This past weekend, I was harassed by someone on Facebook due to my postings here on DailyKos. It was an...interesting...experience. I found out that I don't want to fuck with a few of my friends because they're damn good at using Teh Google. It wasn't vicious harassment, but it was enough to make me uncomfortable and look over my shoulder every few minutes. Here's the background...
So right as I was about to take a 400 mile trip to visit family, I got sucked into the latest DailyKos meta drama (as usual). This particular meta war revolved around some folks saying that another DailyKos member was a "fraud." I made a few comments to the effect that I don't know "the truth" and really couldn't care less if someone posed as a 35 year old fitness instructor but was really a 12 year old dog with a British accent.
Later on that night, I got a message on my Weatherdude from DailyKos Facebook page that turned out to be really strange. She repeatedly warned me that the user in question posed danger and that I needed to warn everybody about him. After saying that a few times, I asked this person who she was on DailyKos. I was told that I didn't need to worry about that, and that "her group" acted as sort of an all-knowing anonymous on DailyKos.
I was unnerved and a little annoyed that someone sought me out on Facebook to jerk me around (and vaguely threaten me), so I asked a few friends to do some digging on Google. What they found was shocking.
When Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in Arizona in 2011, this person left a comment on Facebook saying that she "prays for Gabby Giffords' death because she is a Democrat." This person also feverishly supports a local Tea Party Congressman in his bid for Congress. A few phone calls confirmed that this person's entire LinkedIn profile was faked. The rest of her public Facebook comments were wildly inconsistent with everything she'd said up until that point.
Due to that and other evidence, I'm fairly confident that this person is not a member of DailyKos, but instead is just a right-wing troll looking to stir up shit between members. If anyone starts harassing you about DailyKos but outside of DailyKos (via email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), look to see what you can find about them online. Teh Google is a really powerful tool.
The person has been privately warned to stop vaguely intimidating me or she'll be reported to the authorities. I've not reported this to Markos because the incident occurred outside of the confines of DailyKos and I'm fairly confident that this person is a righty rabble-rouser as opposed to an actual member of DailyKos.
This person has apparently contacted a whole slew of people via Facebook somehow, so if you get a strange message warning you about another member of DailyKos, take it with a grain of salt unless they identify themselves (and you verify it).
Be careful what you post about yourself, be careful what you say about you and others on and off the site, and do a little background research into the person who's bothering you. I've since blocked this person and several others, and I haven't gotten any further messages since I informed this harasser that I know about her avid Teabagging work.
Tue May 29, 2012 at 10:36 AM PT: A quick update for clarity. My personal Facebook account is completely private -- only friends can see anything. The page I'm talking about above -- "Weatherdude from DKos" -- is a public Facebook page made so you guys can like it and get weather stuff in your news feeds. A page is different from a profile.
Tue May 29, 2012 at 10:52 AM PT: Oh, and since I've posted this update, this person's Facebook profile has been deleted as have her "group's" profiles.