Now I want to be very clear here: merely disagreeing with someone or something is NOT the same thing as "stalking", "trolling" and "harassment". "Free speech" does NOT entitle someone to stalk, troll, harass or otherwise violate anyone else's rights. This site supposedly casts itself as a "friendly and welcoming place", and has rules regarding personal attacks among other things. However, it seems it's ok to stalk, harass and/or otherwise troll people here without much if any consequence at all. Again, let me very clear: I'm by no means perfect anymore than anyone else here is, I'm human, I'm not a bot; therefore like anyone else here, I can misunderstand things from time to time, I can get it wrong sometimes (not intentionally), but I'm always happy to admit it when and if I've misunderstood something, or gotten it wrong and I believe I've demonstrated that numerous times. BUT, this is not the same as demonstrating a clear pattern of harassment, trolling and stalking. I try my best to get it right as much as I can, in fact, I try and only respond to threads/posts that I think I have enough knowledge to help with. Some of the forums here I rarely ever even look at, let alone respond to, because I'd much prefer someone who is in a better position to help respond rather than myself if it's something I'm not familiar with - the Other *NIX forums here are a prime example of that. I'm not here just to tell everyone every opinion and thought that crosses my mind. I like to be able to help people with their technical problems, as well as learn things from other long term members here. I've learnt many things that I'd otherwise likely would not have known, from other long term members here. In any case, I will provide a quote from the New South Wales Police website that explicitly describes how the law in New South Wales defines "stalking".

Staking, trolling and harassment are criminal offenses in Australia where I live, and I believe most other developed countries as well. This includes the "online world" as well, therefore it would be a criminal offense here as much as it would be in the "real world". But yet, it seems to be tolerated here at LQ with little to no consequence. And I've have been the target of relentless stalking, harassment and trolling here for the past month now, all by the "poster" JSB (formally jsbjsb002), who has displayed a clear pattern of this behavior. I not only believe that this account is a troll account, I also have no doubt it was setup explicitly for the purposes of trolling me. This same "poster" has actively stalked me ever since they created their account. They have actively responded to nearly every single thread I have, and often quote me directly. They have personally attacked me several times now, as well as misrepresenting my posts and accusing me of various things. This is stalking and harassment, not mention something that anyone else I know would call trolling. I have lost count of how many times I have reported them now, I've contacted Jeremy directly a number of times about it now, all to little to no avail. One only needs to look at their posts to verify what I'm talking about, I'm far from the only member here who has said both publicly and privately to me directly that they believe the same account to be a troll account. I have not responded to this troll at all, but they still continue to try and bait me in to a response. I strongly believe that their intention is to either provoke me in to a response that gets me banned, and/or to discourage me from continuing to participate here at LQ. I also strongly believe that this account is a sockpuppet account created by another long term member who joined this forum in 2013, who has even stated publicly here that they don't like me as a person. I won't directly name them since I can't prove that, but they know who they are in any case. I will say to them directly that: I'm not going to change my posting style for them, or stop posting here because they don't like me, not now, not ever will I do any of that for them.

I've been advised by a couple of other members that I should just ignore this troll and move on. But as much as I can understand where they are coming from, I think "but why should I have to put up with it if nobody else would put up with being stalked online or let alone in real life?". Therefore I don't believe anyone should have to put up with it, be that myself, be that anyone else. It also creates more work for the mods here who are not getting paid anymore than anyone else is here. Therefore it's unfair on everyone, and degrades the discussions in this forum, which doesn't make the forum look good to those that don't know any better. So therefore I don't accept that I should just have to "put up with it" any longer. This "poster" at the bare minimum needs to be banned for good, as they are clearly going to continue their stalking, harassment and trolling.

