what he needed to do in order to help his friend, Avery, (i.e. threaten people, carpet-bomb, etc.). It was exactly the WRONG advice and we have a pretty good idea who those anonymous emailers were. We can’t say that following their advice was a good decision, but he’s given a sincere apology to everyone and moved on.
Good for you, Kevin!
P.S. In closing, we’d like to add that Kevin still denies having carpet-bombed anyone’s books and on this account, we will give him the benefit of the doubt, especially given our new knowledge of the anonymous emails he received.
Because the bullies are so obsessed with our site, they monitor it 24/7 and they’ve started on Amazon dedicated to it.
Gosh, we’re so flattered!
If you visit , you’ll see them plotting, calculating, and formulating plans within plans within plans about how they’re going to bring about our demise:
Note: Alison Black is a sock account, btw, and we pretty sure we know who’s sock it is.
Anyhow, you’ll see them making claims about how horrible we are — how we bully them, call them names, tell lies about them, kick puppies, steal from children, beat the elderly and so on and so on, blah, blah, blah — starting whatever rumor they can think of next. But the rumor they started today was so hysterically funny, we had to share it with you.
Okay so… a little background about what happened. The other day, one of our members was in our Google dashboard, checking the site stats. Because she had a dodgy wireless mouse, she accidentally clicked the link that deleted our site’s url from the Google index without knowing it. We didn’t know it had happened until today when we started receiving messages from our blog readers, telling us they couldn’t find our site because it wasn’t appearing in the Google search engine (btw, everyone, it’s easy to bookmark a website in your browser, there is usually an icon for that in the url toolbar). When we heard about this, we checked Google webmaster and sure enough, the url was gone. So, we fixed it and within a couple hours, our site was searchable again.
So, how did the bullies react?
Well, they went into a crazed frenzy with cries of “Extra! Extra! Read all about it! STGRB blocked by Google!” And we just sat back with our popcorn, or for some of us, our glasses of wine, and laughed and laughed and laughed.
😀
It all :
And then what happened? Well…
And then…
They took it to BookLikes and blogged and reblogged:
And then…
Onto Goodreads:
And finally…
*drumroll*
is where they found out our site was back and realized that they had duped themselves into believing their own ridiculous rumor:
Hilarious!!!
😀
So… why are we telling you about all this? Simple. Because we want to show you how quickly (and easily) these bullies can start a rumor, believe their own lie, and then spread it around the internet within minutes, preaching it as if it were a fact.
Pretty amazing, isn’t it?
And this isn’t the first time they’ve made complete fools of themselves. They did this when we changed hosting companies and also when our site was down one weekend last winter (for an hour in the middle of the night!) when our hosting company was in the middle of a server maintenance. In fact, they do this kind of thing whenever we do anything like cough or sneeze. It’s rather amusing.
We’d like to claim that we set this whole thing up as a joke, but alas, we did not. It was an honest mistake on our part, but after much reflection over it, we’ve come to the conclusion that the bullies’ lives are so miserable (hence the source of their need to hurt other people), we can honestly say we actually felt good about giving them just a little bit of happiness today…
Even if it was short-lived.
See, bullies, we can be nice.
😀
We do not need to tell you that the internet has become a favorite haven for bullies to terrorize others through the anonymity that the web offers. However, the public is starting to take notice.
More authors and bloggers are fighting back by bringing attention to this festering problem. Bullies have turned the web into a virtual cesspool of hate filled impropriety, targeted at anyone who ventured to articulate their disapproval of this behavior.
We came across an article by the talented Ellen Painter Dollar.
Ellen brings to light several good and sensible ways that we can do to troll proof our internet experience. Here are a few key points we pulled because we believe them to represent the exact point that STGRB has been driving home for the last 2 years.
“Trolls cause real and significant damage.”
Several circle participants said the biggest benefit of our conversation was realizing that they are not weak or shallow or silly for being deeply hurt by mean-spirited online comments. We shared stories about trolls who have called us names; dismissed our knowledge and expertise; accused us of all sorts of nefarious activities, from being a terrible mother to not really being a Christian; and gone way way way over the line of good taste to leave sexist, suggestive, and just plain rude comments.
Absolutely! Time and again STRGB has written blog posts of the damage cyber-bullying causes. Remember Charlotte Dawson.
It’s a devastating loss for the family and friends of the 47-year-old television presenter. Dawson was hospitalised in 2012 after hundreds of social media trolls viciously targeted her on Twitter.
For the longest time victims of troll abuse have been told to “ignore it, let it go, it’s not worth your time or effort, don’t respond” and so on. We have always told authors and readers who are being targeted, to take this approach as well. In the past, it was considered dangerous to give these bullies any kind of publicity or attention.
Mostly because there was so little support other than this site and a few brave authors who had taken it upon themselves to expose this abominable behavior. They did this knowing they were placing a bulls-eye on their foreheads for the bullies to throw their poison laced knives at. But we did not quit.
That was then, but this is now. Ellen points out a simple fact that is finally being recognized by more and more bloggers, authors and readers, even the trolls themselves can’t deny this.
So when people attack us—when they don’t merely disagree, but ridicule and dismiss and name call—it feels personal because it is personal.
It’s personal because the trolls mean it to be personal. It’s as simple as that. Why else would a bully bother to harass and stalk authors, or anyone that narrow their eyes at them? Because they want the conflict. They want the feeling of satisfaction it gives them to decimate another human-being without being challenged. However, that has changed hasn’t?
Being silent is no longer the norm. Readers, the ones who really have a vested interest in books because they actually enjoy reading for the sake of entertainment, are now beginning to see the reality of cyber-bullies attacking authors.
Don’t believe me, check this out.
Thank you Anne Rice!
