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Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

rachelmarone.com

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Re: Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

#81

Post by fauigerzigerk »

jasonlotito wrote: post #25
alexandros wrote: post #2

Kickstarter, if you care about your reputation, fix this and make sure it never happens again.

Fix what? Going by what we know , someone has made a claim without anything to back it up. Should we encourage groundless accusations? I'd like to think members of HN would be a bit more intelligent about this sort of thing. Let's try to be a bit more rational about this and not just grab the torches and pitchforks.

If this quote is authentic, her accusations are anything but groundless:

Thanks for writing in. 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. If this happens again, we will need to discard the project and permanently suspend Rachel’s account.

If this quote is fiction, then it will be easy for kickstarter to say so.

Re: Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

#82

Post by jasonlotito »

antihero wrote: post #56
[deleted] wrote: post #55

[deleted]

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.

Re: Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

#83

Post by pkteison »

kefs wrote: 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 they had more important things to do.

Unfortunately the authorities seem to have too much to do. If it takes any effort to investigate something, it isn't going to happen.

Re: Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

#84

Post by rms »

tomflack wrote: post #74
rms wrote: 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…

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 the past, but I have a strict no drama allowed rule so I try not to dwell on it. I believe that people can change and become more rational and less dramatic and Rachel seems to be doing really really well, except for all these weird people from alternative music scenes that Rachel somehow made way too angry.

I ran across one example of the stalker randomly on the internet yesterday, which was the stalker writing a review of Extreme Futurist Fest saying it was really bad. The review was willfully inaccurate, I was at the event, and it was really good for a new event and the attendees really impressed me with their intellectual caliber. The review was posted unsolicited on a bunch of mailing lists that didn't care, such as the list of the Mormon Transhumanist Association.

No, it's utterly ridiculous to post evidence related to ongoing legal matters to the peanut gallery of the internet. Any lawyer or legal TV show will recommend against that.

Re: Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

#85

Post by jasonlotito »

rms wrote: 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…

The top post has been for a long while not in support of the OP's unsubstantiated claims. I'm fairly certain it's not an accurate representation of anything, however, and suggesting it is is dishonest. A large number, if not majority of posts in this thread are supportive of the "victim," so much so they blindly believe her.

> You might have noticed that Hacker News has gone downhill lately.

I notice a lot of people here making the assumption the post is 100% correct, with nothing to back it up besides italicized text. If you have some proof of these allegations, provide it. If not, lets not jump to conclusions.

> Please be nice everyone. Think seriously before you make a comment.

Well, that goes both ways, doesn't it?

Re: Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

#86

Post by mistercow »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #59

Oh man, not this girl again. Let's just say she is known for being at the center of drama wherever she goes. She has a very long history of libel and public feuds related to her "music project." In one of many incidents, her and her mother sent DMCA takedown requests to LiveJournal based on negative information being posted by another user (completely unrelated to copyright). Please do not give her attention. At leas…

> She is, by her own admission, mentally ill.

"Mental illness" is a very broad term that can mean a lot of things, and the last thing people affected by it need is for people to perpetuate its stigmatization on the internet. That someone has suffered from some unspecified form of mental illness does not automatically make them untrustworthy.

Re: Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

#87

Post by tomflack »

rms wrote: post #84
tomflack wrote: post #74

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…

> No, it's utterly ridiculous to post evidence related to ongoing legal matters to the peanut gallery of the internet. Any lawyer or legal TV show will recommend against that.

This is where you and I disagree. Regardless of real-world implications I consider it unethical to use the court of public opinion to court sympathy ("my stalker of 10 years..." "police are doing nothing...") and to trash companies you think have wronged you (this kickstarter affair) without posting all the evidence people ask for, or need, to craft an informed opinion.

Re: Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

#88

Post by [deleted] »

jasonlotito wrote: post #66
chris_wot wrote: post #60

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…

[deleted]

Re: Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

#89

Post by nhangen »

Based on my experiences with Kickstarter, this is not surprising.

I don't think anyone can argue that they haven't built a great product, but I've yet to be impressed by the quality of their service and find their 'community at all costs' attitude to be immature.

Why can't they just IP ban the stalker?

Without all of the details, it's hard to know what's going on here, but the lack of empathy in the response from KS is peculiar.

Re: Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim

#90

Post by mpclark »

grimboy wrote: post #19
tung wrote: post #11

An open memo to Hacker News: Stories like this (e.g. the GitHub and AirBnB incidents) tend to draw out this ugly, mob-like attitude from Hacker News, and I'm sure none of us want to see it happen again. Please, everybody, remember to be civil and give everybody the benefit of the doubt.

Yes. It is however important to express outrage to make sure Kickstarter know we find this situation, if true, to be not acceptable.

It's also important to point out that I find your wife beating unacceptable...
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