In any case, the reason for this thread is twofold: both to discuss the subject in general, as well as to make the point that whatever Jeremy is doing about this situation clearly isn't working, and the same troll is clearly playing both the mods and Jeremy himself like a fiddle. And I think I've shown enough patience now, therefore if this "poster" continues with their stalking, harassment and trolling, and as much as I would much prefer that Jeremy deals with them "in-house": I will have to look into making a criminal complaint to the relevant government body or agency if this "poster" is allowed to continue stalking, trolling and harassing me. I am very serious about that, as enough is enough is enough. I sincerely hope it doesn't come to that, and once again, I much prefer it doesn't. But people need to understand that, this isn't something that should be acceptable, period.

This is a quote from the NSW Police website that defines stalking:

Source: https://www.police.nsw.gov.au/crime/...at_is_stalking

I think the title of your post is missing the mark somewhat, and I'll tell you why in a few minutes.

But first, let me say that I understand why you feel the way you do, and I can absolutely see why this situation is getting on your nerves.

A forum like LQ is meant to be community of somewhat like-minded people talking about their passion. For the vast majority of us it's about sharing, learning, and helping one another. Participating is a very positive experience for the most of us, and over time LQ becomes a bit like a second home.

That's why it can be such a jarring experience to come across someone who has entirely different motives for being here, for instance someone who wants to provoke/troll, or wants to post spam, or keeps derailing threads, or blatantly promotes themselves while not really knowing what they're talking about.

It's like being at a gathering where everyone's having a really good time, and then suddenly somebody pulls out a megaphone and starts shouting insults and throwing stink bombs. That would be a highly unpleasant experience in any circumstance, but it's especially disturbing in a situation where you thought you were among friends, and thus your guard was down.

I think many of us have seen the specific posts you're referring to, and yes, we've pretty much concluded that this person does seem to be targeting you specifically. In one thread, one of the moderators chimed in and reminded the poster that personal attacks would not be tolerated, and the poster replied that this was certainly not their intention! If you listened carefully while reading that reply, you might have heard the sound of the entire forum going "yeah, sure" while collectively rolling our eyes.

You've been advised to ignore this person, but you find that quite difficult. Also, it doesn't seem fair or reasonable that you should have to put up with such nonsense, and you point out that this behaviour might even be considered illegal harassment.

But what would you have Jeremy do? As anyone with a valid e-mail address can create an account here, banning someone who is hell-bent on harassing you could easily turn into an endless game of whack-a-mole, and while the moderators have many threads and posts to moderate, a troll with a VPN and a bunch of throwaway e-mail accounts has only one objective, and could easily keep them all occupied for years. The constant back-and-forth would leave us all miserable, and the troll would probably enjoy the experience.

That's why I take issue with the title of your post, because LQ certainly doesn't "tolerate stalking, harassment and trolling," it's just that there's only so much one can do when managing a publicly-accessible forum. For serious cases of stalking and harassment there are other avenues, as you've already outlined: Report the matter to the police.

Back in the BBS and Usenet days, you'd occasionally see the phrase "plonk!" in a post. That was someone indicating that another user had earned themselves a place in their kill filter, meaning that any future posts from the offending user would be filtered. That's probably the best solution (as in, the only solution that could reasonably work) to problems like these.

Don't let this person ruin your day. Don't give him/her that much power over you.

2 members found this post helpful.

Mostly I agree with Ser Olmy, but I do often wonder why this person has been allowed to use the handle and the signature they do. Surely that ought not to be allowed. They were initially told to change their name but it was changed to something nearly identical and that was allowed to pass. It should not have been.

2 members found this post helpful.

imho there should not be harassment of any kind here at LQ, no matter if it happens at non nix / general, but the thing is its nearly impossible to weed out.

I'm against all sort of "nannying". People should stand on their own feet and not expect some sort of authority to step in every time there is something they do not like. There is a law of nature, more mankind controls itself less the progress. And mankind has lived with all kind of insults until now and advanced great. It is inevitable part of life. Trolls go away if you don't feed them. You do not have to step into discussions with people who have inferior intelligence, there won't be any benefit for you. I have been practicing this "technique" successfully and never needed any "help" from moderators. There are politicians who fuel all kind of hate, this is their goal. They believe happy people won't vote for them, they are also against religions, same reason, religions teach people how to appreciate the glass half full. Why don't you go and cast your vote against them at next election.

