Real life harassment and how it's handled.

If the source is a community member here Portalarium would need to engage with those authorities for followup, kind of what I was alluding to.

 

Stalking and Harrasment

• If it is in-game report it to game Support
• If it is on the forums report it to the forums Support
• If it is via email, do not delete! Instead make a paper copies and start a report using those copies with local law enforcement. They will let you know what they need to proceed.
• If it is via phone, attempt to record the call. Note when the call/calls was made and if you have caller ID note the information given about the call. Report it to your phone company and the local law enforcement. They will let you know what they need to proceed.
• If it is via regular mail, do not throw the letter and/or parcel away! Report it to the local law enforcement and if you are in the USA, the US Postal Inspection Service and here is their phone number: 1-877-876-2455. They will let you know what they need to proceed.

If you know of someone that says they are being stalked/harassed give them this info. If they continue to complain, but they do not attempt to help themselves they may be just trying to get attention and are making up stories. (I knew one person many years ago that went as far as setting up a second acct. in a game & the game's forums to report their sickness & death to garner sympathy.) You'll have to make that judgement call.

 

Just so everyone is aware, you don't have to give this out for others to get it. Doxxing is an art and there are online tools to do this very easily. This is why, IMHO, everyone on the internet should have a anonymous identity and never give out or link any personal information. However, I can tell you it would be trivial to get personal information, including real name and address, from most people on these forums based on information already provided here. Even if they thought they were being cryptic.

Although it is good advice to not give out this information directly, people should be aware that will not protect you from someone dedicated enough to harrass you. There is actually a script that will pull public information from your Facebook profile and guess your social security number with an 80% accuracy: and that was created about 5 years ago. The best way to protect yourself from the internet is to not connect to it.

Right now we live in an age that social media has desenitized us to over-sharing and anything that passes the wire perminately lives on the wire. Not to mention it is never as private as you think it might be.

 

Also knowing a lot about computer security and forensics - if you believe someone has hacked you -don't try to access the files and figure it out yourself. leave it to the experts. You don't want to break the evidence chain.

 

Is that you running around naked in owles head

 

yeah, i gave @WrathPhoenix my po box, he and the wife slept in the post office for a few days before i went to get my mail and realized who they were... so i handed them black hoods and we all ended up at dragon*con together.

all in all, i think it was a positive experience...

even if you DO know the forensic security side of things, you will break the chain if it is your stuff that was hacked...so yeah, don't touch it. and don't let geeksquad touch it either.

 

Well, we've known each other for quite some time albeit virtually. I would also be remiss to give my address out to someone I dont know well. But that's not computer knowledge 101 that's basically just security and common sense. =p Though that would have been a unique experience...

 

As a community member who has put up with harassment twice due to SotA community members I can speak with all honesty on one fact about this... if the harassment is done via email, phone, snail mail, or outside the SotA Forums or the Game itself, there is no point in reporting it to Portalarium. There is nothing they can do, nor will they. The best you can do is take the evidence to the police and let law enforcement handle it. The only time it is worth getting Portalarium involved is if it happens on the forums or in-game. Then send it to someone over there who will take actual action and investigation beyond your email.

In my situation both time law enforcement successfully took care of it and the biggest offenders were successfully charged and convicted. You have to take matters into your own hands and make something happen. If you don't trust support@, go to a Portalarium staff member you can trust or know will listen. It is why I go to Chris with my thoughts. I know he will see, read, and listen to me. He and I dont always agree on stuff, but I know if I have a major problem, it will be taken care of and someone will get back to me.

I may have ended my SotA projects completely, like the the Cult of Spears and Nimbus Lore. In fact I have removed it from its relation to the continent of Novia and may write a whole stories about the land that I plan on posting in sections someday or maybe if I find that it is really go, get it cheaply published. I took my marriage and divorce gameplay mechanics and design diagrams and shared them with a different developer and community and people are loving it there... Let the ppl who can do the best job handling the situation, handle it, and move on. Dont let the haters ruin a good projects or ideas. Find other uses for them or keep them as great ideas you created and loved and maybe you will find a use for them someday or just find them as a happy or fun memory as this game was developed.

 

I had to look into this a bit....this is....weird.

What pathetic person would do something like this?

No matter how you much you don't like someone or think they have done something you want to "get" them for this is bizarre criminal behavior.

 

Remember two sides to every story and some can be perpetual victims. Not insinuating the case with OP. Just avoid breaking out the pitchforks as a community for every cry of wolf.

 

@Greyfox

This is not the time nor the place.
I would delete that post right away if I were you. That is really disrespectful to folks who has actually been the victims of harassment and only shows a lack of empathy, not insight.

 

Really. Like I said I did some research...in what world is it ok to get all the personal information and hand it out to a mob in order to attack a person? It doesn't take much to do a search on what happened.

I tell you if someone found all the details of my life including family and tried to use it to get at me there would be some major issues. No matter your opinion of someone that is WRONG. There is no two sides, unless you mean sane or crazy.

 

Solution to real threats, stalking, and cyber bullying are local police, FBI, or your Nation's equivalent. Not posting on a public community forum.

Trying to be the voice of reason instead of grabbing my pitchfork and blindly following the mob.

 

So as long as we go to the police nothing should be said? Please, if this happened then it should be mentioned.

 

Defamation is one concern. If this is criminal nothing should be said except to legal authorities.