Anonymous comments, IP addresses and HARASSMENT

My only and entire issue with this whole situation is Why was the information givin out in the first place?? If the comment was left anon then thats how it should have stayed in my mind, Otherwise what is the point of the feature. I hate knowing that at your whim anything i say anonnomusly could be just givin out.

I thought it was the job of the staff to deal with this type of situation. From my view the staff should have talked to the person leaving the anon comment and told them to either stop or delete them. I dont feel that the information should have been givin to anyone with the comment of the person has whats coming. Out of context or not.

I figured the staff was used to handle things like this. I just dont understand whats the point of even having anon comments if the information can be giving publicly as it ended up being when the staff could have handled this like i was led to be is what they are there for.

anyways I do understand why you did it. It just bothers me that what i leave anonomusly could be givin to anyone that asks for the name

No comment is anonymous. If the police asked for the information, they'd know who you are. As stated in the entry, in a case of harassment I will give out the information necessary to resolve the issue. These comments weren't left on the individual's diary, so they couldn't just block anonymous comments. They were left on a public WIDELY ACCESSED DIARY.

Staff don't deal with arguments between people. If there is a purpose for anonymous comments, it isn't for harassment.

BloopNews

Understood..jessa♥

immortalized artiste

Gosh, how do these rumours even start??

lithium layouts.

understood steve! no worries!

Lady May

TLN: Anonymous comments left simply to harass someone could mean this person had been blocked, but logged out to continue to harass someone. I agree with Steve that THAT is unacceptable. What good is the block option if people can still get to it? I'm not sure if it means that they can track the diarist, just the computer the comment is coming from. He's not going to give your name to anyone just because they ask for it; if you start leaving hateful, degrading and harassing messages anonymously though, that's definitely grounds for you to be tracked so that you can be stopped.

omg it's jessica!

Also, I think it's really sad that you have to remind people this isn't high school. Things have gotten completely out of hand and I'm sorry all of this has come back to you in such a loud and obnoxious way.

omg it's jessica!

I completely agree. People either need to grow a backbone and say what they need to say and sign their comments or they need to learn to ignore the shit said about them on the internet from people they don't know IRL and will never know in IRL. If someone is harrassing someone through anon means whether its on their diary or a widely access diary they should be stopped.

Love Bipolar Inc

Alright. So... if that's the case, then why is the diary Dear Anonymous still allowed up when that, too, could be considered harassment due to the crap put in there?

And all those comments with the people arguing back and forth constantly could be considered harassment as well. It's all double standards for everything.

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS IS ABOUT, BUT PERHAPS IT WOULD BE HELPFUL TO DEFINE HARASSMENT, YO. LIKE PEOPLE MAY ASK FOR AN IP ADDRESS TO BLOCK BECAUSE A PERSON RESPONDED TO THEIR COMMENT N A WAY THEY DIDN'T LIKE. A LOT OF BLOOPERS ARE QUICK TO CALL OUT 'HARASSMENT!' WHEN REALLY THEY ARE THE ONE INITIATING CONTACT, AND THE OTHER PERSON IS JUST REPLYING. I'D SAY YOU NEED A DEFINITION OF HARASSMENT AND GENUINE PROOF OF HARASSMENT BEFORE HANDING OUT IP ADDRESSES. IT COULD BE JUST AS MUCH A LEGAL ISSUE IF SOMEONE IS FALSELY ACCUSING SOMEONE OF HARASSMENT - THAT IS LIBEL, YO, AND THERE HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL COURT CASES AGAINST PEOPLE WHO LIBEL ON THE INTERNET.

LADY PUCK

Estella - in that case, the smart thing to do would be to save the comment for Steve or staff to see, right?

And I agree with Love Bipolar - DA is a vehicle for harassment, pure and simple. Is that not traceable because it's submitted elsewhere? I understand people will say what THEY want on THEIR OWN diary, but that diary is crap in terms of protecting users from harassment.

omg it's jessica!

