Thank you to many, many people over the past six weeks

[ron_newman]

I am so grateful to the davis_square community for coming to my assistance, in many different ways, over the past six weeks:

• the Tuesday Night Gang at Diesel Cafe, for crucial moral support within the first hour after I was served with the lawsuit.
• ifotismeni, for more moral support over the following 24 hours
• thetathx1138 and rufinia, for logistical and moral support throughout this ordeal, and for close textual analysis of the lawsuit
• All of the people who told me about Popehat.com, or who told Ken at Popehat about my suit, resulting in this Popehat Signal
• moechus, for informal legal advice to me, and for later formally representing one or more 'John/Jane Doe' defendants
• juldea, for referring me to her lawyer friend who calmly sat down with me to explain the legal process and elements of a possible defense
• cdevers, for referring me to his friend Andy Sellars at the Berkman Center's Online Media Legal Network. Andy in turn referred me to my awesome lawyer, Dan Booth
• anomie666, cos, and icecreamempress, for setting up an online place where all of those threatened by the lawsuit could freely converse
• icecreamempress again, for setting up the Friends of Davis Square LJ defense fund. Also, everyone who donated to the fund. (We still need to work out how to dispense the funds collected there.)
• rufinia and freckles42, for setting up a face-to-face meeting attended by me, my lawyer, and many Doe Defendants
• firstfrost, jikamens, and genesayssitdown, for helpful advice and just generally staying in touch
(and also, Gene, for finding and linking to all those strange press releases)
• srakkt, mfinnigan, lost_ligeia, en_ki, keithn, surrealestate, and any other Doe Defendants or Doe Letter Receivers who commiserated with me over coffee last month
• the three other davis_square maintainers, cos, surrealestate, and prunesnprisms, for your solidarity in standing up to this threat
• ds_crier, whoever you are, for informative tweets and research
• rmd, for serving as a 'buffer' between Rickland Powell and the Davis Square community,
• plumtreeblossom, for standing up for free speech and not deleting Exhibit 4 and Exhibit 7 after receiving a Doe Letter
• myselftheliar, for not deleting Exhibit 5
• thetathx1138, for not deleting Exhibit 6
• bombardiette, for not deleting Exhibit 8
• sunshineyellow, for not deleting Exhibit 10
• bluesauce. for not deleting Exhibit 11
• Everyone else who did not delete their posts and comments in response to receiving a Doe Letter
• jmwolman, who provided srakkt with able legal representation
• All of the people who posted filk songs, such as this one by derspatchel, and this one by harrock, and this one by imsorrysondheim, and this one by infinitemorning, and this one by 'The Nameless Parodist' (would you like to come forward now?)
• and finally to genesayssitdown, for organizing a great victory celebration party

I've probably left some folks out. If you're one of them, feel free to send me a private message reminding me, and I'll add you to the above list.

Comments

[ifotismeni]

whatever little i was able to help, i was glad to do so. i am super glad this is all resolved!

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I think that this experience showed us that when we work together as a community and pool our resources and strengths, we are better able support each other through adversity. I have literally made new friends from this collective experience, and DSLJ no longer feels like an fully online community but a real-world community as well, prepared to protect its members if needed.

I hope that Jonmon is taking a good hard look at himself right now. But if he isn't, we've got each other's backs. Onward to nice things for Davis.

[ifotismeni]

i don't even live in davis anymore but my years living there make me feel like i'm still part of the tribe in some way. i probably can't afford to ever live in somerville again (SIGH) but i love that this community is a lot bigger than its borders on the map.

[sunshineyellow.livejournal.com]

Wow. I only maintain my LJ account to comment on kpop blogs. I had no idea this was even happening and I haven't lived in Massachusetts in two years. However, that guy is a total skeeze and I'm glad my total inattention to LJ was helpful! Wish I could have shared a pizza with you guys! :D

[ron_newman]

Hello, sunshineyellow! If you're just joining us today, check out the jonmon tag to see what you've (fortunately?) missed. I take it that you never received a Doe Letter?

[sunshineyellow.livejournal.com]

Nope, never got one. Although I'm a bit disappointed as my best friend is admitted to the Massachusetts bar and would have loved to go to town on this nonsense. This makes for excellent lazy Friday reading though.

[sunshineyellow.livejournal.com]

Actually, oh lord, I probably did. My co-worker said I received a handwritten letter from Cambridge at the office a few weeks ago. I assumed it was from my ex at Harvard and told him to toss it. Sheesh.

[ron_newman]

All the ones I've seen so far were printed on a computer (though the envelopes may have had handwritten addresses).

[zdenka]

Congrats to you and all the Does that this nonsense is over with.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Nothing like a threat to bring a community together, I guess.

Happy to have provided what help I could, both to you in particular and DSLJ in general. (And of course to Rickland, but I don't think he has an LJ.)

[mfinnigan.livejournal.com]

Ron - I'm glad this ridiculousness is over, and I was very glad for the chance to start meeting folks.

[ron_newman]

Good to meet you too! Hope to join you at another Boston Bike Party soon.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

I feel like I missed all of it because of my strategic trips out of town, but yeah, this was a growth point for the community, and though it was MASSIVELY unpleasant to have happen we are all stronger for it.

Ron -- I am sure I would not have performed as well as you did in your place. Hats off to you.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Not sure if I missed this but did the issue come to a final resolution, and if so would you care to share?

[ron_newman]

Yes, see http://davis-square.livejournal.com/3210643.html
(and click on jonmon tag to see earlier installments)

[litia2005.livejournal.com]

Glad it's over! As a person who was not directly involved in this saga, I am really shocked that anything of this sort can happen in America and cause so much stress and pain to several good people who could have spent all this time doing something more productive for the community. There ought to be serious consequences to the initiator(s) of such a frivolous lawsuit! But what do I know...

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

I make one comment suggesting a newspaper might be interested in this crap suit against Ron and I end up getting a letter and learning far more about someone than I ever wanted to. Gah. Hoping I can quickly forget whats-his-name-that-I-don't-give-a-damn-about.

I still want a Ron Newman T-shirt, though.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Ron Newman Posse 4 Lyfe!