jwz is blog-stalking me
I have determined that jwz, ex-hacker and now seller of beer, is stalking me, by posting things to his weblog that are eerily, alarmingly, intimidatingly similar to things I’ve posted on mine. The best advice on dealing with stalkers available says to keep a record of every incident, in detail, and to notify everybody you can, so I submit this evidence:
THE FIRST INCIDENT occured all the way back on January 5th, 2003. A week earlier, I posted this story, titled “I’d cry too”. Then on that day, jwz posted the same thing, except his was titled “you’d cry too”. Secret message? No, that’s ridiculous. It must be a simple, if unnerving, coincidence.
THE SECOND INCIDENT occured on August 16th, 2003. The day before I posted a story about radioactive wasps. I mentioned that “I, for one, welcome our new RADIOACTIVE WASP MASTERS”, and made a comment that jwz must be busy because he hadn’t posted it yet (by this time I had already noticed the stalking but was trying to laugh it off). Within 12 hours, my suspicions were confirmed, with a post by jwz called “yes yes, our new nuclear wasp masters, etc etc…”. I knew it.
THE THIRD INCIDENT occured on October 13th, 2003. My sumo-robot post. His sumo-robot post. Same image. Chilling! (note that my post came first: I post in EST, he in PST)
THE FOURTH INCIDENT occured on March 4th, 2004. My combat exoskeleton post, his combat exoskeleton post. Same story, same picture, AGAIN. The stalking had now entered its second year.
THE FIFTH INCIDENT occured on April 7th, 2004. My jewel-eye post, his jewel-eye post. My mind is still saying “just a coincidence, just a coincidence” but my gut is saying “RUN FOR YOUR LIFE”.
THE SIXTH INCIDENT occured on June 16th, 2004. My nine million angry bees post, the next day his nine million angry bees post, with the EXACT SAME LINK TEXT and EXACT SAME CHOICE OF BLOCKQUOTE!!!! It gets worse…
THE SEVENTH INCIDENT occured on July 19th, 2004. Four months earlier, I had found a gallery of photos of Japanese kids in Harajuku. Nothing happened until July, then to my horror jwz blogged it too. Nothing to worry about? That photo gallery, now shut down, contained hundreds of photos. How can you explain the fact that jwz chose two of the EXACT SAME PICTURES TO POST AS I? On that day, I seriously considered shutting down my weblog and going into hiding. It was especially ominous because I had just returned from San Francisco, where he lives. Was this his message to me? “I’ve been watching you…”
THE EIGHTH INCIDENT, and hopefully the final one, occured yesterday. My CirculaFloor post, his CirculaFloor post. Same picture. I’m really not even surprised any more. My fear has turned into a steadfast resolve.
I’m sure you’ll agree with me that this is no coincidence, it MUST be intentional, and I think you can feel the malicious intention just as I can. So what’s a good way to deal with a stalker? Confront him in public, in his own space, turning the tables? jwz thought of that, a long time ago, disabling “anonymous” (non-LJ clique) comments on his site.
So instead, I have to post here, and call on my fellow bloggers to stand with me and say “jwz! The interweb does not tolerate your macho head-games. THIS WILL NOT STAND!!”
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Like my mom used to say – If you are not looking at them, how would you know that they are looking at you?
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i think its ok to use under blogers their images and text.
why are you so angry about the copies of your ideas?
so long,
bye
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Ah yes, the first of what is sure to be many comments that don’t get the joke. The sad part is even if I put flashing, red, giant text across the top of this post that says “WARNING: SARCASM AHEAD!” they still probably wouldn’t get it.
So far the only people who actually got it are Jenny and jwz himself, who sent me an email saying “MY REIGN OF TERROR HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN!”
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Steve is getting blog-stalked
A Live Journal blogger is copying his pictures and text and threatening to continue.
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Ok, now I feel dumb. I would have been able to get it if you had said it was sarcasm to start with! As it was, I read your post and believed that this guy seemed to be copying your pictures and text. Your examples seem earnest – I mean I couldn’t tell. I even linked to it thinking I was helping you out! (Link is now deleted – I just didn’t get the tone of the message.)
People get links and images from each other all the time, but they give each other credit. You made a decent case for this guy copying your posts, and he probably was/is getting ideas from you.
I guess I’m not familiar enough with your writing since you give enough clues – “My fear has turned to a steadfast resolve.” Yeah, that’s over the top.
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I confuse people a lot, actually. Not always intentionally.