Wow I'm glad that I don't know what's going on.

love♥nik

Some people are just dumb.
I completely agree with you giving out the diary name of the person who left a harassing anonymous comment.

♥ →

Jessica

HARASSMENT LAWS IN THE UK, YO:

Harassment

Harassment is now legally defined in UK discrimination law and is a specific offence.

It is generally defined as where a person (the harasser) for a reason which relates to the protected status of the victim (i.e. their gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief or age), engages in unwanted conduct which has the purpose or effect of:

* violating the victim’s dignity
* creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for him/her.

There is usually a qualifying clause in the law which says that such conduct can only be found to be harassment if, having regard to all the circumstances, including in particular the perception of the victim, it should reasonably be considered as having that effect.

LIKE, YO, YOU TOTALLY HAVE TO MAKE SURE THE BEHAVIOUR FITS THIS DESCRIPTION BEFORE YOU ACT ACCORDINGLY AND GIVE OUT IP ADDRESSES. AM JUST REMEMBERING THAT THERE WAS SOME BLOOPER I'D NEVER SPOKEN TO IN MY LIFE WHO DEMANDED MY IP ADDRESS TO BLOCK ME, BECAUSE SHE DECIDED SHE DIDN'T LIKE ME. LIKE, THAT IS DAFT, YO. I COULD DECIDE RANDOMLY THAT I DON'T LIKE SOMEONE ON BLOOP, BECAUSE THEY HAVE AN ANNOYING STYLE IN THE FORUMS, OR THEY USE THE NAUGHTY F-WORD, OR THEY RANT AND RAVE TOO MUCH - BUT, LIKE, THAT DOES NOT MEAN I AM ENTITLED TO BE GIVEN THEIR IP, YO. I SHOULD HAVE TO GIVE YOU EVIDENCE OF SPECIFIC AND CONTINUED HARASSMENT, BASED ON MY GENDER, RACE OR DISABILITY. AND IT HAS TO BE SPECIFIC. I CAN'T SAY 'BOO HOO - NAUGHTY ANTIKORPER WAS MEAN TO THE BRITS AND SAID THAT WHINGE ISN'T REALLY A WORD - THEREFORE HE IS HARASSING ME PERSONALLY!' LIKE, HE WOULD HAVE TO BE GENUINELY HARASSING ME PERSONALLY FOR MY BRITISHNESS, YO! LIKE , IS THAT NOT RIGHT? IF YOU TALK ABOUT LEGAL MATTERS, YOU MUST DEFINE THEM WITH UTMOST PRECISION, RATHER THAN JUST ALLUDE TO THEM AS A VAGUE SCARY DETERRENT.

LADY PUCK

TO OMG IT'S JESSICA - PERSONALLY, I THINK THE SMARTEST THING IS NOT TO ENABLE ANON COMMENTS ON ONE'S DIARY IN THE FIRST PLACE. LIKE, GOSH, YO - I'M QUITE LAID BACK AND ENJOY A BIT OF DRAMA AND PUCK HATE, BUT EVEN I DON'T ENABLE ANON COMMENTS.

LADY PUCK

AND I DON'T ACTUALLY SEE DEAR ANON AS HARASSMENT, YO. LIKE IF SOMEONE IS COMING TO MY DIARY, SAYING 'ESTELLA IS AN EVIL ASEXUAL, YO!' (LIKE, HARASSMENT BASED ON SEXUALITY - ALTHOUGH IT'S HARD TO TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY, BECAUSE SUCH A COMMENT WOULD MAKE ME LAUGH!) AND IF THEY KEEP DOING THIS, AND FINDING WAYS OF DOING IT AFTER I'VE BLOCKED THEM, THEN YES, THIS IS HARASSMENT. BUT IF THEY CHOOSE TO SAY IT ON ANOTHER DIARY, THEN THAT IS NOT IN MY SPACE, YO, AND IS NOT AFFECTING ME, SO THAT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE HARASSMENT. LIBEL, MAYBE, IF THEY USE MY NAME AND STATE SOMETHING UNTRUE (SO THE BIT ABOUT BEING AN ASEXUAL WOULDN'T WORK), BUT NOT HARASSMENT.

