A Warning To All Tv Posters

[Pudgimelon]

One would like to think that the ThaiVisa forums are a safe place to rant and rave about the daily grind that makes up our lives here in Thailand.

One would like to think that the ThaiVisa forums are a safe place to vent some frustration that accumulates after a day spent dealing with nonsensical and counter-intuitive employers (especially schools).

One would like to think that the occassional flame-war or bout of verbal jousting here on ThaiVisa was just that, something that stayed between us guys.

One would like to think that the posts you made here would be seen in their full-context: either as tongue-in-cheek rants about the trials and tribulations of expat life, or as diatribes spoken in a generic fashion and not specifically targetting any one individual or institution, or just as half-serious blurbs pecked in the post-box during a late night bout of insomnia (or whatever reason you may have for being up so late).

However, sadly, that's not always the case.

Just the other day, I walked into my employers office and was shown a MONTH'S old post that someone had decided to email my employer, obviously in an attempt to get me in trouble and/or fired.

Worse still, the post was taken out of context and modified to make it look a lot worse than the post I had originally put on these forums.

Was I ranting about some inane policy at my school? Sure. Did I specifically name that school or reveal any personal information about myself that would lead people to discover who my employer was? No.

And yet this person took the time and made the effort to ferret out my personal information, find out what school I worked at, get the email address of my administrator and then emailed them saying, "Look what he's saying about YOUR school" (which was a distortion of my post, since I was speaking in a general tone and wasn't specifically applying my comments to my current employer).

Needless to say, my employer was upset by this email and called me into the office to discuss it. I simply pointed out what I stated already: that there's nothing in my post identifying myself or the school so that post was in no way meant to be taken as an attack on my current employer, also, the post was taken out of context and the person sending the email obviously is motivated by a desire to do me harm, so one should take his comments with a grain of salt.

The moderators/administrators of this forum have been contacted, but so far, nothing has been done about it. The header of the email contained the poster's real name, so I know exactly who it was that sent this email and why they sent it.

On a number of occassions, I have posted unpopular opinions and have been flamed quite vigorously by members of this forum. From my viewpoint, it's always been in good fun and I'm sure many of you have enjoyed trashing me in the online equivilent of a barstool debate. Yes, it's true that I have clashed with many different posters on these forums, but at the end of the day, this is all still just "text", anyone who actually gets wound up over this stuff has some serious issues.

It seems though, that one (or more, if that's what it took to discover my identity) members of this forum have taken things a bit too seriously and crossed over the virtual line and into the "real world". The funny thing is, the post he sent to my employer was in a thread where I was actually AGREEING with him, and where we were being quite complimentary to each other. Which just goes to show the two-faced nature of this individual. He's perfectly willing to be your online-buddy in one thread, while at the same time, hunting down your personal info so he can stab you in the back in real life.

I have a family to support, and I take someone messing with my employment situation to be a pretty serious violation of the convenant that binds this little community together.

Someone is trying to do me harm in real life based on something that was said online.

Pathetic? Yes.

Sad? Yes.

Worrisome? Not to me, but the rest of you should take my experience as a warning. Watch what you say here, you never know when some obsessed lunatic is going to hunt you down in real life and cause trouble for you simply because you flamed him and bruised his little ego.

Watch out guys. There's a snake in the grass here, and next time, it may be you he narc's on.

Edited June 5, 2005 by Pudgimelon

[Tornado]

Im glad I dont work for anyone.. (Id be fired with some of things that come out the end of my fingers ) Sorry to hear that little basket wants you outed/has outed you, give him a smack.

being anonymouse is easy at the start and then you make some good friends and then you are outed.

sorry to hear that mate.

edit.

Edited June 5, 2005 by Tornado

[Tornado]

what member was it?

[chuchok]

Im glad I dont work for anyone.. Sorry to hear that little basket wants you outed, give him a smack.

being anonyouse is easy at the start and then you make some good friends and then you are outed.

sorry to hear that mate.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree with Torn here.nobody likes a "grass" in any society.I would name the prick as you are only telling the truth about him and surly can not get into trouble by using the TRUTH.

