Jon Monsarrat, $160 Million DotCom Icon, to Expose 100 Cyberbullies

[genesayssitdown.livejournal.com]

this press release, like all his other press releases, is now being spread far and wide over the spammy areas of the internet:

"Boston, MA-NH (1888PressRelease) May 08, 2013 - Jon Monsarrat announced this week that as part of an Internet defamation case, he will expose the real identities and addresses of 100 cyber bullies as part of his new cyber investigation service. The dotcom era icon and Internet expert was previously the founder and first CEO of Turbine, which makes games like Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online and was bought by Warner Brothers for $160 million in 2010."

here is a link to the full press release: http://www.1888pressrelease.com/johnny-monsarrat/jonathan-monsarrat/jon-monsarrat-160-million-dotcom-icon-to-expose-100-cyber-pr-470259.html

Comments

[genesayssitdown.livejournal.com]

seriously though. of all the conflated bullshit? he has some pretty intimate information about all of us. is he going to release just our names? addresses? work places? what is he planning? is it legal?

[ds-crier.livejournal.com]

Who really gives a shit? If my name were on that list, I would consider it a badge of honor.

[genesayssitdown.livejournal.com]

oh i certainly don't care, but there may be people who do care out there. maybe not, i don't know. but yes, one day this will all be an amazing story, but for right now it is just kind of annoying and weird.

i am completely sick of thinking about jonmon and this lawsuit.

[tikva.livejournal.com]

Didn't I read something about him calling someone at work or something? Or sending stuff there? If he's willing to mess with people at their jobs, that could get ugly. I mean, I'm lucky; I work for the state - we've got a policy that says that if someone is, say, stalking us (God forbid), we get paid time off to go to court over it. But if someone works in child care or something, that could be....problematic.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

yeah, he has contacted multiple people at their place of work, both by mail and by phone. not every employer will necessarily just laugh it off like we do. i know certain people were advised to remove their comments because of their line of work. and what about those of us looking for work, who like our internet monikers separate from our legal names, but now an employer can potentially google and find everything, in addition to our new label "cyber bully." as i said elsewhere, just because i know it's all bullshit, doesn't mean everyone else outside of our little lulz community will take it that way.

[myselftheliar.livejournal.com]

Not everyone wants their legal names publicized.

[ds-crier.livejournal.com]

My apologies for being overly flippant. I can understand why some people might be especially concerned. Fortunately, I think Monsarrat has made a serious tactical error here. I'm hopeful that your information will never be published.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you don't have parents or an employer who might retaliate for anything you might have said online. It's not a problem for me now, but I was very worried about it with a couple of former employers, and when I was looking for work. It's not the exposure of comments about Jonmon--I never wrote anything about him until last week. I was trying to hide stigmatized health problems and keep any hint of my sex life away from my mother. It made me very sympathetic to people trying to maintain privacy for other reasons. Threatening to out you is trivial, because you happen to not care. Threatening to out dozens of people to be named later? That's a problem.

[ds-crier.livejournal.com]

Yeah, see my response to myselftheliar (http://davis-square.livejournal.com/3181107.html?thread=34705971#t34705971).

That said, it would probably be better for those concerned about such a thing to not post about it publicly. Otherwise you might find jonmon holding it over your head or the head of one of your friends to try to extract something.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

That said, it would probably be better for those concerned about such a thing to not post about it publicly.

Are you seriously saying that a person should not have posted about being queer, under a pseudonym, in 2011, because 2 years later some creep might out them to a bigoted employer? Or that they shouldn't express sympathy and support for the current victims? (That's all it takes for Jonmon to attack a person--he's not just going after people who participated in the big pile-on 3 years ago.) I found LJ to be a great source of support when I started dealing with hidden disabilities, at the same time hiding those disabilities at work was the most effective way for me to avoid discrimination.

Pseudonymity can have a lot of value, and I want to protect it for those who still need it. I also see a lot of value in the way DSLJ is coming together to support the victims of these attacks, to reassure one another. If Jonmon intimidates people so they become afraid to speak out, that's a serious loss.

[jikamens.livejournal.com]

Are you seriously saying that a person should not have posted about being queer, under a pseudonym, in 2011, because 2 years later some creep might out them to a bigoted employer?

No, what was meant was, "If you're concerned about the ramifications of JonMon publicly linking your LiveJournal persona to your real-world persona, don't say that publicly, because by doing so you're telling him who he can hurt most by doxing."

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the clarification. I agree with that.

[ds-crier.livejournal.com]

I apologize for my ambiguous use of language. As jikamens posted, I do not think people who have extra reason to be concerned should announce that they have extra reason to be concerned publicly because Jonmon will exploit that.

I am a big fan of pseudonyms. As my LJ profile would probably suggest.

[londo.livejournal.com]

Wait, what? Didn't you make a new anonymous account to give this guy shit with?

I feel like if you considered getting sued by him a badge of honor you would have... not done that.

[ds-crier.livejournal.com]

You don't know my story.

[infinitemorning.livejournal.com]

He'd sure as hell better hope it is, because while I may need to go looking for pro bono legal aid, I'm pretty damned sure there are plenty of us here who could sic lawyers on him before he can say "What could be better than a smart, handsome guy invading your privacy?"