[Air-l] an emerging social phenomenon on the web

[Bunz, Ulla]

Forwarded upon request. For inquiries, please contact Wyatt Ehrenfels
directly.

Ulla

 
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From: J. Wyatt Ehrenfels [mailto:jwyattehrenfels at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2005 9:17 AM
Subject: an emerging social phenomenon on the Web 

      I am a social psychologist referred to you (i.e. the Association of
Internet Researchers) by a participant of an education and technology
listserv who responded favorably to my efforts to raise public awareness
about an emerging phenomenon -- amusing yet disturbing -- intellectually
stimulating -- I am talking about gang cyberstalking and specifically about
the risks of participating in unmoderated news groups.  

     These news groups are available through the front pages of most ISPs and
most prominently through Google. For example, while many psychology
department web sites and blogs include the psychology "news groups" in their
comprehensive list of resources, over 95 percent of the messages archived! to
these "news groups" are flames. No, I'm not talking about adversarial debates
about topics relevant to the news group.  I'm talking about personal wars.

      These tastefully-named "news groups" have become home to gangs of
anonymous stalkers seeking to harass individuals who contribute
unconventional wisdom or complaints to the Web.  These gangs are comprised
not only of tech-savvy juveniles and belligerents with criminal and/or
psychiatric histories but seasoned academics and practitioners (i.e.
professional shills) who adopt menacing personalities under the anonymity
afforded by Usenet. (And I'm not talking about "handles" but true aliases
supported by anonymizing remailers, free news posting servers, and forgery).

     The products of these flame wars and defamation in these news groups end
up vandalizing Wikipedia and the search e! ngines (especially Google),
raising questions about the credibility and educational value of these
resources.

     To offer some insight into the scope of the problem,  I composed a
series of related reports about an illustrative self-described "cabal"
operating out of unmoderated sci.psychology.psychotherapy.  The reports are
offered in the spirit of civic responsibility, social science, and also to
entertain its readers while striking a note of caution.

     I hope you enjoy them. The main report is the following:

http://www.fireflysun.com/book/sci.psychology.psychotherapy.PUBLIC.php

with links to related reports in the right navigation bar, including reports
that illustrate how Web Resources (e.g. Google, Wikipedia, Amazon.com) are
abused or vandalized for the purposes of harassment and defamation:

http://www.fireflysun.com/book/Google_PUBLIC.php

http://www.fireflySun.com/en.wikipedia.org.php

http://www.fireflySun.com/book/stalker_profiles.php

http://www.fireflySun.com/book/stalkingAmazon.com.php

http://www.fireflySun.com/book/proxyname.php

best regards,

Wyatt Ehrenfels