Okay, I’m not going to name any names here. This drama is enough to deal with, without a bunch of geek overlords coming down on me and accusing me of libel. This is not a situation of my making, but still an unpleasant bit of business I suddenly find myself immersed in.
Somewhere down south, there’s a lady who makes YouTube videos. I can’t say anything too unkind about her, because I don’t know her. I do know, from viewing the videos on her channel, that she’s one of these people who thinks that Nibiru, a.k.a. Planet X, is going to swing close enough to earth to destroy all life on the planet. They said this was going to happen on May 15, 2003, and they keep moving the date back when it doesn’t happen. Anyway, she could be the nicest, sweetest, kindest-to-her-motherest person on the face of this earth; I don’t have much of a tolerance for such ridiculous pseudo-science, so I tend to tune such people out.
The problem is that a friend of mine is having a lot of fun mocking this person, and has raised not only her ire but that of several of her disciples who have attacked him on YouTube, Facebook and the Rip-off Report. Now they have decided to do more than just lash out at my friends: they’ve taken aim on his friends, too. Postings on YouTube have now associated me with my friend’s crusade. They’re sending me friend requests on Facebook. They’re trying to follow me on Twitter. They’re subscribing to my YouTube channel. And this morning my inbox was a war zone and my YouTube channel was full of ad hominem attacks and threats to re-edit my videos. I really don’t much care what they do, because when you take a step back and look at the big picture, you see that the majority of other YouTubers see these YouRubes as the nut cases that they are.
I’m refusing their friend requests. I’m blocking them on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. I deleted the response video I posted to them now that I know it has reached the parties involved; it has served its purpose. The one thing I can’t do is block them from reading this website, which they have already found, and through it all my other pages on YouTube, Twitter, Wikipedia, etc. So this is my message to them:
Leave me alone.
I want no fight with these people. I am perfectly content to leave them alone if they leave me alone. And having myself once been arrested for harassment when I got pissed off at someone and flooded her e-mailbox with angry diatribes – a long time ago – I can assure these people that unless they cease and desist, I do have legal avenues available to me.
Since I know they are reading this, I have one thing to say.
Look, kids, I’ve been doing this probably since most of you were in diapers. I was online before anyone else ever heard of this new “Internet” thing, and I practically invented trolling. I also remember those bygone days when only intelligent people had computers. I miss them sometimes.
So don’t try to scare me with empty online threats. You don’t know who you’re dealing with. If you leave me alone, I will leave you alone. Are you mature enough to accept that?
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