My Fellow Deletees and The Cyberbullied Sisters

1Athena1

I agree with Barbara.

Blah, this is very disturbing and Melissa should have no problem connecting the dots. I suggest that you e-mail her.

Erica changed some of her posts to "alexander3" so when you did a search for "janewell" (another sock puppet) that name would come up and under both names abusive posts appeared. Newbies get confused. I imagine that she just changes her preferences, including associated e-mail and passwords, and creates confusion. Under "sammysmom" she was unaccountably able to post more than five times in the first 24 hours of that account's existence. I now wonder about a PM that Beesie received which was apparently abusive and had, as a sender, the name of a poster who said she had never sent the message.

CAUTION FOR ANYONE: I know it's easy, but avoid having passwords that are the same as your user name. A hacker can easy give it a try and type in your user name as a password and get into your account. The hacker will be able to detect whether or not you are logged in. Be careful, everyone.

Melissa, please, please look into this. I also suspect this person of orchestrating mass deletions in another (cancer) thread. This is a case that lies outside of the abilities of everyday moderation, IMO, and requires taregeted action. Too many people have been hurt.

-angel-

Thank you Athena.  Melissa has been notified.  I certainly don't want to be confused with her, particularly with all the trouble she has brought to these boards.  If you do a search on Erica31, all her posts come up under Blah2.   Very disturbing.  She happens to be a friend of another member who is known to stalk me.  This is the only reason I can think of that she'd do this. 

Beesie

Wow.  Up until now I thought she was just annoying in an amusing sort of way.  But changing your name and profile so that you can appear to be another member here is really disturbing.  I hope that this is something that Melissa can deal with. 

Bren-2007

I'm with Beesie .. all I can say is Wow .. you have got to be kidding me.

Hopefully, Melissa can look into this and fix the situation.

Why would Erica1 change her name and avatar to look exactly like another members?

Makes no sense!  Except to stir up trouble.

Bren

1Athena1

Just got a message from Melissa: This person has been banned - Thank you Melissa!!

Beesie

Temporary ban or permanent ban?  And has she been banned under every one of her screen names?  I believe that sammysmom and Alexander3 are still active IDs and there may be others too. And if she shows up again under a new name - she's usually pretty easy to spot - will she be banned again? This has gone from bothersome and mildly concerning to very serious; I hope that a permanent action has been put in place.

Bren-2007

Yay!  Thank goodness! 

Athena .. glad you were able to talk to Melissa!

Bren

1Athena1

Beesie, I wrote this above while you were posting, but I will post here: 

She will probably be back in some form, but we have to be very vigilant. If you suspect that Daisy/Erica is back under a different name, here is how you can prove it one way or the other:

1) Go to "Member List" on the top right

2) Do a search under the name of the handle that you suspect could be this person

3) Look at the results and see if you find any that you remember were listed under a different name.

4) Let us know. :-)

Interestingly, BCOs search system has two prongs. If you go to "Member List" and look up "Erica31" you will find no hits now, because member list is the list of every account here under the name it currently appears.

But going to "Search" and then typing in the name under "Member name" lists every post written under a given name even if the holder of that account has decided to change her username after the fact. So "Erica31" does yield results under this option - HOWEVER, the name  "Erica31" no longer appears - the other sock puppets do. The same is true for "Janewell" who wrote a few posts. The name can no longer be found under "Member List" but it can under "Member name" in the "search" function. BUT  the actual hits you get don't have the "janewell" name as the author. They have the alexander3" name.

The intent seems to be to hide, ambush and confuse.

I had posted something about this several days or weeks ago. Naturally, the posts in which I made these observations got deleted. :-)

-angel-

Thank you, Athena, I too got the same message from Melissa!  Thank you, Melissa.  I feel like I dodged a bullet ... this time!  Thanks, everyone.  Serious crapola.  Be ever vigilant, ladies!

leaf

Scary!!  Thank ALL of you for your diligence!  (AFAIK I have not been deleted.....yet).

bluedahlia

Blah, that is their way of telling the world you were behind the last set of reported posts as well as that vicious attack on me.

