Bullying – It’s not Just for Insecure Brats Anymore

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Boosting the signal, because any group that pretends to fight “bullies” (read: people with a differing opinion) while acting like bullies themselves (stalking, personal information, slander) needs to be run out on a rail. Preferably tied to the wheels.

I’d like to get a certain website, Stop the GR Bullies, shut down. I’m all for free speech, but not when it incites malicious conversation and not when it does a mighty fine job of being the bully it claims to be against.

Which is why, in short, the Stop the GR Bullies website is an appalling idea on just about every level. Not only does it appropriate some actual bullying tactics – such as attempting to disseminate the real names and locations of its targets to strangers, then implicitly encouraging said strangers to engage in further harassment – while serving to further water down and confuse the actual, meaningful definition of bulling, but as a protest against the perceived abuse of the Goodreads TOS, it’s completely and utterly meaningless, because the whole site constitutes an active violation.  – Shattersnipe: Malcontent and Rainbows

[snip]

The inability of the poster, Athena, to distinguish between a reviewer speaking negatively about books in a professional capacity and the outright public slander of a private citizen by another private citizen is breathtaking, to say nothing of the fact that making a hate page is pretty much 101-grade material for how to be an internet bully. The rest of the site is in much the same vein, and where at least the original posters, whatever you think of them, have the excuse of (a) being in personal conversation with friends or (b) acting as reviewers, the site does not: its sole effect, despite its intended purpose, is to be vituperative in terms of language and downright sinister in its commitment to Googlestalking its targets, attempting to put up not only their names and photos, but details of their places of employment and personal circumstances. – ibid

Much like this:

Our sources tells us that the GR bully known at [snip]  is really [snip] who lives with her husband, [snip], in [snip].  [snip] frequent [snip] and [snip], usually on Sundays at 4:30 pm (here are couple screenshots in case the links disappear: [snip], [snip].) [snip] is what we here at STGRB call a stalker and an information fetcher – Stop The GR Bullies

— um … what? ^what exactly is that, there? Her husband’s name, where they can be found, times? What purpose does posting this serve? Are you angling for a confrontation, because if that happens, if there’s an attack or vandalism, guess who they’ll point the finger towards? (I grabbed a screenshot by the way) This group is not hunting terrorists or seditious rebels. They’re stalking reviewers and bloggers with an opinion. This is wrong.

So you have a bunch of insecure bullies posting content about people they don’t like – an internet slam book, if you will, and a bunch of sheep standing in a circle, yelling, “yeah! get ’em!”

Why? Because people say mean things on the Internet. Because their favorite Indie Authors don’t  know how to handle a negative review. Because some anonymous people want top take a stand but haven’t got the balls to do it under their own names.

So, I’m looking to get them shut down, and you can help.

The site is hosted by GoDaddy and you can surf to their Abuse Page to report them.  Here, let me help:

https://supportcenter.godaddy.com/Abuse/SpamReport.aspx?ci=22420

Make the Abuse Type “Miscellaneous” and tell GoDaddy that bullying should not be tolerated, and sure as hell not by anonymous stalkers.

In my heyday, I wasn’t the nicest personality, but I sure as hell never posted personal information opening up targets to abuse and attacks from random strangers. It crosses a line and no matter how noble they they they are, it’s reprehensible.