7 thoughts on “Blog Stalking: Can We Protect Ourselves from Hate? – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. It is the price we pay for the freedom of speech we enjoy. WP and other blogs have tools/plugins you can get to prevent the rampant spread of this abuse of a cherished freedom, and when all is said and done, there are more white hats than black hats, the spammers will lose (or lose interest, take your pick).

  2. I find that I seldom if ever agree with positions you take on the ME conflict. But that said, I am sorry that you are getting hate stuff, being stalked etc In fact, my problems, when I had a blog or two, was getting tons of spam. Alas, not even nasty comments.

    It is, though, the nature of blogs to make it so easy for quick if nasty replies. Were you a newspaper or magazine, the simpletons would not take the troble to write a letter and put on a stamp and send it. Or if a paper and you had email address, you would personally get some bad stuff but it would not appear at your place with the paper. As you know,then, it is the nature of blogging and readers of blogs. Thus: be of good cheer and don’t be distracted by the idiots. They are limitless.

  3. The English Guy said:

    WP and other blogs have tools/plugins you can get to prevent the rampant spread of this abuse

    Yes there are and perhaps they work better for others than for me but…I’m using Bad Behavior and Spam Karma 2 and I’ve found characteristics of this post which I’ve added to my blacklist. SK2 caught one instance of the comment being published it and forced it into moderation. But the next day it let the exact same comment through. Basically, I think that anti-spam plugins are more designed for spammers than for stalkers and abusers.

    And none of my WP comment settings are working at all. So I can’t use forced moderation or even registration (which I would hate even if I could use it) to prevent spam. Soon I’m going to reinstall WP and my plugins to see if I can’t get rid of whatever bug has entered my blog system.

    Freddie: Thanks for your encouragement. I especially appreciate it coming from someone with whom I disagree about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It reminds me that people can disagree without hating or demonizing ea. other.

  4. So add his e-mail and IP to Sk2’s blacklist, problem solved! Incidentally, you could potentially get into some legal trouble for posting his e-mail addresses like that (using personally identifiable data for a purpose other than what the user gave you it for)

  5. David: He uses a dynamic IP so banning a single IP won’t stop him. I’ve added his e mail address to the SK2 blacklist & as I said it caught one comment & let another slip through. I’ve found SK2 great at catching all manner of spam (though it does let one or two obvious ones through once in a while) but not as good at catching those who are sending you ‘legitimate’ (only in the sense that they’re not commercial spam), humanly-created comments that you specifically want to blacklist.

    I’ve registered an abuse complaint with his ISP. Let’s see what if any action they take. I certainly wouldn’t want anyone invading or abusing his privacy any more than he has mine.

  6. I’m disturbed by the fact that you’re getting hate-filled comments from people who claim to be Christians. I’m sure I disagree with you on a lot of things, if not everything, but as a Christian, I’m appalled at the abuse you’ve been getting. This is not the way Christians (at least the ones I know) behave. I’m no judge of souls, but if I had to make a bet on it, I’d say those people aren’t really Christians at all, but use the name of Christ as a cover for their hatefulness. I wish I could apologize for someone else’s behavior, because this makes me truly sorry.

    Sorry for commenting on such an old post, but I had to say something. Please don’t blame all Christians for the act of a few who may not even be Christians in the true sense of the word.

  7. Cyndee: As with Freddie above, I especially appreciate people with whom I have a principled disagreement who come to my defense on this issue. As for the type of Christians who do this, I’ve got some real Bible-thumpers who curse me to eternal damnation & do a pretty good job of quoting Scripture to prove I’m goin’ there.

    All that being said, I’m a person who feels close to his religious tradition (though I’m not “religious”) & I appreciate others who feel equally close to theirs. The problem I have is with “believers” whose belief “muscles in” on that of others. Most Jews hold to the “live & let live” view of religious faith. I have mine & you have yours & we’re both fine as long as we don’t get in ea. other’s way. I don’t like evangelicals (or those from any religion) who believe that I can’t legitimately believe what I believe. I also don’t like Christians who don’t like the type of Judaism I practice & believe I’m insulting my own tradition with my beliefs. I’ve had “Christians” tell me I’m a “bad Jew.” That really makes my blood boil & takes an enormous amount of chutzpa. Even though I have serious issues with Tom DeLay-type evangelicals I would never say that they were “bad Christians.”

    And on a related front, I also get torrents of abuse fr. my fellow Jews who believe that anyone who advocates peace bet. Palestinians & Israelis is a traitor to his people. I’m getting a good deal of that at present.

    But I’m happy to say that unlike when I first wrote this post, I now have several very effective tools to foil many, if not most abusive comments.

    And you should feel free to express your opinions on matters of your faith here if you wish (at the relevant posts which you can find by searching on phrases such as “evangelical”)–even if we disagree.

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