TheChrisD - Rant Central

Impersonation

Back at around this time last year, blogging for me was a completely different matter. There was a lot less thought put into posts, topics were often more random and sometimes even more controversial, and the audience was a lot different as well! It had it’s ups and downs, but there has been one particular downside that is still affecting me a bit to this day.

There was a post I had written about a year and a quarter ago, in one of more “ranting” moods. And this wasn’t your normal run-of-the-mill, write a bit and let it go. No this was the real deal. “Absolutely pissed off and had to get it off my chest even though it wouldn’t help to defuse the situation” ranting is probably a better way to describe how I was at the time. Back then, my main audience consisted of the other gamers I knew from gaming websites and the other computing students from college. Now, they usually had given some of my posts a lot of flak (although I’m not sure how much of it was based on the fact that they didn’t fully understand my mindset) - but this one seemed to attract more negative feedback that usual.

It was actually about 2 months after I had posted it before the college guys had got around to reading it, but once they had, things weren’t really looking up for me. It seems as if they all had the same mentality towards me (which again I feel was caused by me having a different state of mine), which let to some rather hurtful (at the time) comments like:

• “Really, are we 14?”
• “Maybe she is a complete cunt, but it must run in the family so.”
• “You honestly need a good thumping”
• “If you keep going the way your going to be very lonely living a really hard life”

Right, so they were being slight jerks back then, and I could put up with that. I could control what exactly they were saying to me in the comments, and thought nothing more of it. But, they went ahead and escalated the issue. They went ahead and impersonated me, by registering under my name on Digg, submitting a story about the post in such a way as to make me look bad, and then having the entire group of them go ahead and all Digg the story in an attempt to make it public knowledge and to try and wreck my image and reputation.

That was seriously crossing the line. Once I had found out about it from all the referral logs and Google blog search hits, I got on to Digg’s abuse service to try and get the account deleted. No response. I tried again a few days later only to get no response again. By this time, the story had grown a bit - but thankfully not enough to be front-page worthy. Had that happened, my image would probably have been well and truly down the drain.

Eventually the whole thing died down and has been lying dormant ever since. I hadn’t thought anything more than it, other than the fact that I was not about to go register at Digg under a different name just to be a part of the site. There are only two other places on the Internet (that I can find), where the person known as “TheChrisD” is not me: Bebo and MySpace. Both social networking sites, and both not being used to impersonate me. I can handle that, mainly because I don’t use those pieces of crap anyway.

Sometime yesterday, I was going through my videos on GameVee just to see what the stats for them were like, when I noticed that one of them had been Dugg. Following through found out that one of my current good friends, AdjustantReflex, had submitted it. It was a nice gesture that made me want to help support it (I wouldn’t be the kind of person to submit my own stories, but if someone else wanted to submit it, then I’d have no problem supporting it), but that brought me back to the original issue where the college guys had registered as me.

Since then the Digg site had changed a bit, so locating the abuse section and finding the Terms of Service were much easier this time - and so, armed with the evidence and the Terms, once again submitted by abuse report to them. So I sent it, and really didn’t think about it much more given my previous attempts. So it was very surprising to find out that I had actually received a reply from the abuse team.

Now actually receiving the reply did kinda set my heart racing. I mean, it’s been a year since it happened, and they didn’t do anything then, so why would they do anything now? Well, apparently still nothing had been done, other than me realising that my original e-mail probably didn’t get the main point across, so I replied and tried again. Another reply really got me going, but then I found out to my dismay, that once again nothing was going to be done.

Right, at this point I was starting to get a little ticked off. I had the evidence, I had the Terms of Service, and I had a bit more sense to be able to compose the e-mail professionally and (or at least I thought) effectively. But apparently, that’s just gotten me even more tangled up in red tape, and legal mumbo-jumbo than before.

All I want is for them to see that the guys in college deliberately registered as me to submit a story about my kinda-controversial blog post, to get it Dugg a lot and to tarnish my image. But apparently “the proper recourse is to address the issue with them, either directly or through the proper authorities” or “just as multiple individuals might hold themselves out and refer to themselves by the same, common surname, so to may multiple individuals also simultaneously use more unique monikers to refer to themselves”

It’s almost like the whole Dreamhost support nightmare all over again - I ask for something very small and simple to be done, and now I’m getting caught up in a nightmare of red tape, terms, conditions, and other really confusing legal stuff. What do I have to do to just make them get the point?