2 members found this post helpful.

Instead of keep complaining about this person just put them on your ignore list.
I've only needed to do this once on these forums but it does the job, and I'm not bothered by seeing posts from person I blocked.

5 members found this post helpful.

@Ser Olmy,

I appreciate your reply, but we could say the same about spammers; we know that for every spammer account that's banned, there is probably at least another ten in waiting. The point is, and while it's a never ending battle as you correctly point out: they should still be banned anyway as it's better than allowing them to keep using said account to post even more spam. Although yes, Jeremy does have a spam filter that stops 99% of it before it even shows up in the forums. But it would be next to impossible to have a filter for trolls, particularly trolls that target a particular member(s).

Yes, totally agree with you. Although, while nobody is going to see their signature if they are not logged in; at least it has the benefit of alerting others to the fact that they are just a troll.

@Emerson,

While I don't disagree, and ordinarily I much prefer to solve my own problems without any "help" (particularly government "help"); the simple fact of the matter is that, and as I've stated in my OP, I've not responded to any of their posts in any way as it is, but that has not discouraged them at all. There is at least a few others here where I've employed the same "technique" quite successfully, and even without actually putting them on ignore. That said, I do totally agree with you in your point that: why have any discussions with those with an inferior intelligence? In that case, I also don't usually bother wasting my time with them anymore than you would, so totally agree with you there.

If it were "real life" and they wanted to push it too far, I could just break their legs without any witnesses, therefore not only would they have no legal leg to stand on, they would have no leg to stand on metaphorically speaking. In that case, problem solved, and even better, without any government or other "help". But that's hard to do in the "virtual world", and again, it's pretty clear that just ignoring them isn't going to work (ignore list or not).

As I've said above, that isn't going to stop them. The ignore list only hides the content of their post, not the fact they have posted in the first place. You also need to be logged in for the ignore list to work. Therefore their posts still degrade whatever threads they respond to, so the ignore list doesn't solve anything.

Also, I do use my ignore list, but as I've said in other threads, I use it as an "early warning system" for people that I have no interest in trying to help in any way - not for people who are just toxic or obnoxious. This poster is a prime example of what I'm talking about there, in that; they don't want to actually do any research of their own before posting, they don't want to learn anything, don't want to even read up about the subject, and they abuse everyone that dares to respond to them, let alone tells them to actually do some research before posting. As it can be hard to remember the usernames of people that don't really usually respond to threads other than threads they start themselves. Whereas, the long term member that's likely behind the troll I speak of in my OP above does regularly post to other people's threads, and therefore it's much easier to not only remember why I don't bother responding to them anymore (regardless of what they say, even if I agree with them), but also their username. I refuse to respond to them anymore given how toxic and obnoxious they are, they just ain't worth the time and typing, period.

When and if Jeremy ever wakes up to the fact that the "JSB" account is nothing but a troll account, and does what he should have already done well before now and bans them for good at the very least; I kindly ask Jeremy to change their username to something like "removed" or "banned" so any future readers know not to bother taking anything they've said onboard and to just ignore them.

At the end of the day, if you commit a serious enough crime, you get put in jail and removed from the community, for it's benefit. Therefore the same logic still applies here, except they get banned instead. Again, it's high time Jeremy does what needs to be done here, instead of letting a troll play them. I stand by that statement.

I do not stalk.
jsbjsb001 make kernel wiki, I want to make kernel. It is not stalking, but jsbjsb001 say this.

I do not harass and troll.
I think it is OK criticize some user, or show other users problem. but LQ admin tell me it is not. OK, I stop. I understand - it is attack on other person. And I only do this 2 time.
But jsbjsb001 do this ALL THE TIME for me.
Please see my "Hello World post here:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ld-4175687299/

And more insult and attack here:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...9/#post6202962
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ne-4175687598/
et cetera.