LADY PUCK

Estella: I agree with that, too. I'm on members only the whole way around, though I used to have reader passwords set up. Anon comments just sets people up for that these days, it seems.

omg it's jessica!

And I can see that, once you say it. Because technically they aren't directly addressing or harassing someone - you can only guess if it's you or not. People were bound to leave things that'd be figured out, but still, TO anon FROM anon...You're right, I hadn't thought about that.

omg it's jessica!

Makes perfect sense to me. Thank you, Steve, for dealing with this with wisdom.

Thank you, Steve.

stars may collide

YES, YO, JESSICA - LIKE, IT IS POSSIBLE THAT A PERSON COULD MAKE THEIR TARGET OBVIOUS WITHOUT USING THE NAME, BUT IT WOULD HAVE TO BE JOLLY OBVIOUS, ALONG THE LINES OF 'THAT ENTRY YOU WROTE ON FEB 2ND, ABOUT HOW YOU WENT TO ALTON TOWERS AND THEN SHAGGED A SHEEP BEHIND THE BUMPER CARS' - BUT, GOSH, EVEN THEN, YOU COULDN'T PROVE THAT SOMEONE ELSE HADN'T WRITTEN A SIMILAR ENTRY AND DELETED IT.

AND THE TROUBLE WITH DEAR ANON IS THAT OFTEN THEY COULD APPLY TO SEVERAL PEOPLE, BUT PEOPLE GET ALL PARANOID AND THINK IT'S ABOUT THEM.

LADY PUCK

I hadn't thought about it that way before. I can see why Steve would be hesitant to call it that now, though. That's why I have DA blocked. Too much junk!

omg it's jessica!

I don't envy the amount of bullshit that you have to put up with Steve. Nothing you do will make everyone happy. If you gave each member of Bloop a million dollars, there would be someone that bitched about it being a different type of currency. You did what you thought was right. It should end there. This is one of the few web sites I have ever seen, where people constantly question an Admin's ruling on an issue. Don't let it bother you man. Not worth the headache and stress. Problem is... I know for a fact that you are one of the few Admins that actually care about their (any) website. I respect you for it.

Dr. Hannibal Lecter

AMEN to "This isn't high school". I'm sorry that it has had to come to the point where you have to crack down and actually write this entry for people to get the hint.

earth ♥ angel

p.s. Stevie can't give out passwords anyway. Whoever started that rumor has no idea what they are talking about. They are encrypted in the database and no one can see them. Not even him. And no... I will not give out info on what type on encryption is used. That would be a security breech.

Dr. Hannibal Lecter

Wow people are so insane. I am sick of the stuff that goes on around here, it is like high school. I am glad I don't get caught up in the drama.

.xoxo

People are just angry that they can no longer harass certain people, so they have to sling lies about Steve. Steve did NOT give anyone IP addresses. (I got those myself, tyvm. ) And the person who "hacked" the diary was the diary owner herself playing her stupid games again, trying to frame another person. If my entry doesn't prove what an untruthful person she is, then I don't know what will. Also, I'd like to note, the anon comments were not in our own diaries, so we couldn't have selected to block anonymous comments.

BeautifulBrownEyes

BeautifulBrownEyes: Okay, so not to start or anything, but if it wasn't in your own diaries and in the anonymous one, why reply to the note? Wouldn't it have been easier to just ignore the anonymous comments and move on?

Starfire, I've said this before, but I'll reiterate here. If someone called me ugly, fat, stupid, whatever, that would be one thing. But the DAs and comments were harassing my cousin about the stillbirth of her son. The other comments are completely ridiculous and roll of my back, even when Chella tried to claim I was a bad parent, because I know better than that. But the comments about my nephew were something I wasn't going to let go. Besides, it wasn't like one entry either, it was entry upon entry upon entry. Then the people were claiming my cousin was a drug addict and did drugs while she was pregnant, no wonder she lost her son, etc. It was completely out of line, and no, I wasn't going to let her get bullied.

