If you are still getting unpleasant messages from this user, please report them

[Huma0]

Two threads about this topic (WiFi speeds) have already been closed down and I am not trying to restart the conversation, which inevitably seems to descend into a slanging match. I don't expect any responses either.

However, I am still receiving private messages from this rather aggressive individual, which I have now reported as harassment. 

If you are still receiving them, can I suggest you do the same.

@Helen3, @Helen350, @Sarah977, @Ann489, @Mike-And-Jane0, @Nanxing0 

And @Nick @Quincy , I appreciate that you closed down the previous threads and, like I said, I am not trying to reopen the discussion, but could you please stop this user from harassing us via private message? I am all for hearing other people's opinions but not for the intrusive, belligerent messages. Ignoring them doesn't seem to work. I hope reporting them will.

[Huma0]

Thanks @Anonymous . Yes, I reported first and then only saw the ignore option after posting above. Hopefully that will be the end of it.

[Mark116]

A lot of people behaved badly.  The OP was a bit unhinged over something as mundane as wifi speed, but then other hosts basically doxxed him, which is itself somewhat unhinged, certainly unnecessary.  And I'm not sure what to think about making DMs public, I doubt there is a rule against it, but there is a certain presumption of a higher level of privacy.

[Anonymous]

@Mark116  I agreed with the mods' decision to delete the doxxing. I don't want anything to do with that. But the issue around the DMs is a thornier one. I haven't chosen to publicly post the DMs that I've received from a  forum, but I also don't feel that someone has an automatic right to confidentiality if they're using that feature to privately harass another person. A confidentiality clause doesn't have much merit if it isn't bilateral and disclosed.

[Helen350]

@Mark116 @Anonymous  @Sarah977   @Mark116 I've never heard of the word 'dox' - Had to look it up!

-So I guess I was the one who 'doxxed' him! Well, I had no idea I was doing anything wrong! - Can't we all post youtube anywhere??? - It's PUBLIC, not private! Private people don't post on Youtube!!! - I gather 'dox' means exposing details about people with malicious intent... Well I did NOT post the video of him with malicious intent at all, I did it for interest, for context, & so people knew who they were talking to... Brits may have seen him on TV ....

When someone posts videos of themselves on Youtube it's public, anyone can view it, & I therefore saw nothing wrong with posting it... I even thought it might help GAIN sympathy for him.... Some others mocked him, I actually thought he was a good actor, I certainly wasn't mocking his acting, but I did say an actor should presumably know how to 'act nice'.

[Huma0]

@Mark116 

I understand your point, but I didn't doxx anyone, nor was I rude in any way. I simply expressed my opinion politely, which I thought was the point of this CC, and because it differed to the opinion of the OP, he started sending me unpleasant messages. How is that justified?

As for privacy, I'm afraid I have to disagree. If someone messages me because they want to discuss or express something they'd rather not do openly on the forum, that's one thing. When someone uses PMs to harass me because they couldn't get away with doing it publicly, that's another thing altogether. Anyone who is harassed has the right to speak up about it. I mean, haven't you heard of 'Me Too'. Obviously, I know this is not the same, but there's more than one type of harassment.

And you know what, a lot of people are going through a hard time these days. Someone might be going through a hard time at any point. A stranger from a forum wouldn't necessarily know. How do you think those kind of messages might feel to someone who is battling depression or has just heard a family member had died? Whatever the situation, it's not okay to harass people, let along over something as trivial as screenshots of WiFi speeds! Like I said, I did not insult this person, I simply disagreed about the screenshots!

[Mark116]

@Huma0  Perhaps its down to different personal styles.  If I received an offensive PM from someone I would alert the moderators, rather than comment on it/post about it in publicly, but that's me.  However, posting about or the contents of a PM is much,  much different than doxxing someone's personal information and I wasn't referring to you or this thread when I mentioned that.  

[Sarah977]

The offensive DMs were sent to multiple users and all consisted of basically the same message. Which means they weren't exactly personally composed private messages, so sharing them wasn't exactly my definition of doxxing. If @Helen3  hadn't started that post, none of the rest of us would have known that the user in question had sent out virtually the same nasty message to all of us. And since part of what was sent was copies of his correspondence with CS, that is also making what is supposedly private, public. And those pastes were sent so that we could see that he told Airbnb that all of us were "ignorant"- that was the intent.

[Mark116]

@Sarah977  He was doxxed.  Someone found his name and then linked to something he had done professionally and posted it then critiqued it.  But, its always good to remember that nothing on the internet is really private, ever.  

[Sarah977]

@Mark116  Ah, I see, it was about the video. I get it. Thought it was about sharing the DMs we all got.

[Helen350]

@Mark116  - I had no idea it was frowned upon to repost people's youtube videos. (He posted his surname.) They have posted them on the internet, so they are public information. And my intent was NOT malicious.

[Helen350]

.... personally, I consider this 'doxing' - a word/concept I've never heard before - to be a non-'thing'. Someone posts publically on the internet... anyone is free to share it, if you don't want your stuff shared/viewed, you don't post on the internet..?? It's not a crime!

'Doxxing'?? There really ISN'T such a thing! 

[Anonymous]

@Helen350  Oh it most certainly is a thing, and it can have serious consequences  Let's say someone took offense to a controversial statement that you made on this forum. Of course this has already happened many times, but under normal circumstances it's viewed by a pretty small number of people. But perhaps one day a press article linking to a discussion thread goes viral, and overnight thousands of people seize upon your comment, screenshot it, repost it in other social media where it takes on a new life. And then someone with a particular grudge digs into your Airbnb listing and past reviews and is able to work out your full name, home address, and contact details, which they then distribute to an army of trolls with nothing better to do than harass you and use any scrap of publicly available information attached to your identity to embarrass you. 

Some of the more extreme cases of doxxing have caused people to flee their homes, get fired from their jobs, go into hiding, even commit suicide. What you did on this thread was in no way the equivalent of any of that, but even so - it tends to be a weapon of people with malicious intentions, and I would suggest steering well clear of it. Community profiles are linked to Airbnb profiles, so the content of listings and reviews are fair game, but posting sensitive private info (including surnames) is against the rules for good reason.

[Emilia42]

@Anonymous @Helen350 Posting anything on the internet is surely a risk.

A little off topic but I really don't like it when I see so many adults posting pictures and information about their children/grandchildren, etc. It really makes me uncomfortable. It's as if the children don't even have a right or know any better to say "hey, take me off the internet." It's a strange world we live in.

[Helen350]

Thanks for the info @Anonymous . It WAS the gentleman in question who posted his own surname, so I didn't have to dig to find it... but I take on board what you say, & I won't post videos on this forum again.-  And it really wasn't my intent to mock his acting, just call him out for impoliteness on this forum. - Which I tried to do politely!

I've been on the receiving end of 'doxxing' myself, I now know what it's called.   

[Robbie54]

I was sent one too @Sarah977 The man is clearly deranged to send insulting private messages to many hosts who disagreed with his original rant.

Sadly I'm leaving the community forum, I find it can be quite toxic with certain hosts acting like pantomime villains, one in particular who revels in siding with posters who disagree with hosts like you and I. Nothing better to do with their lives i guess?