I have made long reply here:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...8/#post6202222
but more insult coming from jsbjsb001

My initials is JSB. I have said many times, and it is reason why I choose username.
I did not want harass jsbjsb001 with username, it was respect, but they attack and attack and attack, now I change to JSB only.
I have not respect for jsbjsb001 no more.
JSB IS MY INITIALS!

2 members found this post helpful.

You already have 41 reputation points from 31 ratings. This makes one of your ratings from a "prolific poster". But in the grand scheme of things doesn't mean a lot...

But let's see some examples of posts you received rep for:

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ml#post6201843
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ml#post6213862
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...3/#post6213866
You received many such ratings, quite often in threads dealing with the issue being discussed in this thread.

I would really like to hear from your anonymous fan(s)...? If they are reading and think those posts are so great, and / or is in full agreement, I would really like to read some of their rationale...

Then there are the posts where you seem to struggle with English:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ml#post6203816


And the posts like this:
That one is certainly not in your usual "I no speaking very good english" style... and a few others are in the same category. (//edit: I wonder do you put on a funny accent in your head when posting in that persona? Where is "JSB" from - is he from a fictional Eastern European failed state? Such as one sees in Hollywood films...?)

So to recap: As a huge self professed jsbjsb001 fan, you registered as "jsbjsb002" - and by sheer coincidence, as well as being a huge self professed jsbjsb001 fan, your initials, just so happen to be "JSB"... during the course of posting, you've lapsed in grammar and sentence construction and you have one or more secret "fans" following you around, awarding you with rep points - particularly for posts on this particular subject - but also for random posts which don't really contribute anything technical to a discussion.

6 members found this post helpful.

And to dovetail on what cynwulf correctly pointed out, it's also an AMAZING coincidence, that the 'reputation' points are all in such rapid succession, too. A quick look at JSB's profile:
Same day? Within minutes of each other? Almost as if someone logged out of one account, and logged back in as another, just to give reputation.

3 members found this post helpful.

Their profile page for reputation looked EXACTLY like you describe TB0ne with their first lot of reputation too - within minutes of each point being given. They clearly have another account to give themselves reputation... it's (as I said to Jeremy at the time) clearly a "fu*k you" to myself and yourself when you look at the posts they've been given reputation for.

And they still aren't banned... Don't get it.

i found that a VERY big red flag, cant be coincidence.
but who would take so much effort to do that?

1 members found this post helpful.

Someone who hates both myself and TB0ne, that's who. Again, I've got a suspect that is a long time member, but I can't prove it and they'd know the system. Given that, they clearly want us to know that it's a "fu*k you" to myself and TB0ne, if they aren't going to make much of an effort to hide the fact.

Time to confess, JSB, you've been found out. What's your other username?
Is there any way of finding out if a person has two accounts?
That's the trouble with using pseudonyms, anyone can hide behind them and say what
they want with no worries about any comeback.

1 members found this post helpful.

As with a court there is an element of "beyond all reasonable doubt" to this, so I have to sympathise with Jeremy on that count. Though I understand it's frustrating as well...

But "swift justice" is just that - great when it's not you, being punished for something you haven't done.
There are some very strange people around.

On a forum I used to moderate several years ago, there was/is a nutter who operated an alternative account for at least 10 years undetected. The alternative served as a backup - in that it was hostile to the same members that user resented and despised - it also allowed the user to learn what he didn't know, but what he professed to know, while keeping his ego intact. When eventually exposed, the administration still asserted it was two different people and refused to act, because he clearly used proxies/VPNs and different email addresses to ensure clear and clean separation. After that point, the alternative vanished, never to return and the "main" account scaled back his participation...

I noticed similar slip ups, the one persona leaking into the other and other clues and exposed some of the same likes/dislikes and other similar behavioural traits. The alternative's style was similar, just with much of the pomp and arrogance toned down.

Point being these nutters do exist and will invest a huge amount of time in this kind of thing.

1 members found this post helpful.