-angel-

Blue, ahhhh, if that's the case I think it backfired.  I believe it only proves more that they are guilty and trying to divert attention from themselves!   Melissa knows the truth and I won't allow someone obsessed with me to make me a scapegoat ever again.  Too bad they can't get a life!

covertanjou

This is really scary stuff.  

blah, glad you worked it out with Melissa.  I can't believe someone could get away with doing something like this. 

-angel-

Mary, truly scary stuff.  I so appreciate Melissa attending to it so quickly!

Anonymous

I'm going to duck and cover.  Catch you all later.

Anonymous

deleted

Anonymous

I wish the feature that sends you to the place in the topic where you read the last post would start working.  PITA.

-angel-

Caerus, thanks.  We're all better off knowing who the cyberbullies are.

SeaFoobs, agreed!  

 So, I guess I now need to change my member ID.  Although Blah2 has beened banned, all of her posts are still throughout the boards.

leggo

Wouldn't it be nice if the mods would just "out" the id's causing grief? I don't see the problem with this. No real names (hopefully), just id's. Mods, could we just have a pinned list of id's that you've banned? It might go a long way in reducing suspicion, asssumptions, bullying, etc.

-angel-

gracie1, that may work going forward but there would be many innocent names on the list from past bannings caused by the deleter gangs.

leggo

I thought if you were unfairly deleted, your posts would be restored and you wouldn't be "banned". I thought "banning" occurs only when the mods feel there is a reason, and only they had that power.  Am I missing something maybe?

-angel-

gracie1, I'm unclear on how the new modifications affect things going forward but it seems the community can still delete and cause member banning, only now it is harder to delete anonymously.  In the past, although the mods would restore posts, a permanent banning would still result after so many bans by the "community".  

leggo

Mods, can you jump in here and clarify how a permanent "banning" occurs? Do members really have that ability?

Edited to add: Surely, if someone were unfairly "banned" even, their membership would be restored once the mods had a look, no?

-angel-

gracie, I would certainly think so but I do know that it didn't always work that way.  Initially it was easier to sweep it under the rug so to speak.  After 3 years of the abuse of the report this post button, too many have been affected by it and the problem is no longer able to be ignored!

lewing

Gracie, if a certain number of posts are deleted by the "community" (which in too many cases means, not the community, but a handful of bullies), then the member is automatically banned for ten days  - not only can you not post, you can't log in to send or receive PMs.  After another number of deletions (not sure how many it takes), the member is banned permanently.  It is indeed automatic, though the Mods can undo it if you contact them. 

I've been temporarily banned twice now.  Melissa reinstated me in both instances, but it's still upsetting and unsettling . . . which is why I haven't been posting much lately.

L

leggo

I see. I knew temporary bannings were automatic, but I really thought only mods had the power to do a "permanent banning", when someone abuses the privilege. Guess I assumed wrong.

-angel-

Lewing, that is what happened to me several years ago.  At that time, it wasn't well known how members could be banned by the community and I was constantly on the defensive and assumed to be guilty of something.  Even after all my posts were restored and I was reinstated several times, the automatic software finally caught up with me and I was permanently banned.  Apparently the software has no way to tell that all those strikes against you shouldn't have counted.  I hope that get's fixed with the current/future modifications.  Too bad the rule where one would be penalized for abusing the report this post button was never enforced!

-angel-

Linda, I'm sorry for what you've been through at the hands of the cyberbullies and know of what you speak.  This is why this topic is so important to me.  It's unfair and the moderators should be protecting it's members from it.  I've missed your posts and hope you'll be around more.  Don't let the bullies keep you from your friends.

-angel-

Due to the fact that a stalker tried to confuse people by taking the name Blah2, I have changed my ID from blah to -angel-

Just want it out there because I'm not hiding or trying to confuse anyone.  Those who know me, know I'm the op of the 'Life's A Beach' thread.     

jancie

Glad that you clarified your name change.  I was just catching up on this thread and I saw where you wrote about Blah2 and the avatar and here we have another name with an "eye" avatar and I was thinking "Oh great, here it goes again!"