“Thick skin” is not the best or only solution to trollish behavior.”
The most common advice given to writers when we complain about troll attacks? “You need to develop thicker skin.” Translation: Get used to it. Trolls aren’t going away so figure out how to do your job without letting them bother you.
We have seen so many authors being bullied to the point that they can no longer sit down to write without having anxiety attacks. People acquire a thick skin when they live through some life altering trauma, or when they keep failing, but never give up until they win. Our experience through life give us a thick skin, NOT trolls. Sorry, the only thing trolls or bullies do is destroy the lives of decent people and they do it with as much infelicity as possible. Why? It’s because they believe themselves to be free from the consequences of their behavior.
Here one of them (All Hail Grimlock who was eventually banned from Goodreads) actually threatens an author’s fan with a purposeful hateful review:
Well guess what the tables are turning.
“Writers have the right to protect ourselves, even if that requires bucking social media convention.”
Writers whose primary outlets are online (and especially those who regularly write about touchy subjects, including religion) have come up with a variety of methods for protecting themselves from the whirlwind of feelings churned up by trollish comments.
We agree completely. It also helps to have celebrity authors making national and international headlines with their support of stopping the “Gangster Bullies” (wink, wink). What has this done for our cause?
One. It has brought much needed media attention to online bullying in every form.
Two. It has given more readers and the general public at large, a dose of what really happens when a bully attacks.
Three. It has given more and more people the courage to speak out and demand that these bullies are held accountable for their actions.
And most importantly, it has proven what we at STGRB have been reporting for the last two years. Without a voice to speak out against bullying there can never be change. Change is good.
This just in.
Those who have been tormented and carpet-bombed by her can now breathe a sigh of relief. Goodreads is getting better everyday.
One of our blog readers tipped us off to this article published today in Slate that analyzes the personality traits of people who engage in online trolling:
We already knew this, didn’t we?
Their findings were rather disturbing:
The problem is, how do websites deal with this? How do they stop online trolls from hurting other people? It’s a tough question. We leave our comments open for reader thoughts.
Angela H. of the BBA Whisperer has just recently been spanked by Google for posting private content that she acquired and published illegally on her blog, violating the DMCA and privacy rights:
When the posts were removed, she tried to put them back up again only to get spanked again:
Angela H. has been one of our Biggest Offenders ever since the attack she led on author Sharon Desruisseaux last year. She was also banned from Goodreads for her abusive behavior towards others. In recent months, the psychotic munchichi let her obsessive hatred carry her a little too far when she broke into a private Facebook group and took screenshots of private conversations between members of the group that she proceeded to publish on her blog. Then, she boasted about it on her Booklikes blog. Ironically enough, she’s also labeled the members of this group BBA.
I know, right!
But guess what, folks! Unfortunately for Angela, the publication of private facts is illegal:
Not only was Angela in violation of the DMCA, she also violated privacy rights, which is punishable according to California Penal Code, Section 630-631:
630. The Legislature hereby declares that advances in science and technology have led to the development of new devices and techniques for the purpose of eavesdropping upon private communications and that the invasion of privacy resulting from the continual and increasing use of such devices and techniques has created a serious threat to the free exercise of personal liberties and cannot be tolerated in a free and civilized society. The Legislature by this chapter intends to protect the right of privacy of the people of this state. The Legislature recognizes that law enforcement agencies have a legitimate need to employ modern listening devices and techniques in the investigation of criminal conduct and the apprehension of lawbreakers. Therefore, it is not the intent of the Legislature to place greater restraints on the use of listening devices and techniques by law enforcement agencies than existed prior to the effective date of this chapter.
631. (a) Any person who, by means of any machine, instrument, or contrivance, or in any other manner, intentionally taps, or makes any unauthorized connection, whether physically, electrically, acoustically, inductively, or otherwise, with any telegraph or telephone wire, line, cable, or instrument, including the wire, line, cable, or instrument of any internal telephonic communication system, or who willfully and without the consent of all parties to the communication, or in any unauthorized manner, reads, or attempts to read, or to learn the contents or meaning of any message, report, or communication while the same is in transit or passing over any wire, line, or cable, or is being sent from, or received at any place within this state; or who uses, or attempts to use, in any manner, or for any purpose, or to communicate in any way, any information so obtained, or who aids, agrees with, employs, or conspires with any person or persons to unlawfully do, or permit, or cause to be done any of the acts or things mentioned above in this section, is punishable by a fine not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500), or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year, or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170, or by both a fine and imprisonment in the county jail or pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170. If the person has previously been convicted of a violation of this section or Section 632, 632.5, 632.6, 632.7, or 636, he or she is punishable by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year, or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170, or by both that fine and imprisonment.
(b) This section shall not apply (1) to any public utility engaged in the business of providing communications services and facilities, or to the officers, employees or agents thereof, where the acts otherwise prohibited herein are for the purpose of construction, maintenance, conduct or operation of the services and facilities of the public utility, or (2) to the use of any instrument, equipment, facility, or service furnished and used pursuant to the tariffs of a public utility, or (3) to any telephonic communication system used for communication exclusively within a state, county, city and county, or city correctional facility.
(c) Except as proof in an action or prosecution for violation of this section, no evidence obtained in violation of this section shall be admissible in any judicial, administrative, legislative, or other proceeding.
Since Angela lives in California and since Google is a California based company, the members of the group, whose private information was exposed, sought the help of a California attorney who contacted Google to inform them of the violation. The result was the email from Google posted above and the removal of the illegal content. We’ve heard from members of the group that they intend to file suit against Angela for damages. More on that to come.
So, this should be a good lesson to any troll who thinks it’s okay to hack into a private group (or a private account) and publish people’s private information. This behavior is illegal and will not be tolerated. Ever.