The Whole Mumbo-Jumbo

Well this has been the conversation between me and Digg Abuse/Digg Support about the issue. As of this writing (July 26th 3.24am), I’m yet to receive a reply to my latest e-mail, which I sent on July 25th 6.20pm.

The e-mails are in reverse chronological order, because I just copied and pasted my last sent e-mail straight from my client, and I really couldn’t be bothered to split it up…

Any e-mail/website links (i.e. my e-mail signature) have been removed to prevent harvesting.

This submission, which they submitted under my name, http://digg.com/odd_stuff/10_reasons_why_I_hate_my_mother, was linked to my website which at the time was displaying this post: http://www.thechrisd.com/blog/2007/03/19/families

The manner in which they submitted in, was making it out as if I was trying to advertise the post, when I would never want and/or need to. Plus the comments left on the submission make me out to be a bad person.

As for multiple individuals having the same identity as me - a search on Google only reveals two other locations in which someone other than me is known as “thechrisd” - Bebo and MySpace. However, in both of those instances, they are not used for malicious purposes by attempting to impersonate me.

—
TheChrisD

From: Digg Support

Sent: Friday, July 25, 2008 5:59 PM

To: TheChrisD

Subject: Re: Reporting Impersonator of me on Digg

Hi -

Thanks for clarifying.

We assure that we take allegations of misappropriation,
misrepresentation, and trademark infringement very seriously. However,
upon review of this matter, we have determined that the use of the term
thechrisd as a username does not give rise to any actionable claim that
we can act upon.  Just as multiple individuals might hold themselves out
and refer to themselves by the same, common surname, so to may multiple
individuals also simultaneously use more unique monikers to refer to
themselves.

Of  course, if you have documented any instances of actual trademark
confusion or have any proof of deliberate misappropriation or
mirsrepresentation of your identity, please forward to us such
documentation and the details of any such information so that we can
reevaluate our opinion.

Best,

- Digg Support Team

TheChrisD wrote:
> Thanks for your reply, but I’m not entirely sure as to whether I got
> my main point across clearly the first time.
>
> I don’t know who created the account, but since it is breaching the
> Terms of Service for impersonating me, I was hoping that it could
> either be turned over to me so that I am in control of it (and thus
> it’s no longer impersonating me), or deleted so that I can register as
> it myself with my proper details.
>
> Thank you again for your time.
> —
> TheChrisD
>
>     *From:* Digg Abuse
>     *Sent:* Friday, July 25, 2008 3:40 PM
>     *To:* TheChrisD
>     *Subject:* Re: Reporting Impersonator of me on Digg
>
>     Thanks for contacting us about this. We wanted to respond to your
>     email
>     so that you know we have received your complaint, and to explain
>     why we
>     cannot take action at this time. Digg is committed to maintaining a
>     platform for free speech – like a town square. As such, we need to
>     maintain a neutral position with respect to the public debate that
>     occurs on the site. If you feel that someone has published something
>     false or defamatory about you, the proper recourse is to address the
>     issue with them, either directly or through the proper authorities.
>
>     Here is a helpful link that provides some information about
>     defamation
>     law, we hope this is a useful starting point should you decide to
>     take
>     action in this case.
>
>     http://www.chillingeffects.org/defamation/faq.cgi
>
>     Thank you for your understanding, and we sincerely hope you are
>     able to
>     resolve this matter through the proper channels. Please feel free to
>     contact us if you have further questions.
>
>     Thank you,
>
>     -The Digg Watch Team.
>
>     TheChrisD wrote:
>     > Per Article 4:
>     >
>     >     You may not (i) select or use as a Digg User ID a name of
>     another
>     >     person with the intent to impersonate that person;
>     >
>     > and Article 5, sub-article 11:
>     >
>     >     By way of example, and not as a limitation, you agree not to use
>     >     the Services to attempt to impersonate another user or person
>     >
>     > of the Digg Terms of Service, I am reporting that the person who
>     > registered as user “thechrisd” (http://digg.com/users/thechrisd) is
>     > attempting to impersonate me on Digg.
>     > Whoever registered as the user, only did so to impersonate me
>     and to
>     > tarnish my reputation by advertising one of my blog posts where
>     I come
>     > across to be a bad person.
>     > Thank you for your time.
>     > —
>     > TheChrisD
>