Live data from Hacker News

Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

rachelmarone.com

131–140 of 236 posts

Re: Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

#131
This is tough.

But, I think this is no different than for example Stack Overflow where questions and comments can be edited and removed if they are not on topic, or in this case, where they do not follow the Kickstarter community guidelines.

And that is exactly what happened here. Comments from the spammer/stalker are not on topic. Responses to those comments are also not on topic.

Rachel had the choice to either actively remove those comments or to participate in those off-topic discussions. She did the latter while in my (no so humble opinion) removing them was really the only appropriate choice.

Kickstarter is not a forum for drama, it is a place to raise money for your project. And that should be your one and only goal if you start a project there. This stupid spammer/stalker is taking away valuable time that she could also have put into marketing her project or participating in real discussions.

The fact that this is someone who has stalked her for the past 10 years is very sad but it is not relevant in this discussion. She is the admin of the project and she has the powers to keep it on topic.

Re: Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

#132
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please read the following in an exasperated tone of voice, because that's what I feel here. The problem is the very public trashing of kickstarter on her blog, combined with the multitude of people who have had run-ins with Rachael over the past few years calling her "crazy" etc. Allegedly the FBI are uninterested in prosecuting the cyber stalker. However since coming across this today I've seen nothing that indicate…

I believe Kickstarter has an obligation to treat Rachel like a customer. I believe they are capable of building the tool needed to deliver a good experience to customers like Rachel. I don't support the specific language Rachel might have used, but I empathize with Rachel's frustration with Kickstarter's flawed process. I met Rachel a few months ago. She seems nice. I know she has all this weird unresolved drama from…

> but I have a strict no drama allowed rule

You might want to stop feeding this ridiculous thread.

IHBT.

Re: Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some quality class A victim blaming right there. How dare she engage the troll in a manner that is not how the internet recommends. Clearly she deserves everything that happened to her. I mean yes, the way to deal with trolls is to ignore them completely and absolutely, but the punishment for not doing that shouldn't be being banned from kickstarter.

While I don't condone the attitude in the OP, providing background on the "victim" in this case is appropriate. She has offered nothing to substantiate her claims. As of yet, we know nothing, and calling her a "victim" is ignoring facts.

Either she is a victim or she made up the entire story along with emails. It's a waste of time to discus the latter; if it's made up kickstarter will say so. But I doubt her making up a story so easily disproved.

Your other posts about italic text honestly come across to me as a strawman.

Re: Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was obviously written by a troll and not Rachel.

Hmm, this reddit account (brokenrobot23) http://www.reddit.com/user/brokenrobot23 was created a few hours ago in support of Rachel, as was your account (blingbling23), quite the coincidence, isn't it?

Even so I haven't seen one link backing up the "quote" from reddit. If it was true someone would have provided some sort of verification by now.

Re: Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

#135
post #99

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 d…

This is one of her responses: "As you all know I have a rockin' tight ass, a successful project on Kickstarter that you've all funded, and a cyberstalker that goes by the name of FrankSinatraDirtyTalker1915@comcast.net. I originally met "Frank" back in College, where we dated for a bit. I should point out that he's not an old man, as his username might imply, but rather someone who is simply obsessed with Frank Sinat…

At the risk of being downvoted myself, please downvote this submission. It's irrelevant and obviously a troll.

Re: Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not certain that Hacker News really needs your defense. Let's hear what KickStarter has to say about this. If Daniella Jaeger indeed said "If there is any chance that Rachel will receive spam from a stalker on her project, she should not create one. We simply cannot allow a project to become a forum for rampant spam, as her past project became." then she should apologize and look at the way that the project handl…

> I'm not certain that Hacker News really needs your defense. You're wrong. It does . People need to be told, flat out, the this isn't a board that wants nor appreciates mob-mentality. It promotes reason and rationality. As a long* time member of HN, threads like this are a blight. Not because of the parties involved, but because we are doing things we abhor in others. > Either way, Daniella needs to respond to this…

I see no problem with expecting people to say "nope." to credible-seeming trolls. It takes mere seconds and provides strong evidence to discredit the troll in the future. And you calling it a marketing stunt is a very different situation because you have a clear motivation of rhetorical device to fake an email and you're not staking your reputation on it.

Finally, I don't think anyone here is suggesting taking action against kickstarter without hearing what they say. It's a big "wow, this is a bad way to behave kickstarter". And they could reply "yes, good thing we didn't do that".

Re: Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

#137
post #99

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 d…

This is one of her responses: "As you all know I have a rockin' tight ass, a successful project on Kickstarter that you've all funded, and a cyberstalker that goes by the name of FrankSinatraDirtyTalker1915@comcast.net. I originally met "Frank" back in College, where we dated for a bit. I should point out that he's not an old man, as his username might imply, but rather someone who is simply obsessed with Frank Sinat…

This is false and should not be here.

Re: Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

#138
post #62

META OK everyone. You might have noticed that Hacker News has gone downhill lately. A common pattern is for the number one comment to be some vaguely negative and uninteresting post. In this case, it's also an inflammatory post that wrongly blames the victim. I'm friends with Rachel and the stalker dude is real. I was uselessly harassed by him because I spoke at Extreme Futurist Fest. He's real, he's crazy, and somet…

Please read the following in an exasperated tone of voice, because that's what I feel here. The problem is the very public trashing of kickstarter on her blog, combined with the multitude of people who have had run-ins with Rachael over the past few years calling her "crazy" etc. Allegedly the FBI are uninterested in prosecuting the cyber stalker. However since coming across this today I've seen nothing that indicate…

Kickstarter removed her because of the spamming, which seems to be an indication that the stalker exists. Of course she might have just been talking to herself, but having never heard about her before, I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Re: Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

#139
post #5

I imagine there are laws that this cyberstalker is breaking, and surely kickstarter can assist in providing the authorities with the relevant information to kickstart an investigation/tro/arrest?

I live in Atlanta, GA, USA. I had my car stolen. Police didn't investigate. It was found abandoned 2 weeks later. Police didn't do anything beyond return it. I figured you had to be shot to get some attention. Three friends have had their house robbed. No police response beyond insurance paperwork. Later, a friend of mine was shot. Police didn't investigate. He was told that he didn't die, so it wasn't murder, so the…

parts of the Twin Cities (Plymouth) are like this for any car related theft. They give you a case number over the phone and that is the end of it. Had my car broken into twice in a parking garage with cameras. No investigation even though about 20 cars were hit each time.

Re: Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

#140
post #5

I imagine there are laws that this cyberstalker is breaking, and surely kickstarter can assist in providing the authorities with the relevant information to kickstart an investigation/tro/arrest?

I live in Atlanta, GA, USA. I had my car stolen. Police didn't investigate. It was found abandoned 2 weeks later. Police didn't do anything beyond return it. I figured you had to be shot to get some attention. Three friends have had their house robbed. No police response beyond insurance paperwork. Later, a friend of mine was shot. Police didn't investigate. He was told that he didn't die, so it wasn't murder, so the…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN