What is internet stalking? Have you felt like you are being stalked?

Stalking is indicative of an unhealthy obsession.
That’s when people read what you post here, follow you to Facebook, send email to your personal email account, send letters to your home and call your cell phone and when you ask them to stop, they get angry and do it more.

I was stalked on xanga several years ago by some fundamentalist Christian freak job. He created a name that mirrored mine, harassed my subscribers, and just generally made a royal pain of himself. I finally had to change my name on xanga to something quasi-perverted to get him to leave me alone.

If I’d ever caught up to him in person, I’d have punched him in the nose.

Go through the older questions at Askville, especially those involving a woman named Layyla. She claimed that others were stalking her, and in return she stalked several other people. She even came over to Fluther in search of some of them. She accused one person of having an attitude that would keep her from ever surviving cancer, claimed folks were threatening her, and made nasty and disparaging comments to a number of people. She also demanded that certain people not answer her questions because they were “hers.”

Do a search on Toe Cleavage as one example.

To me, stalking can either be two things. It can be persistently addressing this person and refusing to leave them alone even when they feel bothered by it. In other words, leaving them comments, following their activity and commenting on it, trying to talk to them, etc. when they don’t want it. Or “stalking” could mean simply watching a person’s activity online without letting them know: “silent stalking”. I’m not sure where the line is, because even showing slight interest these days gets called “stalking” or “creeping”. I know that on Facebook, I “stalked” my boyfriend a bit before he was my boyfriend. And by that I mean that I checked his profile every now and then to see if he had new photos or just to see what his status was. It wasn’t to see where he was going or where he was going to be, it wasn’t to look at his conversations with other people, etc. I told him about this and he didn’t mind at all because, well, he had been doing the same thing to me. :P

To me, harmless following goes to “stalking” when following this person becomes an integral part of your life. When you’re so excited to see their activity and when you think about what they’re doing all the time. In other words, when it becomes an obsession. An interest and an obsession are not the same thing. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being interested in a person and wanting to see what they post more than what other people post.

I’ve never been truly stalked. I’ve had two people tell me they took an interest to my posts and followed them more than they did other people, but it wasn’t real stalking. No one was bothering me and they weren’t obsessed.

Whatthefluther stalked me for a while, but that was ok. He was persistent about wanting me to ‘lose them.’ I finally succumbed.

“Stalker” and “creeper” are both slang words for someone who is a little weird or does something odd these days. It pretty much doesn’t hold traditional meaning anymore.

Following them turns into stalking when you are trying to find out more about their personal lives, rather than just finding their blog or twitter account entertaining or informative.

The long story I was going to write here sounded dumb after I got it all out, so I erased it..

When my boyfriend and I first got together, a jealous friend of his hacked into my boyfriend’s myspace and completely turned it upside down. He rewrote his “About me” section talking about how I was such a whore and life sucked with me. It got creepy when he posted his face on a pic with me and began texting me. It got out of control fast.
I don’t mind ‘keeping up with someone’ but when I feel threatened and look over my shoulder when I walk down the street, there’s a problem.

haha @Darwin I actually searched toe cleavage I just saw a bunch of foot and high heel sites ha

Internet stalking? I think @DominicX covered that. Pretty much just following someone online I guess.
I used to have random “stalkers” on my online journal, but nothing serious. It’s happened a few times where it’s really upset me and I wanted to block anyone from reading my personal thoughts. It’s one thing to read what I write and do online…I don’t give a crap about that. If it’s public then feel free to read and look, but don’t attack me or harass me. That’s when it’s gone too far, in my opinion.

@trailsillustrated – Try this

I got stalked onto fluther.

I also had a freakaziod on Askville (same one who stalked me onto fluther) post my real name on the site when I hadn’t had anything to do with it for five months.

huh that’s like the wierdest wierd how’d you know her- or him- or whatever

@Darwin I remember her, she was a nutcase. So was that guy who ran with her, dooley somethingtorother. those people were a big part of the reason I left Assville.

@Psychedelic_Zebra – Rufus Dooley is still there under a different name, but as far as I can tell Layyla/Maggie is gone. However, there seem to be others carrying on the tradition, so it may not be a good idea to return.

Scary! I’ve asked like really normal honest questions on there!!

@trailsillustrated Who, me? That was the only person stupid enough to use the name that was used. It was pretty obvious and just as childish and stupid. There was also a characteristic lack of knowledge of AV history that made it pretty obvious that the things he was accusing me of over on AV came from someone who didn’t know what he was talking about.

@Psychedelic_Zebra @Darwin snow leopard

Eeek! No, not stalking and not stalked, thank Bobness.

I can’t remember what I asked but I ended up finally asking at one of those pay an expert sites like 15–30 bucks it was a legal question wierd to me it was a legit lookin site-scary now i’m trying to remember what the hell I asked on there

I was stalked by a person who was tried, convicted and served time in a mental hospital for several years for celebrity stalking. When she got out, she took up where she left off. I have a restraining order against her, and my lawyer has a thick file of her latest activities.

@YARNLADY Wow, I didn’t know you were David Letterman, I thought you were female.~

I was stalked by a former employee for a while. She tended to call me multiple times in the middle of the night. I started unplugging my phone and she eventually stopped. My boss fired her for a number of oddities of behavior.

It’s typical to call people stalkers or creepers without really meaning it right now. My friends and I do this. This may, however, be like a subconscious means of alleviating the guilt we feel for ‘Facebook stalking’ people sometimes, which we do.

My friends will even sit down together and huddle around a laptop to look at all the photos/info/conversations (rarely) of whomever they’re interested in on campus.

I also do this but privately (which probably means it’s worse). To one guy in particular. For me it bordered before on actual stalking because I once attended the same event this guy did, but only after learning of the event through his profile (we are not Facebook friends but I can see his profile because we’re in the same network).

It was creepy and I felt creepy but I also got to watch him play timpani and it was worth it.

@nxknxk
it sounds like you may have been just a secret admirer…bordering that fine line

@SeventhSense

I surely hope so. :|

@Psychedelic_Zebra I am married to an associate of a person she blames for all her problems – third party removed – but that didn’t stop her from filing a lawsuit (thrown out of court) naming me among 100 other people (not the Letterman stalker).

Wow, I’ve never called it “stalking” before.

To me, watching somebody silently on the internets (or on a forum) is lurking, not stalking.

C.f. definition 1 on Urban Dictionary.

And I do a lot of it. :D

Yes the word stalker is loosing it’s meaning fast. Having said that I just stalked about twelve people for two days while trying to figure out how they got the Feeding Frenzy award, so maybe I’m not one to talk. I can’t believe how much work it is too, a real stalker must consider it a full time job.

@daloon….I’ve been known to stalk you. stalk, stalk, stalk LOLLLLL ;-)

Ahhh, yes, good old Layyla & Rufus Dooley. What a pair!

@markyy Did you ask me? You could have just asked me.

@avvooooooo I didn’t have to ask, because I finally got it! My pride prevents me from asking anyway, I love the hunting and puzzling but Feeding Frenzy nearly pushed me over the edge of sanity and made me do some stuff I’m not proud of. It’s not about owning 120 white pixels with a label, I just can’t let Tim best me! Also, for some reason I had the feeling that half the people who got Feeding Frenzy have no clue how they got it, I’m only 90% certain myself now that I have it…Next batch of awards I’ll be sure to ask you before I go on a killing spree with a chainsaw!

@markyy I know exactly what happened on all but one of mine. :D Stupid cake!

@avvooooooo Hey! Cake is not stupid, don’t even joke about that! Cake is the best darn thing on this planet.

@markyy I agree! But nobody knows what exactly they did to get the cake! So… stupid cake!

@avvooooooo I have an inkling about the cake, after stalking it through the interweb like a lion stalks a gazelle.

@markyy feeding frenzy I have no idea about… any chance of a vague starting point beyond the chum?