[TRIPxCORE]

I am very saddened to hear what happened to you Pudg. I share your view that it was crossing the line to put forth that much effort to try and discredit you at your place of employment. People do need to learn that everything happening online needs to not be taken too seriously no matter how much they disagree with others. A very unfortunate event indeed. Shame on whoever did it.

[Sir Burr]

Please at least give us his online handle so that other posters are warned not to interact with them. "Fore-warned is fore-armed".

[Jockstar]

Ye pugimelon. Name and shame mate. I hate grasses

[Pudgimelon]

I agree with Torn here.nobody likes a "grass" in any society.I would name the prick as you are only telling the truth about him and surly can not get into trouble by using the TRUTH.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry, but I don't feel it's appropriate to name names. Here are the forum rules:

Please respect fellow members!...

...No flaming of fellow members!...

...Discussion of moderation issues, actions or moderation policies concerning individual cases are not allowed in the forums.....

As you can see, the Number One rule on the forum is: "Respect Fellow Members". Obviously, this person chose to ignore this rule and did something I consider to be highly disrespectful (emailing my employer an out-of-context and distorted post of mine in an attempt to cause me to lose my job seems pretty disrespectful to me). That said, I don't think a tit-for-tat "outing" of this jerk would serve any purpose.

Any moderator or administrator who wants a name, can PM me, I'll happily "discuss moderation issues" with them via private message, as per the forum rules.

This thread was simply intended to serve as a warning to fellow ThaiVisa members. If you have any "questionable" posts on these forums that you feel might embarass you in front of friends, family or employers, delete them now.

For as long as people like this guy feel they can "get real" with an online vendetta, then none of us are safe.

[Ajarn]

Many of these folks around, and a good reminder to anyone vulnerable, ie, working/living here, to not give any identifiable clues about yourself when posting here because someone could cause trouble for you at your job, immigration, wherever....

Even some of your 'friends' will backstab you, given half a chance. I once had a guy copy some private correspondence between us with some strong remarks by me, re-edit the copy, make some posters, and then post them around my office at Chiang Mai university... Lucky for me that this guy was a real nutter, and when he was doing the posting, he had a big argument with my boss outside.... People there felt sorry for me, rather than wanting to criticisize me me for my alleged words.

Now, I don't work anymore, so I don't feel in fear of any of these kinds of low-lifes you find around Thailand, and places like Chiang Mai have a fair share of them...

Watch thy words, and cover thy ass.

[chuchok]

I agree with Torn here.nobody likes a "grass" in any society.I would name the prick as you are only telling the truth about him and surly can not get into trouble by using the TRUTH.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry, but I don't feel it's appropriate to name names. Here are the forum rules:

Please respect fellow members!...

...No flaming of fellow members!...

...Discussion of moderation issues, actions or moderation policies concerning individual cases are not allowed in the forums.....

As you can see, the Number One rule on the forum is: "Respect Fellow Members". Obviously, this person chose to ignore this rule and did something I consider to be highly disrespectful (emailing my employer an out-of-context and distorted post of mine in an attempt to cause me to lose my job seems pretty disrespectful to me). That said, I don't think a tit-for-tat "outing" of this jerk would serve any purpose.

Any moderator or administrator who wants a name, can PM me, I'll happily "discuss moderation issues" with them via private message, as per the forum rules.

This thread was simply intended to serve as a warning to fellow ThaiVisa members. If you have any "questionable" posts on these forums that you feel might embarass you in front of friends, family or employers, delete them now.

For as long as people like this guy feel they can "get real" with an online vendetta, then none of us are safe.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We don't want his real life name.Just his TV name.It's not so much a tit-for-tat, but it would make people aware of what this poster is like.

You are not breaking any rules by doing this.

[Sir Burr]

Pudgimelon,

I admire your sense of ethics, but it still leaves an unknown "snake in the grass" for the rest of us.

I think the moderators should ban this person permanently and do everybody on here a service.

[cdnvic]

Pudgimelon, good on you for not indulging in a tit-for-tat slandering match, and thanks for following the guidelines, its much appreciated. Follow the instructions in my pm, and I'll deal with it.

cv

[cdnvic]

Just closing this temporarily while I investigate this. Will reopen when all the facts are in. Till then just want to avoid jumping the gun.

cv