MetaChat - For someone taking a time-out from the web

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17 February 2006

For someone taking a time-out from the web I sure seem to be on here a lot lately... Anyway, a question: in my referrer logs I found something odd today...→[More:]It was a link to a Live Journal site, so I clicked it to see what the person had to say about my project and was surprised to see that he had nothing to say. However, he's listed my web site on his profile page in the "Website" field, which I assume is supposed to be the user's web site, no?

I'm not really familiar with LJ but assume they have a way of listing web sites you visit (like a blog roll or whatever) and that this person is not trying to promote my project, but pass it off as his own. Am I jumping to conclusions or ... ?

I know I should just ignore it but the first email project I did I found out there was a guy (or guys) in Toronto pretending he was me (in the flesh--not online!) and though I never found the person, it was rather nervewracking and was in fact one of the reaons I quit the project. This LJ person is listed as being American, which is kind of odd as I do mention living in Toronto in the pieces.

Should I just mail the guy or am I completely misunderstanding this LJ userpage thing? In short, WWBD? (What Would Bunnies Do?)

post by: dobbs at: 12:20 | 10 comments

Lots of LJ users have a blogspot or flickr or whatnot page listed as the 'website' in their profile.

posted by box 17 February | 12:22

But isn't it their own flickr or blogspot site?

posted by dobbs 17 February | 12:23

Email the guy nicely and ask what his intentions were in doing that. If he starts flaming you, contact LiveJournal and notify them.

posted by matildaben 17 February | 12:26

Please email me the link if you don't want to post it here...I promise it's just cuz I'm nosy ;)

posted by iconomy 17 February | 12:27

Ew...someone/s was pretending that the Victory Shag site was theirs? Were they bagging chicks with that line, or what?

*mind reels*

posted by iconomy 17 February | 12:29

The guy looks like he's only been on LJ for a little while. Only 7 posts so far, and it looks like he's an actor or something. I guess I'll give it a day or so and see if it's still there (or maybe mention him in an issue to "smoke him out") and then contact him.

iconomy, yeah, that's exactly what was happening with VS. I started hearing about and from women being miffed that "I" was not calling them after fucking them--or I'd be at a party and hear people (strangers to me) talking about "me" and things I'd done, which I hadn't--or I'd get emails from people telling me they were friends with such-and-such who I was apparently dating. Shit like that. I could never seem to get a bead on whether the guy actually existed or whether people were just making up shit to draw attention to themselves. It was very disconcerting.

One woman insisted (via email) that she was dating me. I kept telling her it wasn't me and she kept behaving as if I was only kidding around with her and continually asked when I was going to write about her on VS. I kept asking for details about the me she was dating and she wouldn't give them, again just behaving as if I was joking around. Very bizarre. After several emails from her that I didn't bother to answer, she stopped writing me and I never heard from her again.

The internet is full of freaks. Just so you know.

posted by dobbs 17 February | 12:55

wow, that all sounds mighty creepy. no wonder you're jumpy now.

posted by dabitch 17 February | 14:48

hi dobbs!

posted by matteo 17 February | 14:52

hi m!

posted by dobbs 17 February | 15:38

Put something up on your site, like a fanciful series of posts about something totally unglamorous, like your two-year stint in the Peace Corps as a goat-anus inspector in Patagonia. Or posts about how you have to suck dick to get your acting jobs AND pay for your crack habit AND the payments you make every other week when you go see Johnny Probation.

posted by trondant 17 February | 16:19

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