BeautifulBrownEyes

You know, I don't care. If someone is harassing another person, they have to take responsibility for their actions when it comes back to them. Anonymous, or not, harassment is against the law.

PurplePuddles

I don't think any admin on any website would give out personal account informations to anyone, especially Steve. No one should spread a rumour like this to cause a dispute in the community and let us distrust the admins.

Regarding the comment issue, as much as you didn't like the person or hate that particular person, there's no way that you should harrass anyone or treat anyone with disrespect. Anonymous comment was a priviledge given to us, to enable friends or family members who have no bloopdiary account to leave a comment at our entries. We should not be misusing them in the first place to disturb anyone.

Also, I would like to raise an issue here that is bugging me for the longest time in the blogging world. This is not about "This is my diary. I can say whatever I like." Yes, you may say about anything that you like because that's your diary. But if it concerns a certain member of Bloop/anyone that would read it, think twice before you start a hate speech. It is a form of harrassment and even though it's your own platform, you could be charge of harrassment if the entry is enough to create disturbance to the targeted person. Legal issues aside, if you have to write down an entry of a certain member to vent your anger, kindly privatise your entries. Freedom of speech are encouraged in this world, but there's a limit to it.

Lastly, we should all practice good courtesy before leaving a comment on anyone's diary, even how opinionated you are. Check if you are hurting anyone when you are typing a comment. Rephrase them and be more tactful when you type, it actually saves alot of trouble for everyone and reduces the hatred created. Even though it is the cyber world, that doesn't mean that we should tolerate hateful comments or entries.

Wow. I don't see why Steve would ever do something as dishonest as this. Imho, whoever started that rumour is full of crap.

Lady Harley Quinn

Understood.

It's sad that it has even got to this point for you, Steve. I apologize, even if I didn't even know this was going on until I read this entry =/.♥ -

Lauren.

God Steve like you do not have enought on your plate.

What in the hell is wrong with people? 'oh my god. what am I going to do if my 'anonymous' comment could be linked back to me!?'

Here's an idea. Don't say anything fucking stupid that would warrant having to identify you. This whole thing could have been avoided. If the person would have left comments about sunshine, rainbows and little kitty meows... well by god Steve wouldn't have had to give out an IP or Name or whatever.

Some of you know that I had a big falling out with some people on this site and things got mean. However, NONE OF US went as low as to harass each other on the site. We blocked one another and that was that. Hell, I've let the whole thing go now and I don't even care about what happened.

Moral of the Story: Don't be a dick on the internet.

Beautiful Lies

amen!

Lady StaRRyEyDSupRiz

WHY DON'T YOU SIMPLY DISABLE THE OPTION TO COMMENT ANONYMOUSLY ON THIS SITE, STEVE? IT WOULD SOLVE A LOT OF PROBLEMS. THE FEATURE OF ANONYMOUS COMMENTS SEEMS TO SERVE PURELY TO ALLOW COWARDS TO SAY BITCHY THINGS WITHOUT OWNING THEIR WORDS. I'VE NEVER SEEN IT USED IN A CONSTRUCTIVE WAY.

ALSO, LIKE, I THINK WITH ANY SITE, PEOPLE ALWAYS GOSSIP ABOUT THE SITE OWNER, BECAUSE HE'S THE ONE IN POWER, SO THEY RESENT HIM WHEN THINGS GO WRONG. YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE TO DEFEND YOURSELF AGAINST CHILDISH GOSSIP, YO.

I STILL SAY YOU NEED TO HAVE A REALLY CLEAR DEFINITION OF HARASSMENT, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE GOING TO BE DELETING PEOPLE WHO HARASS PEOPLE.

