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Re Violentacrez: How Would You React if People Knew Your Boards ID?

geeky

I've been pretty intrigued by Gawker's Adrian Chen, and his long-running love/hate relationship with Anonymous, 4Chan, Reddit et all.

On Friday, he posted a big story where he unmasked one of the latter's more famous users: violentacrez. It's here (http://gawker.com/5950981/unmasking-reddits-violentacrez-the-biggest-troll-on-the-web) and still top story on the site. Pretty long but some interesting bits, including the guy concerned all but begging him to keep his ID quiet.

When I called Brutsch that Wednesday afternoon and told him I knew who he was, I was a little taken aback by how calm he remained during our intense but civil hour-long conversation. I had figured that a man whose hobby was saying horrible **** just to screw with people online would rise to some new horrible level when conditions on the ground actually called for it. Instead he pleaded with me in an affectless monotone not to reveal his name.

"My wife is disabled. I got a home and a mortgage, and if this hits the fan, I believe this will affect negatively on my employment," he said. "I do my job, go home watch TV, and go on the internet. I just like riling people up in my spare time."

....

He asked a number of times if there was anything he could do to keep me from outing him. He offered to act as a mole for me, to be my "sockpuppet" on Reddit. "I'm like the spy who's found out," he said. "I'll do anything. If you want me to stop posting, delete whatever I posted, whatever. I am at your mercy because I really can't think of anything worse that could possibly happen. It's not like I do anything illegal."

Now, the guy himself has done some extremely scuzzy things online and IRL, but how would you react if the world and his dog knew your user ID and the things you post on boards?

Meanwhile, it appears that he's left his job and is looking for fresh employment. What do you think about the rights and wrongs of unmasking people like him?

For me, I think someone who posts what he does is fair game. Personally, I could see a few awkward conversations stemming from what I've posted, but my wife knows my username anyway.

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not yet

Sorry, come again.......

Youssef Chippo

not yet wrote: »

Sorry, come again.......

That's what she said

TheFruitarian

I'd have to quit as head of the Dairy Council.

Edit: Doh!

tmc86

It wouldn't bother me, I've nothing to hide and I don't post to rile or abuse people!

not yet

Or flavour of the month......

Ah heeeor leave it out.

super_furry

I'd might be faintly embarassed if some people knew I'd been posting on an internet message board for over a decade but nothing more. It's a different situation to a gob****e like that who went out of his way to hurt people being unmasked.

smash

The guy was a troll, and by reading that link, he was also a sick bastard so f*ck it. He got what was coming to him.

Ghandee

The guy doing the exposing is just as bad.

Stercus Accidit

If he was doing something illegal he should have been reported to the police, exposing his details online is a form of mob-justice, so both parties are a pair of cunts.

wes

On the one hand, I believe that people have a right to privacy, but in the case of Violentacrez. Well, he did go out of his way to piss people off, and that backfired on him. The stuff he posted, while not illegal, was reprehensible, and he himself didn't respect the privacy of others (posting pictures of dead teenage girls, under titles such as dead jailbait, being one particularly bad example).

It seems to me that Violentacrez didn't respect the privacy of others, and imho brought it on himself, when he went out of his way to piss people off, who then got there revenge by doxing him. Now, I am not saying he should have been doxed, but his own actions pretty much made such a eventuality inevitable.

humbert

I'm an argumentative asshole, I don't think any of my imaginary real life friends would be shocked.

General General

Imagine the demands from real life people for me to thanks whore & make 'thinly veiled' comments...?

donegal_road

couldn't give a damn

geeky

Ghandee wrote: »

The guy doing the exposing is just as bad.

Honestly, when you serially invade the' privacy of innocent in such a systematic way, you can hardly be surprised when somebody turns the light on you.

I'd say there was a moral dilemma about it but, for me, it's damn fine reporting.

Dustaz

Hey look, its Bubbles

AnonoBoy

I don't say or do anything vile enough online for people to be that bothered about who I am.

That guy sounds like a dick though.

hyperborean

wanta be celebrity death match,

sheesh

A couple of people know and it would be easy to find out who I am anyway its not like it is a very big place.

interesting story there in the op: the guy writing it seems to have set out to punish violentacrez because he is troll but ended up being impressed by how much he had given to the reddit community. on the one hand he put up all this wierd stuff on the other hand he seemed quiet popular.

