Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

Judging by some of the other posts about this "victim", I'm not sure her integrity is a concern. Supposedly she's done KickStarter before, and essentially just taken the money and not produced (Please, check these threads for the specific comments regarding it).

At the same time, keep in mind that when I first came to this thread, there were a LOT of comments condemning KickStarter, making an assumption. My goal throughout this has been to try and remind people to be objective. If your objective, that's great! I have no issue with you, or anyone else with an objective. I've been responding to numerous people throughout all this as well, so there is a good chance I might end up talking to more than one person in a single thread, and not realize it.

1 She is a legitimate victim of cyberstalking, with a legitimate beef against Kickstarter

2 She is also an opportunist, using #1 to generate publicity for her project

3 Kickstarter could/should have handled this differently/better

For me, I get the impression from the responses here that some think that #1 and #2 above are mutually exclusive, when it's possible they may not be. If #2 is true, it doesn't in my mind invalidate #1 and #3, but it could make me less sympathetic to her cause.

I'm not sure we should draw any conclusions based on a blog post from only one side of the 'dispute' (Kickstarter hasn't stated their side), but it's interesting to me how polarizing her blog entry is in this thread.

    Rachel Marone had a restraining order on HER for stalking! 

    and also from her own blog:
    >
    > Experiment Haywire's Blog
    > Sign up
    > Mar 22, 2009
    > Prometheus Burning threatens legal action against me for
    "stalking"
    > I hate that I need to share this with everyone but I feel that my
    > legal safety might be in danger and am making this post to ask for
    > advice. I am currently scared out of my mind.
    >
    > Remember the band that called me a "lonely wannabe poser with no
    > musical skill" and a "hypocritical talentless hack" after staging
    > public drama with me for publicity? The band that harassed me to
    > the point where I actually had to call my sick mother for help? My
    > mother was conservative enough to file a DMCA charge against this
    > band for posting a private email of mine to the public. While I
    did
    > not want this private email posted and felt an extreme sense of
    > violation I strongly disapproved of my mother's actions regarding
    > the DMCA. (an organization which I utterly despise) In the end my
    > mother was in critical medical condition and was simply trying to
    > get this band to leave me alone- yet when she brought the DMCA
    into
    > this I was furious.
    >
    > I recently emailed the band and apologized for the actions of my
    > mother. I mentioned that I liked their music and that I would like
    > to put the past behind us. I used to be on good terms with this
    > band. I was a constant promoter of their music and spun them
    > consistently as a DJ in NYC when nobody else had heard of them. We
    > had mutual friends and (as far as I saw it) absolutely no reason
    to
    > perpetuate any conflict between us. I planned to support them on
    > tour along with Caustic and The Gothsicles in Atlanta. I figured
    > that it would be a great time.
    >
    > Until they told me the following on a public forum:
    >
    > "We have saved every email and message you have sent to Nikki. We
    > have saved every message, bulletin, etc. you have posted that
    > mentions us and we have saved every post you ever made on these
    > forums and others that mention us. Your stalker behavior is well
    > documented by us and by our lawyer. We have not taken the steps to
    > get a PFA against you as of yet, but we have more than enough
    > documentation to do so when we feel it necessary." -Prometheus
    > Burning
    >
    > Just wow. I don't appreciate people making false accusations about
    > me and I certainly don't appreciate being threatened with a lawyer
    > for a crime that I did not commit. Most importantly though: do
    they
    > have any idea what stalking actually is? As someone who has been
    > stalked before (and I'm not just talking about ex-boyfriends
    > failing to leave me alone but an actual sociopath making constant
    > threats against the lives of me and the people dear to me) I am
    > strongly offended by the way this band has used the term
    "stalking"
    > to refer to my attempt at a peaceful resolution. Stalking is not a
    > joke. If you have ever been stalked before you know what it's like
    > to beg for your stalker to leave you alone only to be told not to
    > further engage him. If you have ever been stalked before you know
    > what it's like to walk into a public place in fear of your life.
    If
    > you have ever been stalked before you know that horrible sinking
    > feeling you get when your stalker contacts you. It is not a
    > pleasant feeling. (to say the least)
    >
    > Stalking is not something to fuck around with. Accusing someone of
    > stalking is a lot like accusing someone of domestic abuse. If this
    > person didn't stalk or abuse you then you are minimizing the
    > struggles of thousands of individuals who are stalked and abused.
    > Many of these people have emailed me in tears to confide. Yet now
    > this band is claiming that I am stalking them. What can I do? I'm
    > being threatened with legal action for a crime that I did not
    > commit. A crime that I myself have been a target of.
    >
    > At least there is some comic relief to this story. I was trying to
    > understand the motivation behind all of their harassment. At first
    > I didn't pay any attention to the messages I was getting from
    > friends who were telling me this band was now ripping off my vocal
    > style. I honestly didn't give a fuck because I had other things to
    > focus on. Yet when they started threatening legal action against
    me
    > for "stalking" I went to their myspace page. Behold.
    >
    > Did they rip off my vocals? I want to say no because my delivery
    is
    > a lot more punk rock but I couldn't help noticing that the lead
    > singer was now using my same vocal patterns, screaming/talking
    > style, word emphasis, etc. in their songs. This was not what was
    > most surprising to me though. What was surprising to me was that
    > these pseudo-occult types who were avid readers of Acidexia in its
    > blog form and readers of Generation Hex (the Disinformation chaos
    > magick anthology that you can find my writing in) were using every
    > concept I'd written about in Acidexia and Generation Hex for their
    > band.
    >
    > Their "influences" are as follows:
    >
    > Self Destructive Behavior
    > Sensory Deprivation
    > Transhumanism
    > Chaos Magick
    > Traumatic Childhood Experiences
    > Abusive Relationships
    > Bi-Polar Depression
    > Insomnia
    > Aleister Crowley
    > Panic Disorder
    > Vivid Dreaming and Nightmares
    > Clive Barker
    > The Black Arts
    > Robert Anton Wilson
    > Discordia
    > Genesis P Orridge
    > Timothy Leary
    > HR Giger
    > Tentacle Rape
    > Smoking crack while worshiping the Dark Lord
    >
    > With the exception of the tentacle rape and smoking crack it was
    > pretty much a word-for-word summary of Acidexia. Their lyrics
    > followed a similar rip-off mentality. Mother of Abominations? I
    was
    > writing about that when I was 17. The darker side of chaos
    magick?
    > Nope, never been there before! At this point it was just getting
    > hilarious and I started to see what was actually going on. This
    > band was trying to run me out by accusing me of "stalking" them so
    > people wouldn't see that they'd been ripping off my ideas with
    > their new album. Well here's some news for the entire occult
    > community: their new album is everything that I wrote about in
    > Acidexia before I even started Experiment Haywire.
    >
    > I'm also curious how much they actually know about chaos magick.
    > I'm not sure wearing a TOPY necklace counts as much of anything
    but
    > I could be wrong. This band wanted attention through having drama
    > with someone who wasn't well liked in the industrial scene. Now
    > they've got it. Again. I am sure they will enjoy the occult
    > attention too. Quit watering down chaos magick with your tribute
    to
    > 90's industrial. It's not good for the new paradigm.
    >
    > If anyone has any legal advice for me it would be much
    appreciated.
    > I apologize for having to post this but I'm not sure what else to
    > do. I am seriously freaking out.
    >
    > Thanks for listening,
    > Rachel Haywire
    >