LADY PUCK

^^^ I give people the option to deny anonymous comments. I figured it's as good as. Sometimes people leave comments because they can't sign in or they just don't have a diary, so there are legitimate uses.

Steve

BUT, STEVE, YO, APPARENTLY THE PROBLEM IS THAT ANON COMMENTS ARE BEING LEFT ON PUBLIC DIARIES LIKE DEAR ANON WHICH ALLOWS ANON COMMENTS. SO THE PEOPLE BEING COMMENTED ABOUT HAVE NO CONTROL OVER IT. AND IT APPEARS THAT SOME PEOPLE ARE NOT ABLE TO RESIST CONTINUING TO READ DEAR ANON.

LADY PUCK

Could you make is so that only non-recognised I.P's can leave an anon comment? To be fair no one should be bothered about this unless they are the people constantly leaving anon comments in dear anon or in someone's diary.

THE THING IS, LIKE, ANY BLOOPER CAN USE ANOTHER COMPUTER OR A PROXY AND LEAVE AN ANONYMOUS COMMENT WHICH WON'T BE TRACED BACK TO THEM. THE ONLY FOOLPROOF WAY OF AVOIDING THIS WOULD BE TO DISABLE NON-ANONYMOUS COMMENTS.

PERHAPS A USEFUL TEST WOULD SIMPLY BE TO ASK ALL BLOOPERS WHETHER THEY SEE A USEFUL FUNCTION SERVED BY ANONYMOUS COMMENTS, AND WHETHER THEIR BLOOP EXPERIENCE WOULD BE DIMINISHED IN ANY WAY WERE THIS OPTION TO BE DISABLED. I ACTUALLY TOTALLY CAN'T SEE A USEFUL FUNCTION FOR THEM. BUT MAYBE OTHERS CAN?

LADY PUCK

^ If you know what you are doing... a proxy can be easily traced.

Dr. Hannibal Lecter

^ HOW DID YOU NEVER TRACE PRITTII THEN, YO? ***CLICK MY EGGZ AND BABY DRAGONZ, YO!

LADY PUCK

STEVE, YO - WHY CAN'T POOR PUCK GET INTO CHAT? FIX IT, YO! IT IS TRAGIC THAT I CAN'T GET IN!***CLICK MY EGGZ AND BABY DRAGONZ, YO!

LADY PUCK

lol... because a little bird told me looooooooong ago. So I acted like I did not know, yet kept hinting that I was close to finding out. No one got my hints though. Was still fun. Makes me a bad person I suppose.

Dr. Hannibal Lecter

YES, YO - YOU ARE A BAD BAD PERSON! I KNOW WHO TOLD YOU, BUT, LIKE, BEFORE SHE KNEW, YOU WERE TOTALLY TALKING IN THE FORUMZ ABOUT TRACING PRITTII'S PROXY. BUT YOU NEVER GOT ANYWHERE WITH IT, YO! DID YOU JUST NOT TRY VERY HARD? WOULD YOU HAVE BEEN ABLE TO TRACE IT OTHERWISE?***CLICK MY EGGZ AND BABY DRAGONZ, YO!

LADY PUCK

No I kinda gave up once I found out. lolz

Dr. Hannibal Lecter

I forget where we're supposed to post suggestions or questions about the site, so I was just going to ask... as for the "time stamp" what time is that based on? When it says 1:00 - that's 1AM but where? lol. I got a note at 10:45PM where *I* am, but the time stamp says 4:45, so I'm just wondering if that's England time or...? You know how we can change the date to read month/day/year or day/month/year... is there some way you could change it so that our time stamps are either customizable to where we are located in the world or based upon (perhaps) American time since you've moved to the USA now? LOL. It's just a suggestion. I didn't know if anyone else had ever asked about that before, so I figured I would ask although it's not important. And it's definitely not difficult for me to realize that the time on the site is about 6 hours ahead of the time where I am.

~*Jodi*~

PUCK WANTS TO BE ABLE TO USE CHAT, YO! FIX IT, DEAR STEVIE!

LADY PUCK