I love the way his online persona was of an old pervert and in real life he was that he seemed to have a good job too...

msg11

Wouldn't be pissed off. But would you still use this site or talk in random conversations if you knew the credentials of the people? I would say the place would just turn into face book if we had to use our real names.

There's a buzz about posting with a made up user name, but at the end of the day, your not all that anonymous so don't fool yourself thinking you are. The lesson the guy in the OP clearly didn't understand.

jill_valentine

Ghandee wrote: »

The guy doing the exposing is just as bad.

If you believe that, then you miss the whole point of the story.

ViolentAcrez was blindeyed by the people who run Reddit so that the site as a whole could treat the completely disgusting bullsh*t he indulged in and oversaw with a kind of plausible deniability. Naming him blows holes in that whole defence. They knew exactly what was happening on their watch, and he knew they did.

Furthermore, because Reddit did not and do not take action against creeps like ViolentAcrez, they can get away with their incredibly gross douchery without any repercussions whatsoever. The fact is, if some douche behaved like this in public in the real world, there would be consequences. And that's why they don't, for the most part.

Reddit failed to uphold their own TOS, because they consider it more important to coddle the "rights" of creeps and perverts -

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2012/10/15/reddit_troll_violentacrez_outed_by_gawker_when_will_law_enforcement_catch.html

One of these men was Christopher Bailey, a 35-year-old substitute teacher who had been using Creepshots to post photographs of his “hottest” students and add his own suggestive commentary to the pics. Jason Fetner, the sheriff’s investigator who caught Bailey, told Jezebel that he had trouble convincing a judge that Bailey’s Reddit behavior was worth investigating—you know, using his position as a high school teacher to present his female students to a bunch of self-described “creeps” online. Why? Because Bailey was posting anonymously, and the tipsters were anonymous, too

- than to even acknowledge those of nonconsenting women and girls to agency over their own image and identity.

I'm all for digital privacy, but the fact is, something had to be done and Reddit have made it clear that they have consciously decided not to do it.

Adrian Chen is not "just as bad" as a guy who created a whole subreddit dedicated to pictures of "dead jailbait."

jill_valentine

For the record, bunches of my real world friends know my username here, and quite a few boardies know my real name. Over the years, my online and real world lives have kind of converged.

flutterflye

I'm just the same irl as I am on the internet.
It wouldn't be hard to spot me if you knew me irl.

I would be annoyed at someone for 'outing me' because it wouldn't be their place.
But I wouldn't be too bothered with anyone knowing my identity.
I'm not that exciting like.

smash

flutterflye wrote: »

I'm just the same irl as I am on the internet.
It wouldn't be hard to spot me if you knew me irl.

Ill keep an eye out for a big pink rabbit.

minidazzler

smash wrote: »

The guy was a troll, and by reading that link, he was also a sick bastard so f*ck it. He got what was coming to him.

The worst thing about it is he wasn't particularly good at being a troll either. He's like the Saw movies of trolling, using straight up "bad" stuff rather than any actual skill at trolling.

And he told loads of people who he was because he "trusted" them. A lot of boardsies know me IRL and there are a few I'd trust with some confidential info, but, but he gave his info to a bunch of people and expected nothing to happen.

What an idiot.

flutterflye

smash wrote: »

Ill keep an eye out for a big pink rabbit.

K, wave if you see me

I'll know it's you if I see a guy giving it to a girl from behind on a racing car waving at me.

Red Hand

minidazzler wrote: »

The worst thing about it is he wasn't particularly good at being a troll either. He's like the Saw movies of trolling, using straight up "bad" stuff rather than any actual skill at trolling.

And he told loads of people who he was because he "trusted" them. A lot of boardsies know me IRL and there are a few I'd trust with some confidential info, but, but he gave his info to a bunch of people and expected nothing to happen.

What an idiot.

Ah, Breda, how's the going? How's John?:pac:

It's never too hard to find out who someone is. Hiding behind a username and citing your rights to privacy when engaging in behaviour that impacts on the privacy of others (such as showing dead people with captions etc as the guy seemed to be going) ain't that defendable.

goose2005

*deletes account*

saiint

Nope wouldnt care at all
be fun really :P seen all us big fat bauldy owl bolloches in room