The commenting here is interesting, as is the post. I have some general comments to make about cyberstalking and situations like this - but want to preface it with the disclaimer that
I've never heard of Rachel before and cannot sit in any form of judgement on her.
However, I was cyberstalked (and then RL stalked & harassed), so I know that it sucks and it can be dangerous. I have no idea what Rachel's stalker has done - but from the context of the blog post it appears they troll her around the net.
Apparently alerting my backers about this was considered “engaging in conversation with the spammer.”
This is what sprung out at me from the post, as did her post on the topic [1] From that post:
(not to mention that thousands of people want him dead)
And this is probably the crux of the problem. Rising to stalkers is what feeds their ego - they pummel you into submission until you react emotionally and physically to their presence.
About the only way to get rid of a cyberstalker is to delete them and ignore them.
I'm going to be a bit critical here; she shouldn't have "engaged him" by warning her backers. (edit: it would be nice to know the extent of engagement - often once you do the one "this is a troll" post it is too easy to be dragged into an actual conversation with them). She should have talked to Kickstarter, explained the problem and worked out a solution. She probably should have done that before opening the project - knowing what might happen.
It sucks that she'd have to approach the project like that... but in my experience it's better to be pragmatic.
Cyberstalkers afflict people they can "get to" emotionally - and although it is, again, unfair, about the only way to resist them is to not let it affect you. This is how I eventually got rid of my cyberstalker (who "cracked" me in the first place by sending pictures of my friends with [digital] blood splattered over the top). Before I managed this, I totally rejected the idea it would work.
As to Kickstarter; I feel like they are in a catch 22 here. If they let the project sit and do their best to keep out the troll (which is difficult enough at times) it could flare up on them; Rachel's project could fail and this blog post could be titled "How Kickstarter couldn't keep my cyberstalker away", or it could attract press attention, or it could attract more trolls to Rachel. Plus then there is the human aspect - someone at Kickstarter is sat there seeing these horrid things being posted and thinking "wow, that must be really upsetting".
So they delete the project - which could have been handled better, admittedly. But probably the best thing in the long run.
1. http://experimenthaywire.net/is-there-a-solution-to-cybersta...
EDIT: posting Daniella's full name is rather unfortunate (as she makes a point of using it, it seems).