If this had been any other kind of fan page, when the trolling started, we would have left. I certainly would have: in most circumstances I live by the rule "don't feed the trolls." But there were other people coming to the page we were concerned about: The new readers who would raise the membership on that page to over 20,000 fans, and the reason that most of us came there:
The kids. Not just the kids on the show, but the kids who would wander there looking for help. The kids that we didn't want to see things like this: How'd you like your child to see this?
We were faced with this spammed image again and again, posted by a couple of drones, in a frenzied idea that, like anti-abortion protestors showing pictures of bloody fetuses, this would drive people away. Well, yes, it did. A lot of people. But not the few fans who were very concerned about what Ron and Kirby's sockpuppets and drones were posting there where the children might see. That's why we stayed and fought.
I did my best to make sure the page was never just filled with these images, and some of the examples that will follow below. The posts I placed on the board were links to the show, to related websites, and to the articles and videos I had made to help answer frequently asked questions over the three years the series was on the air.
This is an example of what I did. People who had been on the show and other friends of the show posted similar materials, but I posted the most, because I'm unemployed, and had the time:
I tried hard to stick to just posting what was useful, but trolls are good at digging at people until they answer. This is an example of trying to post reason against these guys:
On occasion I did lose my temper, or try something to draw out the anonymous posters to find out who they were, which sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. I even tried being cruel back on a few occasions - which only backfires. But when people are constantly throwing ugly words and pictures at you, you want very badly to use the same ammunition. In face to face life that often works - when someone is scaring you, scare them back! I once scared two muggers off of me just by using my deepest most theatrical voice and spouting obscene words and come-ons to them. It saved me from getting hurt. But the Internet has a distance and an invisibility that makes some people think they can get away with anything.
The policies of social websites like facebook are not helping. There's not enough monitoring going on.
Anyone who puts up a public page needs to be aware they have to keep monitoring their own pages. A & E is not willing to do that. So when the awful stuff started being printed, a few fans stepped in. I stepped in the most, because I was already used to it. I thought.
Whoever knew posting Christian messages over and over and over again would be experienced as harassment? Sweet little sayings and prayers and messages that I won't post here because I have more respect for Christianity than the people who used it in that way. We were hit by dozens of these posts. In between all the sweet caring Christian posts, were more dozens of repeated items like these:
Well, that stated their intention plainly! Then there were these: this was like a mantra:
I tried finding out who some of the anonymous drones were and hit one nail on the head - which is not a good idea. The guy went ballistic instead of away. One very stupid woman who posted under her own name turned out to be a "professional" exorcist who bragged in one post that she had witnessed a child being put through two years of exorcisms. If this is true, this person accusing us of child abuse was accessory to religious child abuse. These two, along with Kirby, were the ones who posted the sweet Christian sayings and prayers and concerned warnings over and over again. I finally had it, and posted my own prayer after Kirby poured out one of his own. Now he claims mine was a magic spell: but it's the kind of prayer, in my personal belief, that I can say. Note: I call anyone who tries to demonize people or are obsessed with demons "demon makers," and I had had it up to my neck with some of us being called things like Satan and demon!
They had been burrowing their intentions into us. I won't bore you with the hundreds of examples I have on screenprint. All sorts of bizarre claims, name calling, "I am a good and mighty defender and you are evil!" types long rants. It was tiring, aggravating, and we didn't want any children or parents of psychic kids faced with the junk that was being scattered on the page.
But it just wouldn't stop. My personal attack favorite - saw it lots of times: Irritating but funny - these people live in very old times:
In mid September, Michelle (quoted below), someone who had been on the show and is close friends with people on the show finally found someone who could get A & E to lock the page against new threads and hide the posts page fans had made. None of them are gone, they're just hidden away. If anyone can ever take legal actions against the harassment, it's all there, blocked from view.
But Kirby and some of the others just wanted to take the credit. Kirby overreached into It Never Happened Land:
Yes, a crack legal team - or Kirby on crack. You decide.
There is so much more we went through. A lot of it much worse than I've shown you. I just don't want to look at it any more. All screen prints are stored in case the Internet ever smiles on us and we can take these people to court.
Oh, just a note for the "latest" of the anonymous drones, Temperance English, hanging in there, determined to have a victory and shaking your enormous pom-poms. You're alone in the stands. There's no team on the field. No one cares. There's just a cleaning team looking up at a crazy person screaming in an empty stadium. And they all look up and go, "oh! That's Aanica, isn't it?" then go back to work...Nothing new under a very small sun...
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